In this episode, I share a little about my burnout in January 2021, the panic attacks I experienced and the exhaustion that set in after a series of difficult situations accumulated. I share how I recovered and the lessons learned from that incredibly difficult time. If you feel that you have been stressed for a long time, this might be worth a listen. If you are experiencing panic attacks, stop listening if it is triggering for you. In these shownotes are the techniques and tools that helped me. I am so grateful that during that time I had access to emotional and practical help from professionals and from family and friends.

1. What happened that led to burnout 
2. Lessons learned
3. Bring your stress levels as low down as possible as often as possible
4. Check your hormone levels
5. Check your vitamin and mineral levels (low B12 & Low Magnesium)
6. Self-havening, Progressive Muscle Relaxation to relax
7. Time your panic attack

• Self havening
• Dr Caroline Leaf
• Spikey ball
• Progressive Muscle Therapy
• Vivian Chiona at Expat Nest

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www.amulticulturallife.com to sign up for newsletter

International adoptee, born in Sri Lanka and holder of a French passport, Florence Chabert d’Hieres specialises in cross-cultural training and coaching from 6 years old kids to top management.

In 2009, she created Coach4expat. She is the author of “I'm a citizen of the world” for parents and children to help them succeed in their expat adventure. During the pandemic, she created Expat Village an online village, allowing a one stop shop for the personal and professional needs for expats and their families.

1. More about Expat Village and Florence’s work
2. How she has experienced having a partner who is away a lot for work.
3. What Florence would say to families with little children/older children? What she has found works for this type of lifestyle.
4. Brain Gym and how it has helped Florence and her family (specifically with being away from each other)
5. Apart from Brain Gym, Florence shares a life/parenting resource that she has found really helpful

Brain Gym

Expat Village

Coach4Expat

Shellee Burroughs is a UK Registered Art Therapist. She has 10+ years’ experience counselling within the education sector, specialising in trauma and sexual abuse therapy.

She is an experienced child and adolescent counsellor using a range of approaches from Creative Arts and Play/Sand Tray Therapy, Child Accelerated Trauma Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Strengths Based Psychology. She also knows all about Third Culture Kids!

1. Shellee’s personal and professional story. 
2. Her main takeaways of living split location during Covid with teens 
3. I ask Shellee if she sees any benefits to this life 
4. What would say to a family who is about to live it or who is living? With teens? 
5. How art therapy can help us with this lifestyle' (even for non-artists).
6. Shellee shares about her post it notes.
7. A favourite resource

• The Emotions’ Wheel Good for when you're struggling to name how you feel.
• Families in Global Transition

1. Instagram
2. Website
3. Email

For many years, Matthijs de Rave worked as Sales Director for well known, worldwide insurance companies and was also an author of children’s books. One day, he had an airplane epiphany and founded Expat Valley. I talk to him about being the first Ombudsman for International Children, and what it was like being an travelling dad.

• What is an Ombudsman for International Children, what Matthijs does and who are international children. (1:19)
• His personal experience of travelling a lot for work and being a dad. (5:59)
• The impact on his children. (6:51)
• His airplane epiphany. (8:11)
• The Trip Kit.(11:25)
• Phone calls home (20:41)
• What Matthijs would say to someone who is just starting to travel a lot for work. (21:55).
• The importance of hearing other people’s stories around business travel and being more open about talking about it. (26:16)
• Matthijs’ favourite resources for life and parenting. (35:22)

• The Biggest Little Farm

• Expat Valley
• LinkedIn

Kerry is a researcher, collaborator and entrepreneur in aging, care and connection. She is the Founder of The Long Distance Grandparent, a mission driven business, helping grandparents build strong bonds with their grandchildren – no matter the distance between.

• The Long Distance Grandparent Society (1:10)
• Nurturing the relationship: similarities in maintaining connection between grandparents and grandkids and maintaining connection with travelling parents & their children (6:30)
• The Five Pillars to Connection (11:40)
• The importance of having a vision for the relationship (11:50)
• The Connection Loop (30:37)
• Starting early (39:11)
• Grief (40:20)
• Spontaneity(42:09)
• Two of Kerry’s favourite resources for parenting (44:34)

• Peaceful Parenting
• Raising Adventurous Eaters
• Peekabond

www.thelongdistancegrandparent.com

Kerry has a lot of different blogs on connecting, various topics, inspiration and ideas for staying connected. She sends out a weekly email with those kinds of tips. and you can find out more about the membership at that website as well.

Sharoya Ham is a behaviour change specialist and founder of Embrace Behavior Change. She is also a licensed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with at-risk students and their families. Her favourite career, however, was as a stay-at-home mom. She attributes her three amazing sons who are now 18, 20, and 23 for teaching her endless lessons about parenting. Sharoya is an American who hails from the state of New Jersey. Over the past 15 years, she and her husband and their three sons have lived in six African countries. Sharoya’s husband travelled a lot over the years so she knows what it is like to be home alone with the children.

