Expats & Global Nomads

Sstudents or retirees moving or living abroad, global nomads—expats in general—have a unique set of experiences that can make them feel set them apart in many ways.

Living outside of one’s country can yield mind-expanding joys of discovery, as well as losses that are hard to communicate to others who’ve never left their home country or tried to function in a second (or third, or fourth) language.

Dr. Coco did an emphasis in cross-cultural psychology for her Ph.D. and also worked with international and study abroad students off and on for five years.

She has also written about the impact of living abroad on creative identity (see “Xenotropism: Expatriatism in Theories of Depth Psychology and Artistic Vocation” in The Concept of the Foreign: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue).

Dr. Coco herself spent 18 months studying in France, speaks Spanish, and married into an Egyptian family. This makes her savvy about cultural transitions and adjustment on a personal as well as an academic level. 

She can help you untangle and make sense of the sometimes competing cultural loyalties and identities that international students/expats/third-culture kids can experience.