In this short video, I explain what I focus on first when someone abroad reaches me by video in the middle of a crisis, and why being far from home changes what you need.
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Acute psychotherapy, living abroad helps you when something has just gone badly wrong in your life in another country: a job lost with your visa tied to it, a relationship ending, a death back home, a sudden illness or a collapse you did not see coming. We meet by video, in English, in 1-hour sessions with 50 minutes of therapy, usually within days, at times that work in your time zone.
I help you steady the first days, separate what must be decided now from what can wait, and find support around you while we work out what is happening. This is the crisis strand of psychotherapy for people living abroad, within my online psychotherapy. If the crisis is mostly about overwhelming feelings, acute EFT psychotherapy, living abroad is the emotion-focused alternative.
In a crisis the fastest route is to grab the first acute slot. You can also ask for a free 30-minute call, look at the client policy or send me a short message about what has happened.
Acute psychotherapy, living abroad is for English-speaking adults whose life in another country has just been hit by a crisis they cannot carry alone. You need help in the coming days, by video and in a language you can think in, to steady yourself and work out what comes next.
Acute help is for the first days and weeks after a crisis abroad. If one of these fits better, the page it links to was written for you.
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These reviews describe clients’ experiences of working with me. They come from my wider practice and do not all relate to online sessions. Each person’s experience is their own, and a review does not promise a particular outcome.
“In my clinical experience, a crisis abroad hits twice. First comes the event itself. Then comes the discovery of how alone you are with it, in a place where nobody knew you as a child and the help you would normally reach for is a flight away. In that week I hear one part of a person asking ‘Will anyone even realise I am going under?’, and another saying ‘Leave it, I will hold it together by myself.’ Often both come in one breath: ‘Please be there, but do not see how bad it is.’ My strong view is that the urgent task is not to solve everything. It is to stop you facing it alone while the dust settles.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA. I have practised since 2004 and offer online psychotherapy and couples therapy in English.
My training brings together your emotions, your thoughts and your relationships. My deep passion is the moment when what happens between you finally makes sense, to each of you and to each other. I have lived and worked in nine countries, so I know something of life across languages, cultures and borders.
Read about my background, or explore online psychotherapy and online couples therapy.
I meet regularly with experienced psychotherapists to reflect on my work, question my understanding and develop my skills. Supervision is part of the professional care I bring to individual and couples work, including online sessions.
My focus is thoughtful practice, integrity and responsibility.
You are welcome to ask about the kind of support you need.
Tell me where you are based and your time zone. We can then consider whether online sessions together are suitable.
Beatriz is 34, Brazilian, and moved to Dubai 2 years ago for a hospitality management role. Last Tuesday the hotel group announced a restructure, and her post is gone at the end of the month. Her visa ends with it. She has an apartment lease, a cat and a boyfriend who is not sure he wants to follow her anywhere. She has told her mother in São Paulo nothing. She lies awake doing sums.
In our first video session I would help Beatriz list what really has to happen in the next 30 days, and what does not. Then we would look at the silence towards her mother, because she would likely find that shame, not lack of time, is keeping her alone with it.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
Something has gone badly wrong where you live, and the usual ways you cope are not enough this far from home.
You do not need a reason that sounds serious enough, or the right moment, to ask for acute help abroad. If a recent event has left you unable to sleep, think or function, that is enough. Nor do you need a diagnosis, or a neat timeline of what went wrong in your life abroad. In 22 years of practice, and from my own years in other countries, I know how fast a crisis abroad can become overwhelming, and when it needs immediate attention.
In acute sessions I usually start by checking that you are safe and have somewhere to turn, then help you sort the urgent from the merely frightening. These 6 questions may help you decide whether to reach out this week.
If it has, do not wait it out. You may forget meals, miss emails, stare at your phone at 2 in the morning or freeze in front of forms in a language you only half read. Everything takes longer, and the people who would normally carry some of it are far away.
I would look at what has changed, what has to happen this week and what support you can reach locally and at home. That helps us tell shock that will ease from a situation that is getting worse. If your days are slipping, book an acute session with me now.
Both urges are real, and each one protects something. One part wants safety, family and the comfort of a language you never have to think about. Another part has built a life here, worked hard for it and refuses to let one blow undo everything.
I do not ask you to decide between them in the first week. I help you hear what each side is protecting, so you can make temporary choices that keep both options open while you steady yourself.
Crises abroad often hang on other people: an employer, an immigration office, a hospital at home, a partner deciding whether to stay. Waiting can feel unbearable. You check your inbox, ring family at odd hours and need to hear again that things will work out.
Your need for answers is real, and I will not dismiss it. I help you reach the fear under the waiting, often a fear of being abandoned or of losing control entirely, and separate real risk from imagined catastrophe. Then we look at what you can do while you wait.
You might message a friend here, then cancel when they offer to come over. You might call home in tears, then insist you are fine when your mother worries. Wanting support and fearing being seen as a burden can collide hard when you are far from home.
