This episode of "Successful Student Transitions: A Time to Thrive" features Gabriela Santacruz a child and adolescent psychotherapist who has many years of experience in Mill Hill International School, a day and boarding school in London.

The conversation offers valuable insights for students on the move and for parents supporting them through changes.

Drawing parallels between boarding life and the university transition, it explores how both experiences shape independence, resilience, and identity, while remembering that growth often begins outside the comfort of home.

Listen as Gabriela and Elizabeth discuss:

• The emotional landscape of leaving home: missing family, friends, and familiar routines, yet learning to feel at ease in new environments.
• The vital life skills boarders develop and how these mirror the skills needed at university.
• How asking for help from peers and adults adds to emotional intelligence and interdependence.
• Learning to “own” the experience
• The major challenges boarders face and how this links with challenges at university.
• Practical advice for students and parents on building habits, self-knowledge and creating space for reflection.

Additional episodes related to this episode are:

Episode Six: Why it Helps to Ask HERE

Episode 64: Student Voices & Cultural Agility: A Framework for Thriving Cultural Transitions HERE

Episode 102: When You’re Missing Home, You’re Not Alone and Here’s How to Cope HERE

Episode 10: Supporting Parent Transitions – Empty Nests HERE

Episode 79: Caring for Yourself When You Are the One That Remains, a message for stayers in times of change and transition HERE