RESOURCES

•5 Ways Therapists Can Help Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

• TCK Academy Teleconferences

• Find Out Why Third Culture Kids support TCKID

TAKE ACTION

• Join the TCKID Counseling Network Group

• Volunteer for TCKID

• Add your name. Become a supporter.

Counselors for TCKID
- “These past few weeks of those TCKID teleconferences/TCK Academy have been more help in tying so many threads of my life together than years of on & off therapy with a number of therapists.” – TCKID member

John from Washington.

Wanda Koppensteiner

I was born in the Netherlands in 1957. After having grown up first in Italy, and then in Austria, while going to an American International School, I entered into a “homogenous”, a less international but rather local world while studying psychology at the University of Vienna. My professional life then moved me on to France and Spain.

When I was a child, an adolescent, and still later on as an adult until the age of 45, I didn’t know that I actually belonged to a certain group of people. I felt like a strange species who thought about a whole different element of concerns, not necessarily the issues of those in my surrounding environment.

Let me state two important observations:

We tend to take the life we are living for granted. We often don’t question what we know and what feels familiar. We most often tend to question ourselves in moments of change!

When an issue is spoken about openly, it helps to understand and realize that quite a few so called “personal” feelings are very common among people living similar situations.

“Why I support TCKID”

Thanks to TCKid.com, I’ve realized once again how many people need to be supported in knowing that being a TCKid is an important issue.

These TCKids are not only adolescents but also young adults and those of us who are not that young anymore!

Third culture kids know what change is about, and that change is not just a word. Change causes change.

“If only I had known that I actually am “part of a particular group of people”, namely a TCKid!”

Many TCKids are very talented in molding in, fitting in and wanting to belong to their surrounding environment. To some Third Culture Kids it is as if it were the most natural thing in the world to turn one’s life, habits and feelings upside down and inside out. These same TCKids might be absolutely unwilling to realize that deep down they feel disconnected from others. They know that all cities and countries have their own mentality, and that it makes no difference to them in the end to which mentality they belong. This experience can lead to ignorance, to a lack of belief in a “real” identity.

A common self-criticism builds up to questioning oneself, “why am I so different?”, “What is wrong with me?” rather than seeing the whole picture and realizing that one doesn’t have to fit in automatically.

TCKids are bound to ignore or be unaware of their own state of being. Since the longing for belonging is so dominant, no room seems to be left to realize that environment plays a role; others play a role!

I support TCKids and Non-TCKids in understanding what diversity means. This is why I want to spread the word to others, whose turn it is to now grow up. I want to support these adolescents and young adults who need to adapt to new situations, and support parents whose turn it is to now educate their TCK children.

There is no doubt that (cultural) change affects our most inner being, more than we might realize it at first glance.

My work consists of supporting expats – couples, families, trailing spouses, expat dual career partners as well as TCKid adolescents and young ATCKids, in their personal and professional growth.

Are you looking for counseling? Email Wanda

I can help: Families, trailing spouses (mostly women often mothers) and adolescents, living in Madrid, who want to be supported or coached in their emotional and creative freedom in order to find their own individual way to live change the best possible. My Website

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