Expat Support: A Bit Of Background

Posted on 27. Apr, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Announcements, Blog, Tools & Resources
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After finishing the previous series of posts about expat support, what it is and how it works, I realised that I had left out an important piece of information: what makes me qualified to help you. Credentials. Life experience. Why I am good at what I do. That kind of things.

So I suppose this is going to be the blogging equivalent of an “About Me” page. I’ll try to keep this short not make it too long. But mostly this is me thinking out loud about why I got into expat support to begin with.

In other words: Why should anyone listen to me?

Experiences, good and bad

The obvious answer is that I am an expatriate myself. I have been living abroad for a long time and I have gone through all the phases of expat life. Pre-departure jitters, wide-eyed wonder, culture shock, homesickness, integration, osmosis, reverse culture shock… you name it. No matter where in that cycle you find yourself, I have been there and I know how complex it can get.

Along the way, I made mistakes. I failed to acknowledge that my parents were aging and that my mother in particular needed support. I procrastinated on getting my finances organized in an efficient way. After arriving in Canada, I moved away from my career goals and wasted time in jobs that offered no opportunities for progression.

Looking back, there are many things that I would do differently today – and that’s what’s important. I learned from my mistakes, I found better ways to deal with the challenges of expat life and now I can pass that experience and that knowledge on to you. It also means that I am human, and far from perfect, and that therefore I do not expect you or anyone to be perfect either. Sometimes we’re afraid, or scattered, or lazy, or too shy. That’s OK – we’ll work on all of that together.

Loving the expat life

On the other hand, I also seem to have a knack for making life abroad really fulfilling and satisfying. I have been exposed to cultures as widely different as Sweden and Lebanon and I loved every minute of it. I have lived in huge metropolises, mid-size cities and small towns, and found ways to adjust even when the transition was challenging (larger cities definitely work better for me, provided that they have a lot of greenery and water. Small towns are more of a challenge for me).

Maybe it is because I grew up as a bi-cultural child in a Franco-Belgian family, or because I was raised in a very cosmopolitan area in the South of France, but I have always had a fascination with foreign cultures, languages and people who make their home abroad. Twenty-odd years later, the fascination is still there, coupled with a strong desire to give expats the tools they need to live their life abroad to the fullest.

Training and credentials

As for my professional background, I have a master’s degree in business management, and I spent 11 years in sales and market research management, for large corporations as well as smaller high-end companies. I am also an entrepreneur and the president of my incorporated company.
In short, I have a strong business background. If you need support with starting your own business, if you are trying to get promoted or if the office politics at work are driving you crazy, I have firsthand experience with all of that.

Of course, it is not like corporate jobs are the best preparation to support, coach and mentor, especially when it comes to dealing with the emotional side of things. So as soon as I decided that I would dedicate myself to working with fellow expats, I retrained as a personal coach with CTI. I was fully prepared to find the training a bit too woo-woo for my taste, but instead I left with a solid framework and some excellent, down-to-earth techniques that really work. Colour me impressed!

In addition to my formal training as a coach, my personal interests have led me to explore a wide range of self-growth, stress management and mindfulness tools and techniques. I have been practicing yoga for years, I have a strong interest in aromatherapy and I am currently exploring positive psychology.
All of this to say that when we work together, we are not just working on the intellectual level – depending on what you need, we can also do breathing exercises, visualisations or whatever is most useful to help you achieve the best results. There is quite a wide range of tools to choose from.

Here you go, that’s me in a nutshell. As always, if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to visit my website, send me an email or leave a comment here!

Emmanuelle