I help you slow these swings down and notice what tips you from reaching out to pulling back. Often it is shame, or a fear of being judged for struggling abroad. We look for ways to let people help in the amounts you can actually accept.
Some people in a crisis abroad go into logistics. You research lawyers, flights and rental contracts with great efficiency and feel very little. Others may admire your calm. Inside there is a strange blankness, or a dread you cannot name.
My view is that this practical calm is protecting you, and it deserves respect. I help you use it where it is useful and gradually make room for what sits underneath, before it surfaces at a worse moment.
A crisis abroad can bring back every doubt about the move: whether you should ever have come, what people at home will say, who you are without the job, the relationship or the visa. Shame and self-blame can rush in very fast.
With me you can pull apart the event abroad and the verdict on yourself that it seems to deliver. I will challenge harsh conclusions you reach in shock, but I will not decide for you whether you belong. That question can wait until you can think clearly.
If this is where you are, take the next acute time in the calendar, or request a call if you want to check that this is the right help first.
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Tell me briefly what kind of support you are looking for.
Include your country and time zone so we can discuss whether online work together is possible and find a suitable time.
You do not need to explain your whole story in your first message.
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In a crisis abroad, the order matters: steady yourself first, then understand what happened, then decide where your life goes next.
Acute work with me abroad will help you steady the first days, understand the personal and practical pressures piling up and take concrete steps so you are not facing it alone. Understanding what happened is useful, but you also need the next week to be manageable.
In 22 years of practice I have learned to be very active in crisis work. I set a clear structure, tell you what I see and keep us focused when panic pulls in every direction. The 6 questions below show what we work towards.
Related reading: Why am I so anxious now that I’ve actually moved? and Why can’t I grieve when I live so far from home?.
In a crisis abroad, the practical and the emotional knot together: a visa deadline, a lease, a sick parent, a broken heart. I help you separate the event from the reactions on top of it and from the tasks that can wait, so we can see the core of what needs attention.
I tell you what I think is most urgent and challenge stories that make the crisis bigger or smaller than it is. When you are ready, book a session with me and we will make a plan for the coming days.
Panic in a crisis usually has early signs: a certain email, a time of night, a phone call home, a tightness in your breathing. Once you recognise them, you get a moment to choose what to do instead of being swept along.
In our sessions I help you map those signs and what triggers them right now. Then we practise what to do when they appear, so you have something to reach for at night, when the time difference means nobody at home is awake.
Steadying yourself does not mean pretending you are fine. It means staying present enough to know where you are, what is true right now and what you will do in the next hour.
I help you build a few simple anchors for your body, your thoughts and your days, and find at least one person nearby you can contact. I will ask you to use these between sessions. That practice is what gets you through the hardest nights.
Abroad, many people hate to ask: colleagues who barely know them, new friends, family who never wanted them to leave. So they say nothing, or apologise so much that the request gets lost.
I help you find short, clear sentences for the people around you, here and at home. I will challenge you when you stay silent to protect others, and also if you expect them to guess what you need.
A crisis abroad pushes you to decide everything at once: stay or leave, fight or give up, tell family or not. Some deadlines are real, but many decisions can wait, and choices made in panic are often regretted.
I help you sort what truly must be decided now from what can wait until you are steadier. I give you my view on the risks and challenge rushing where I see it, but the choices stay yours.
Once the crisis has eased, there is often a deeper question: what this has shown you about your life abroad, your relationships or older patterns. Some people need new support, new routines or a different plan for the next years.
Together we weigh up ending, taking a break or carrying on, given where your life abroad now stands. Many people move on to psychotherapy for people living abroad to work on what the crisis uncovered. The aim is a life, here or elsewhere, that can hold what happened.
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You do not have to make sense of it before you come. Book a time, tell me what happened and we start from there.
When you begin, I listen to what has happened, check how you are coping day to day and help you see what needs attention first. Before the session ends we agree a simple plan for the coming days.
Acute work is the urgent end of my online psychotherapy, structured individual work that can continue once the crisis has eased. If the crisis is between you and a partner who will join, online couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. If you expect several sessions close together, a therapy bundle gives you savings and one less thing to arrange.
I ask what happened, where you are, who you have around you and how you are sleeping, eating and working. Then we decide what matters most this week: safety, a practical decision, a conversation with someone at home, or simply getting through the nights.
Before we finish you will have my first understanding of the situation and a few concrete steps for the days ahead. If you want to check first that this is the right help, request a free 30-minute call.
Individual acute work fits when the crisis is happening to you: your job, your health, your grief, your fear, and how it is affecting your days far from home. We can talk about everyone involved without them joining.
I give you structure, continuity and honest challenge across the acute sessions. Once things calm down, online psychotherapy offers longer structured individual work if you want to go deeper.
Couples therapy is the better choice when the crisis is the relationship itself: one partner wants to go home and the other refuses, an affair has come out, or the strain of the move has broken trust between you.
In couples work I help you both see the cycle between you and find safer ways to face the crisis together. Couples therapy for people living abroad is long-term relational development and healing for couples in this position.
