In this short video, I explain how I build a block of back-to-back video sessions for someone living abroad, and how we decide what the block is for.
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Back-to-back psychotherapy, living abroad helps you do focused, continuous work when weekly sessions do not fit an international schedule. We plan several 1-hour video sessions close together, on one day, on consecutive days or within a single week, in English and at times that fit your time zone.
I help you use concentrated time well: we agree what the block is for, I build in breaks and I check daily that the pace stays usable. It belongs to psychotherapy for people living abroad, within my wider online psychotherapy. If you would rather meet in the room, there is fly-in psychotherapy in Copenhagen and weekend psychotherapy in Copenhagen.
You can book a free 30-minute call to plan a block, pick your session times, read my client policy or write to me about dates.
Back-to-back psychotherapy, living abroad is for English-speaking adults whose life outside their home country makes a steady weekly hour hard to keep. You want to do real work on something that matters, in a concentrated stretch of video sessions planned around rotations, travel or a narrow window of free time.
Back-to-back work is a planned format, not an emergency service or a weekly habit. If one of these describes you better, the linked page will suit you better.
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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.
“Over more than 15,000 clinical hours, I have come to disagree with the idea that people abroad should wait until life settles before they start therapy. For many of them life never settles. There is always another posting, another season, another flight. Meanwhile a quiet question goes unasked: ‘If I vanish into work again, will anyone notice I am struggling?’ Beside it sits a sturdier voice: ‘Give me time to sort it out myself, and I will get to it later.’ A well-planned block of sessions honours both. It gives you somewhere to be seen, and it respects your need to stay in charge of your own time. What does not work is waiting for a calm year that never arrives.”
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.
Kofi is 44, a Ghanaian geologist who works 5 weeks on and 3 weeks off on a mining project in Western Australia. His wife and daughters live in Perth. On site he sleeps badly and snaps at colleagues, and at home he feels like a guest who has forgotten the house rules. He tried weekly therapy twice. Both times the sessions fell apart once he flew back north.
I would start by placing a block of sessions in the first week of his time off, before he slips back into coping. In the first video session we would map what happens to him each time he leaves and returns, and Kofi would probably see that the irritability arrives days before the flight, not after it.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
You have tried to fit therapy into a life abroad, and the schedule has won every time.
There is no correct moment to begin, and you do not need a crisis, a diagnosis or a well-phrased problem. A steady sense that something inside you needs attention, and that your life abroad keeps pushing it aside, is reason enough. In 22 years of practice I have learned to tell when a pattern needs focused time, and when spreading sessions too thinly would only stretch it out.
I will help you name what is happening, see what keeps it going and decide what has to change. My professional view is that a concentrated block works when it has a clear purpose. These 6 questions help you see whether that applies to you.
If it does, the format may be failing you rather than your motivation. You book a slot, miss 2 weeks for a site visit or a time-zone change, and return having lost the thread. Each restart costs energy, and eventually you stop trying, telling yourself it was not that important.
I would look at whether the difficulty itself is passing strain or a pattern that returns with every move and every trip. If it keeps coming back, it deserves time that will not be interrupted. Book a session with me and we can plan a block that suits your calendar.
Both wishes can be real at once, because they serve different needs. One part of you wants to finally look at the grief, the marriage or the restlessness. Another part keeps you busy, because busyness has carried you through 3 countries and it still feels safer than slowing down.
I will not treat the part that delays as your enemy. It has protected you in places where you had nobody to lean on. In our sessions I help you hear what each side is guarding, so the decision to begin is made by you rather than by your diary.
Living far away can turn small silences into evidence. A friend takes days to answer, a sibling makes plans without you, a parent sounds distracted on the call. You replay it, you check your phone, and you feel faintly ashamed of how much it matters.
Your need to belong and to matter is not foolish, and I will not treat it as such. I help you calm the alarm that goes off before there is any real sign of loss, and find words to ask directly for contact. A block of sessions gives that fear room to be heard in full.
Many people who live between places know this swing. On the road you miss everyone and plan long talks for when you are home. Then you walk through the door, the noise and the needs arrive at once, and you want to be back in the hotel room.
I help you slow the cycle down and find the exact moment the longing turns into a wish to escape. Often it is the shift from being in control of your time to being needed by others. I have compassion for that reflex, and I will also ask you to own what it costs the people waiting for you.
Self-reliance is often the skill that got you through a new language, a new job and a new climate. When feelings grow heavy, you turn practical, make lists and keep going. Others find you calm, and sometimes they find you hard to reach.
My view is that independence is not a fault and needs no apology. I help you understand what the distance protects you from, so you can stay present without feeling swallowed. You learn to say “I need a quiet evening” before the retreat turns into a wall.