• Sharoya’s general approach: working with parents at their wit’s end when nothing works to see relationships transform.
• Acknowledging what is going right and creating a vision.
• Embracing your own behaviour changes.
• Building what we want to see in our children in five/ten years from now. The difference between a compliment and building confidence.
• Focusing on positive behaviours
• Sharoya’s personal journey
• Recognising it is a lot! We keep asking our bodies and emotions more than they can handle.
• What dads say about parenting
• How we can invite our travelling partners to parent.

1.    Personal permission card set "I give myself permission to ..."

2.    Marco Polo app

Website: Embrace Behavior Change

Facebook: Embrace Behavior Change

Instagram: parentcoachsharoya

Twitter: Sharoya Ham

Vivian is the founder of Expat Nest, an online counselling service for internationals. She is a registered psychologist with Master’s degrees in both Child & Adolescent Psychology and Health Psychology. She was recognised in 2020 as one of the 100 most influential women in the world by Women appreciating Women. She is bicultural with family all over the world, Vivian is familiar with the international community and inspired by its diversity.

1. Vivian’s goal - providing an empathetic and comforting environment in which expats feel heard and understood and helping deal with the challenges of expat life.
2. Multi-lingual and expat specialised: how and why Expat Nest works.
3. Difficulties that Vivian often sees with people living in split locations.
4. Vivian’s top tips for couples and families living in split locations.
5. Why get in touch with a therapist?
6. Vivian’s top recommended resources.

• ‘Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds’ book by David C. Pollock & Ruth E. van Reken
• Families In Global Transition
• ‘Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere’ book by Lois J. Bushong
• ‘Holding The Fort Abroad’ book by Rhoda Bangerter
• ‘Solo Parenting Expat Mums’ Facebook group
• The Tandem Nomad Podcast by Amel Derragui
• 'In Transit’ (formerly Expat Happy Hour) podcast with Sundae Bean

• Expat Nest

Robert has many different skills, he’s been in the military, he’s been a teacher, he is trained as an engineer and he is the dad of two wonderful girls. He gives us his perspective as a Holding the Fort Dad and gives some fantastic tips on parenting too !

• Robert’s life before becoming a Holding the Fort Dad
• Being the only dad in Mother & Toddler groups
• Stagging on & Staffing off: the importance of getting rest.
• The value of retraining
• Top tips on having a female au pair when mum is the one travelling
• Batch cooking
• Taking care of an elderly parent as well
• Advice to dads whose partner is about to be away a lot for work
• The importance of having other adult contact

• www.mumsnet.com - a wonderful resource for getting answers to questions
• Dyscalculia

Claire Hauxwell is a professional badass (accompanying supportive spouse), writer, and coach. A trained Supply Chain professional and ex-spreadsheet lover, she now puts her Type A personality to work by deconstructing the nuances of expat life. With more than a decade of global living experience, Claire shares her wisdom on the blog – My Theory On Blooming, and coaches female expat accompanying spouses to create fulfilling and intentional lives abroad. If she’s not roaming the aisles of the grocery store or meandering the forest with her dogs, you’ll find her sweating it out at CrossFit or having cocktails with friends. Claire and her family currently live in Switzerland, but return to the shores of Muskegon, Michigan every summer for a taste of home. On this podcast she shares her expat story through the lens of life with a partner who travels for work.

• Claire begins her story as an accompanying spouse with a newborn and a toddler in a new city with a husband gone for work most of the time.
• Missing birthdays and big dates(stay tuned, this comes up again at 30)
• The importance of organising help with childcare.
• Transitions when your partner comes home from a trip.
• Keeping your partner in the loop when they are away
• What Claire would say to a new mum, in a new place, with a partner who travels.

Guidebook ‘Asking for help’

"You can't expect your travelling partner to be your all in everything...Grandparents aren't just visitors. They can become part of your support team."

Helen is NOT an expat, she is the mother of expats, a long distance grandparent and the author of a series of books on distance relationships between grandparents, distance sons and daughters and distance grandchildren. One of Helen’s children was an expat with a travelling partner. This episode is a conversation being a distance grandparent when your expat child is solo parenting.

• The importance of generations understanding each other in distance families
• Being available but keeping boundaries
• Distance Parents/in Laws are all different !
• Advice for Distance Parents
• How a Distance Child can use this advice to ask their parents/in laws for help
• What if you have a difficult relationship with Parents/In Laws ?

Feeling like you're carrying everything while your partner is away?

This conversation shows why no one should do it alone. Inside my Resource Centre you'll find practical tools to help you build your support team, strengthen your relationship, and navigate life when work takes your partner away.

→ Explore the Resource Centre

• Being a Distance Grandparent by Helen Ellis
• 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• It's All About Relationships by Karen L Rancourt