Expat Mental Health: The Adaptation Tax

I sit down with Qi Zhai-McCartney, founder of Seeing Qi Therapy and Coaching in Singapore, to answer burning questions from our audience around expat life, mental health, career pivots, and maternal health abroad.I'm sure many of these topics will resonate with those of you already abroad as Qi takes us deep on the idea of the "adaptation tax," or the energy it costs to code-switch between cultures every day. We also talked about the patterns she sees across expat clients: burnout that high-achievers dismiss as weakness and the "invisible labor" that falls on expat mothers.Her advice for the first 90 days in a new location: build a personal "board of directors." Same-sex friends to vent to, couple friends to go out with, playdate friends for emergencies. No single person, especially a spouse, can fill every role, least of all when you're living 3000 kilometers away from your parents and friends.