When you have reshaped yourself for one culture after another, it becomes hard to know which habits are yours. You may sound different in each language, laugh at different things and feel like a visitor even in your home town. That does not mean anything is broken. It means you have adapted a great deal.
In a concentrated block we can go deeper than a single weekly hour usually allows, into family history and the expectations you carried abroad. I will offer direction and honest challenge, but I will not hand you a new identity. The aim is a clearer sense of what fits you.
If you see yourself here, book a free call to plan dates, or choose your session times if you already know when your window falls.
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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.
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Understanding a pattern matters, but a block of sessions should also change what you do when you land, arrive home or leave again.
Working with me in a concentrated block will help you see what is happening, recognise the patterns that keep it in place and make changes that hold in your ordinary life abroad. Insight on its own rarely lasts past the next flight. It needs to turn into different choices.
In 22 years of practice I have found that concentrated work needs an active therapist. I will guide, notice, name and challenge, rather than simply listen. The 6 questions below show what we work towards.
Related reading: Should I go back home, or stay where I am? and Why do I feel stuck in the life I chose abroad?.
Concentrated time is precious, so I help you separate the central difficulty from everything that has grown up around it. The sleeplessness, the short temper and the late-night scrolling are real, but they are often results. Under them sit feelings, beliefs and protective habits that travel with you from country to country.
I offer my reading early and say what I think needs attention first. I will also challenge explanations that keep you stuck, such as “it is just the job”. Book a session with me, and we can decide what your block should focus on.
You can learn to see the early signs. There is usually a sequence: a tight chest on the drive to the airport, a familiar thought about not belonging, a pull towards the bar or the screen. Once you know the first step, there is a moment where another choice is possible.
Back-to-back sessions help here because we can follow the sequence one day and test a new response the next. Recognition alone is not enough. I help you practise until the new response is usable when you are tired, jet-lagged and far from anyone who knows you.
Steadying yourself does not mean pushing feelings down or acting unbothered. It means staying present enough to understand what is going on and choose how to respond, even in a hotel room at midnight.
I help you notice your body’s alarm sooner and understand what it is reacting to, which is often older than the current posting. Between blocks you will have a few simple practices to keep using. That part is your responsibility, and it is where most of the change settles.
Saying what you need starts with knowing what you feel and what belongs to you. Distance makes this harder. Calls are short, time zones clash, and it feels unkind to spend a rare conversation on something difficult, so you swallow it until it comes out sideways.
I help you find language that is truthful and concrete, and sized for a short call. I will challenge you when you keep quiet to protect everyone, and when you expect a partner or parent to guess. We can rehearse a real call in one session and talk about how it went in the next.
Decisions become clearer when you separate fear, duty and other people’s expectations from what you actually know and want. Living abroad adds layers: visas, schools, ageing parents, a career that only exists in certain cities.
A block of sessions lets us lay these out properly instead of in fragments. I help you look at each option and what it would ask of you. You get my honest view, and I will say so if I see you avoiding the choice, but the decision stays yours.
Lasting change has to show up after the block ends: in how you plan your weeks, how you arrive home, how you rest on the road and how you stay in touch. You may need firmer limits at work, more honest calls with family or a different idea of what a good posting is.
I help you work out what needs to change and what can stay. Your adaptability and independence are strengths, not problems. The goal is a life abroad in which your choices answer to your values rather than to your schedule alone.
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You do not need a diagnosis, a tidy history or a finished plan. We start with what is pressing now and what you want the block to change.
When you begin, I listen closely, help you name the central difficulty and give the block a clear direction. You will not have to tell your whole life story before useful work starts.
A concentrated block is one way to use online psychotherapy, my structured individual work on your inner life and relationships. If the difficulty sits mainly between you and your partner, and your partner is willing, online couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. Because a block always involves several sessions, a therapy bundle usually makes sense from the start, for the savings and the steadiness of a plan.
In the first session I ask what has brought you to therapy now, what is hardest at the moment and what you have tried. Then we agree what the block is for, because a clear aim is what makes concentrated work useful.
By the end you will have my first reading and a proposed shape for the following sessions, including breaks. You can judge whether my way of working suits you. If you want to plan dates first, book a free 30-minute call.
Individual work fits when the focus is your own emotions, history, decisions and way of coping abroad. We can explore your relationships thoroughly without anyone else on the call.
In a block I provide direction and continuity from one session to the next, and I will challenge you when the work drifts. If you later want a regular rhythm instead, online psychotherapy describes my structured individual work as a whole.
