Therapy for Third Culture Kids & Expats in Singapore: Where Is Home?

Life Between Cultures

“I stepped off the plane and into the humid embrace of Singapore, a place I was supposed to call home for the next few years. Yet, there was a gnawing uncertainty: where is home?”

For many Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and expats, this question lies at the heart of their experience, as they navigate the challenges of living between cultures and building a sense of identity that often feels neither here nor there.

In a globalised environment such as Singapore, which is home to international schools, corporate families, and diplomatic households, such emotional experiences are common, even if they are not often openly discussed. Even with the privileges of a mobile lifestyle, feelings of detachment and emotional dislocation persist. Therapy can gently address these patterns, helping to rediscover a sense of attachment through the experience of loss.

What Is a Third Culture Kid?

A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is someone who spends a significant part of their developmental years in a culture different from their parents’. Instead of fully identifying with their passport country or their host country, they form a blended identity shaped by multiple cultural influences. 

For example, a student in an international school might hold an Irish passport, be born in the United States, have Colombian heritage, yet grow up entirely in Singapore. TCKs often move fluidly between cultures, shift easily between languages at home and with friends, and tend to be socially aware and adaptable.

Yet, beneath this flexibility lies a deeper question many carry: “Where am I really from?” or “I feel like I have no home.”

The Emotional Landscape of TCKs and Expats

Many of the TCKs and expats I see at Devika A. Psychotherapy describe a sense of emotional uprooting. Picture a family at the airport, preparing to leave yet another country. The children wave goodbye to close friends they might never see again, while their parents silently grieve behind smiles of encouragement. These repeated farewells, to homes, schools, and communities, accumulate as chronic grief.

Over time, these unspoken losses can surface as anxiety, emotional detachment, difficulty forming close relationships, or perfectionism. Others experience identity confusion, burnout, or a persistent sense of invisibility. Often, they are seen as privileged but misunderstood. Therapy helps to bring language and insight to these inner conflicts, providing a framework where none previously existed.

How Therapy Helps TCKs and Expats

Therapy offers grounding when life feels emotionally unstable or transitional. In sessions, we explore the emotional impacts of relocation, loss, identity, and cultural shifts. Through trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming, and culturally attuned therapy, you are supported in navigating transitions with clarity and care.

I work closely with clients to build emotional resilience, self-understanding, and tools to manage change. Therapy offers not only coping strategies but a deeper path to reconnection, wholeness, and internal safety.

Supporting Children Through School Transitions

For children and teenagers, moving between schools can be a profound emotional disruption. Even when the new school is more prestigious or better equipped, the loss of familiar teachers, friends, and routines can trigger withdrawal, mood swings, and behavioural changes.

In therapy, children are encouraged to express these feelings in developmentally appropriate ways. They learn to articulate grief, name fears, and discover new ways to adapt. Parents play a crucial role by maintaining familiar routines, allowing time to mourn, and opening conversations about the transition and what it means to them.

In Cases Where the Parent Is a TCK, Too

Many expat parents are also TCKs. In therapy, we not only address current parenting challenges but also reflect on their own experiences of cultural mobility during childhood. This therapeutic work helps parents recognise inherited emotional patterns and increase their capacity for emotional availability.

By bringing insight and empathy to their histories, parents are empowered to offer grounded, responsive care. This work can bring healing not just to the individual but to the entire family system.

Paving the Way Home to Yourself

Therapy for Third Culture Kids and expats goes beyond surviving transitions. It is about developing an inner sense of home that remains steady, even as external environments change. It is a space where meaning is made from movement and identity is built from within.

In therapy, you can begin to reclaim a sense of wholeness, rooted not in geography but in your lived experience and emotional truth. Your story is not too fragmented to be understood. It is worthy of being held with care.

Support for TCKs, Expats, and Cross-Cultural Families in Singapore

At Devika A. Psychotherapy, I offer both in-person and online sessions for TCKs, expats, and cross-cultural families living in Singapore or abroad. Whether you are a teenager joining a new school, a globally mobile parent, or an adult still carrying emotional residue from early transitions, therapy can help.

Reach out today to begin your journey toward belonging and emotional well-being. You do not have to navigate these complexities alone. Together, we can create a space where you are seen, supported, and able to grow, a space that feels like home, from the inside out.

---

About the Therapist

Devika Abrol, MSc, BSc (Hons), is a holistic psychotherapist and integrative mental health practitioner based in Singapore, with a deep commitment to supporting Third Culture Kids, expats, and cross-cultural families. As a TCK herself, Devika brings lived understanding to the emotional complexities of cultural transition, identity development, and belonging.

She is trained in attachment theory, somatic approaches, and integrative trauma care, combining these with evidence-based modalities like CBT and DBT to offer therapy that is both relational and effective. Her calm, grounded presence provides clients with a safe space to reconnect with themselves, navigate transitions, and build a sense of home, from the inside out.