In this short video, I explain how one-to-one online sessions can help when the pressure of living abroad lands on your relationship.
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Couples therapy alone, living abroad, is online relationship work for one partner who lives outside their home country. You join on your own, by video and in your time zone, and we look at your relationship together with the weight of life abroad: loneliness, what you gave up, culture clashes and choices about where to live.
Many people who find this page are Danes abroad with a partner from their new country. Others are expats anywhere, far from family, with a partner who will not take part. It is the solo version of couples therapy for couples living abroad and close kin to online couples therapy alone.
You can ask for a free 30-minute call, book a session, read my client policy or write to me.
This page is for one partner living abroad whose relationship is suffering, and life away from home is part of why. Your partner will not join, or you would rather start on your own.
These pages cover one-to-one sessions for people abroad in several forms. Pick the line that fits you best.
You can also send me an email
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.
“When someone comes to me alone, from the other side of the world, they often open by saying sorry for not coping, as though struggling were a personal failing. A life abroad is demanding, and it bears down on a couple in ways nobody mentions beforehand. Beneath the arguments, many people carry two quiet questions: ‘Do I still belong anywhere?’ and ‘Does my partner see what this has cost me?’. You do not need your partner in the session to begin answering them. When you feel steadier in yourself, the relationship often follows.”
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.
Sofie is Danish and moved to Lisbon five years ago with her Portuguese husband, João. Her career has stalled, her Portuguese still trips her up and nearly every friend they have came through him. Whenever she mentions missing Aarhus, João tells her to make more of an effort. Therapy is not for him, he says.
In our online sessions, Sofie learns to tell her homesickness apart from the relationship itself. She rebuilds a small network of her own and learns to put her needs to João without heat. The arguments grow rarer, and after a while João asks whether he could join a session too.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
Home is far away, the relationship is aching and you are ready to start, even solo.
Abroad, a partner easily becomes your whole world. When the relationship wobbles, there can be no one else nearby to confide in, and your partner may refuse any talk of therapy.
Couples therapy alone, living abroad, offers you a calm space to reflect and to shift your own half of the pattern.
Perhaps your partner finds therapy strange, worries about being judged or says there is no time. You can begin anyway.
From your side, you can come to understand the relationship and alter the part you play.
When one person is your only close tie in a country, every disagreement feels like the ground shaking.
We look for other sources of support, and take some weight off the relationship.
Career, friends, language, status, closeness to family. A move can cost a lot, and the bill is rarely talked about.
We put words to that loss, before it turns into resentment.
At home, it may seem that your partner’s culture, family and plans set every rule.
We explore what would let you feel you belong in the relationship once more.
When two families expect different things, every holiday or big choice can turn into a tug of war.
We get clear on what matters most to you, and on how to voice it.
Some people carry a silent question about staying, in the partnership, in the country, or in both.
There is room here to face it honestly and slowly.
Sound familiar? Request a call or book a session. We begin from where you stand today.
You can also send me an email
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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Find your feet. Spot the pattern. Decide what comes next.
Together we chart the dance you and your partner fall into, the strains of living abroad that fuel it and the needs you have. Then you test small, concrete changes at home.
We trace how the move, the culture and the couple pattern tug at one another. Once it is visible, a lot of shame and confusion falls away.
Yes. Missing home is real, and it makes relationship trouble feel heavier. Pulling the two apart shows you what you can actually change.
Yes. We find calm, honest wording for your needs, so they reach your partner as a request rather than a charge.
Yes. Friends, work, routines and a language you are comfortable in make you less reliant on one person, which tends to ease the relationship as well.
Together we sort through the practical and the emotional sides of staying, leaving or heading home, so the future becomes something you can think about calmly.
Usually, yes. A different reply from you gives your partner something different to answer. Should they want to take part later, couples therapy for couples living abroad is open to you both.
You can also send me an email
No agreement from your partner is needed, and no polished words either. Logging in is enough.
To start, tell me how you ended up where you live, what has shifted between you since then and what is most painful now. If another service would fit you better, I will say so.
It lasts one hour, by video. We cover the move, the partnership and the heaviest worry of the moment, and agree a focus for next time.
I treat nationality as one clue among many and ask what a habit or value means to you, and, as far as you can tell, to your partner.
Yes. It is not unusual for a partner to ask to join after a few months.
Often every week or two at the start, then with longer gaps. We set the pace together.
Expecting several sessions? A bundle settles the plan up front and brings the hourly price down. Scroll to the bundle cards to compare.
You feel settled where you live, you rely less on a single person and the future looks clearer. At that point we agree on what comes next.
Not sure couples therapy alone, living abroad, is your page? These are the closest options.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Couples therapy alone, living abroad (this page) | You live abroad and want to work on things solo. | 1-hour sessions every week or two |
| Couples therapy for couples living abroad | Your partner is willing to join. | 2-hour sessions every two to three weeks |
| EFT couples therapy alone, living abroad | You want EFT on your own. | 1-hour sessions |
| Online couples therapy alone | Life abroad is not part of the picture. | 1-hour sessions |
Couples therapy alone, living abroad, is individual online therapy about your relationship, for anyone living outside the country they grew up in. The couple and the pressures of being abroad are looked at side by side. Sessions are in English.
Yes. When you answer differently, your partner tends to answer differently too, even if they never join a session.
Yes. A Dane abroad with a partner from the new country is a situation I know well. You may feel like the expat even at your own kitchen table, and we work with exactly that.
Many people abroad carry that question, and it hurts. We explore it openly, along with its meaning for you and for the two of you.
Yes. Loneliness abroad shapes the whole relationship. Together we find ways to make life where you are feel like yours.
Yes. All sessions on this site are in English.
I am on your team, and part of that is pointing out, gently, where I see you adding to the problem.
Right after a shock, acute EFT couples therapy alone, living abroad is built for that.
Sessions are one hour, on your own. Current fees, in US dollars, are on my prices page, and a therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent.
Book a session in the calendar, which shows your own time zone, or ask for a free 30-minute call first.
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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P.S. I’ll call you in a bit!