At first, sessions usually need to be close together, so you are not left alone with the same overwhelm for a week. How close depends on how severe things are, the time difference and how much support you have where you live.
For a crisis abroad I tend to propose 2 video sessions in the opening week, moving to one a week once you can breathe again. I will say so if I think we should meet more often, and when it is safe to space out.
A bundle makes sense once it is clear you need several sessions in a short time. In a crisis abroad, you already have enough forms, payments and decisions to deal with.
A bundle reduces the cost of each acute session and gives you the security of time already reserved for you. Look at therapy discounts and bundles, or scroll to the bundle cards lower on this page, to compare the choices.
The acute phase is over when you can sleep and function on most days, when the urgent decisions are made or safely on hold, and when you can think about your future abroad, or elsewhere, rather than only how to get through tomorrow.
I review this openly with you and do not keep acute support going longer than needed. We may stop, space out or move to longer work. If something else happens later, you can come back.
Not sure acute help abroad is what you need? Here is how it compares with the closest alternatives.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Acute psychotherapy, living abroad (this page) | A crisis has just hit your life abroad, and you need help within days. | Video sessions close together at first |
| Psychotherapy for people living abroad | Life abroad has been heavy for a while, without a new crisis. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions |
| Acute EFT psychotherapy, living abroad | Overwhelming feelings are the core of the crisis abroad. | Video sessions close together at first |
| Acute online psychotherapy | You are in crisis, and living abroad is not the central issue. | Video sessions close together at first |
Acute psychotherapy, living abroad is short-term individual therapy by video, in English, for people facing a crisis in their life in another country. It focuses first on steadying you and making the next days manageable, then on understanding what has happened and what to decide.
I hold some room in my calendar for acute cases, usually a time within days. It is the crisis branch of psychotherapy for people living abroad.
Reach out when a recent event has left you unable to sleep, work or think straight, or when you realise you have nobody nearby to talk to about it. Your own sense that you cannot hold this alone is enough.
I look at how much has changed since the event, whether you are steadier or worse, and what support you have. If things are getting harder rather than easier after a week, do not wait.
Yes. Because we meet by video, the work can continue wherever you go next, including back home. You do not have to start again with someone new in the middle of a crisis. I cannot promise how things will turn out, but I can help you through the transition.
In my clinical experience, people facing a forced move often hold off on help because everything feels temporary. I would focus first on the next weeks, then on what the move means for you.
Yes. Shame about struggling abroad is very common, especially when family doubted the move or when you have always been the strong one.
I help you understand where that shame comes from and what you actually want your family to know. Then we work out how to tell them, and how much, in a way that brings you support rather than more pressure.
In a crisis, the wish to be held and the wish to protect yourself can switch places fast. Telling people brings comfort, then exposure. Keeping quiet feels safer, then lonely. It is a normal response to overload far from home, not a flaw in you.
I help you notice what tips you from one to the other and find a middle way: a few people who know, in the amount you can bear, so you are not alone with it.
We start with what happened and how you are right now. I help you find some steadiness during the session, then we look at what is most urgent and agree on concrete steps for the coming days.
Come as you are, even if the story of the crisis abroad still comes out in pieces. Book an acute session or, if you want to talk first, ask for a free call.
Think of a handful of sessions spread over a few weeks, not one rescue conversation. For most crises abroad, 3 to 6 video sessions steady things enough to see the road ahead. If the crisis has stirred older pain, longer work may follow.
In 22 years of practice I have found that a clear plan, reviewed after each session, helps more than an open-ended arrangement. We decide together when the acute work is done.
Yes. For many people abroad, video is the only way to reach a therapist in their own language quickly. Sessions run between 08:00 and 21:00 Copenhagen time, 7 days a week, subject to availability, so most time zones can find a workable time. Find a room where nobody you share the flat with can hear, put on headphones and make sure the internet holds up.
If you are not sure whether acute work or acute EFT psychotherapy, living abroad would suit you better, we can work it out on a free call.
Crisis help abroad is booked like my other individual psychotherapy, as 1-hour online sessions. Whatever your local currency, the fees are shown in US dollars on the prices page.
Because acute work usually means several sessions close together, a therapy bundle is often worth it. Buying one takes 10 per cent off each session and fixes a plan while everything else abroad feels uncertain. The options are on therapy discounts and bundles.
Book the earliest acute session in the calendar, which shows times in your own local time zone, and add a line about what has happened. If you would like to check first, request a free 30-minute call.
Should the calendar show nothing soon enough, message me and I will be straight with you about the earliest time I can offer. My practice cannot respond like an emergency service, so if your safety is at risk, call the emergency services where you live. Otherwise, book now and we will start.
You can also send me an email
I want therapy to help you understand your experience and make choices you can use in everyday life. We pay attention to feelings, needs and the responses that happen before you have time to think.
Our online room should offer enough trust and honesty to explore what is difficult. I bring attention and professional judgement. You bring your experience, questions and the right to say when something does not fit.
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