Choose couples work when the relationship is what needs the sustained attention. If the same argument returns every time you come home, if trust has been damaged or if one of you reaches out while the other pulls away, both of you usually need to take part.
In couples work I help you see the cycle between you and build safer ways of relating. Online couples therapy is long-term relational development and healing, and many international couples meet me by video from 2 different places.
The right spacing depends on what we are working on, how much you can absorb and how much time you have. Some people do 2 or 3 sessions on one day, others one a day across a week.
I recommend a shape before we start, with breaks to eat, walk and let things settle. I watch how you respond and slow down or pause if the pace stops being useful. After the block, sessions can be spaced out or end.
A bundle makes sense when you know the work needs several sessions and want continuity without deciding after each one whether to continue. For a planned block that is almost always the case.
Buying the block as a bundle reduces what each session costs and fixes the structure before we begin. You can see the options on therapy discounts and bundles, and I help you choose one that fits the size of your block.
The block has done its job when you understand the pattern, have tried a new response and feel more ownership of your choices. The difficulty may not be gone, but it no longer decides for you.
I review progress openly at the end of each block and do not encourage therapy without an end. We may plan another block, move to occasional sessions or stop. If you return a year later with a new question, that is life moving on, not a sign the block was wasted.
Not sure a block is the right way in? Here is how it compares with the formats people living abroad most often weigh up.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Back-to-back psychotherapy, living abroad (this page) | Your life abroad makes weekly sessions hard, and you want concentrated time online. | Several 1-hour video sessions within days |
| Psychotherapy for people living abroad | You can keep a regular hour and want to work on life abroad over months. | Weekly or fortnightly video sessions |
| Fly-in psychotherapy in Copenhagen | You want to work in person and can travel to Copenhagen for a planned stay. | Several sessions in the room over a few days |
| Acute psychotherapy, living abroad | Something has happened this week, and you need help within days. | Video sessions close together at first |
It is individual psychotherapy by video, in English, delivered as a planned block of several sessions close together instead of one session a week. It is designed for adults whose international life, with travel, rotations or time-zone gaps, makes a regular hour hard to keep.
I plan each block around a clear purpose, with breaks and a daily check on pace. It is part of psychotherapy for people living abroad.
A block suits you when your schedule keeps interrupting weekly work, when you have a defined window such as home leave, or when you need room to think through a decision before a deadline.
I look at whether the difficulty would be served by continuity over months or by concentrated time now. If weekly sessions would serve you better, I will say so.
Yes, often. Patterns that follow you from place to place usually began long before you left, which means they can be understood and changed. I cannot promise how much will shift, and I do not do quick fixes.
In my clinical experience, people who move a lot often find that the same feeling greets them in every new city. We look at where that feeling started and why it travels with you.
You should not be, because I plan the day so that it stays usable. There are breaks between sessions, time to eat and move, and space to let things settle.
I watch closely how you respond. If the work stops being useful, I slow down, pause or move a session. More hours are not automatically better.
Both are ways of trying to feel safe when contact is uncertain. Some people reach out often and need reassurance. Others go quiet and handle everything alone. It is how you learned to cope, not a defect.
I help you see which way you move under pressure, what each move tries to secure and what it costs the people you care about. Then we build steadier ways of staying in touch.
We start with the present: what is hardest, what you have tried and what you want the block to change. I then propose an order for the remaining sessions.
You need no preparation and no perfect words. If you would like to plan dates and spacing first, book a free 30-minute call, or book your first session directly.
There is no sensible standard number before I understand your situation and aim. Some blocks are 3 or 4 sessions over 2 days, others are spread across a week.
I recommend a shape, explain why and adjust it as we go. After each block we review honestly whether to plan another, continue at a slower rhythm or stop.
Yes. Video lets you work from wherever you are posted, and the block does not depend on either of us travelling. Many people find a familiar room helps them go deeper.
Practically, you need privacy, headphones, a reliable connection and a screen bigger than a phone. On a work trip, a hotel room with the door closed is better than a lobby. The calendar shows every time in your own time zone, and we can talk practicalities on a free call.
Individual psychotherapy is booked as 1-hour online sessions with 50 minutes of therapy, so a block is simply several of these. The current fee per session is listed in US dollars on my prices page.
Because a block always involves several sessions, a therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent and gives you a structured plan. The options are on therapy discounts and bundles.
Book your sessions directly in the calendar, or request a free 30-minute call to plan the block together. Times appear in your local time zone.
If the dates you need are not showing, write to me with your window and I will see what is possible. If something has happened that cannot wait, I hold some room for acute cases, described on acute psychotherapy, living abroad. Tell me your dates, and we will plan your block.
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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!
