Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child was written by Julia Simens, a family therapist who has over 20-years experience working with mobile families. Having lived in five continents, experienced seven international moves and raised two global children, Simens is an expert on third culture kids and some of the challenges and issues they face.
The book is predominantly aimed at families that have younger children, under the age of eight, and contains insights and advice into interacting with children who are experiencing some of the challenges that living overseas can bring. Using a series of categories, Simens attempts to explore some of the emotions that children can experience and provides a detailed guide as to how parents can deal with these emotions and help their children to explore how they feel: “ “Third Culture Kids need to express themselves in any language that gives them the most powerful feelings. Validation of how they feel is vital,” Julia argues. “Children need the opportunity to identify appropriate feelings. They also need to have experience understanding what might trigger certain emotions”.
While the advice provided is based on clinical theory and Julia’s extensive experience of working with families, the techniques presented are simple and easy to follow. A range of stories and workbooks are used to help parents to communicate with their children and information is provided for parents in the form of guides and case studies.
This book is an essential read for expatriate parents who are raising their children overseas. While it is predominantly aimed at families with children under the age of eight years it will also be of use to those with older children as it very effectively explores how parents can raise children overseas that are well balanced and capable of discussing their emotions and fears. It is extremely well written and easy to follow and discusses complex issues in an engaging and conversational tone. It will give expatriate families the information they need to understand their children and how they can help them to develop the emotional intelligence they need to survive abroad.
