Press Coverage
The interviews below offer a glimpse into the ideas and experiences that have shaped my approach — including my work on Cultural Grief, belonging, feelings of inferiority, identity, relationships, and the experience of building a life in a new country.
Over the years, my work has also evolved. After many years of working with high-achieving individuals and couples in Zurich — people with demanding careers, busy lives and very little time to spare — I became increasingly convinced that counseling needed a different format.
Rather than asking people to squeeze another weekly appointment into an already full life, I wanted to create a space where they could step away from their everyday responsibilities and dedicate several focused days to themselves and the issues that matter most.
This led me to develop private, intensive walk-and-talk counseling retreats in the Engadin.
Today, I work primarily with individuals and couples from Switzerland and abroad who value their time, want to make meaningful progress, and appreciate the combination of focused counseling, nature and a few days away from everyday life.
The interviews below therefore reflect more than my past work. They also show some of the ideas and experiences that continue to shape the way I work today.
SRF - 10vor10 (2012)
"Der Frust der Expat-Frauen"
This segment looked at the sharp rise of highly qualified foreign professionals coming to work in Switzerland — and how poorly many were actually being integrated once they arrived, especially trailing spouses who often gave up established careers to follow a partner here. I was interviewed while leading a workshop for expats at the American Women's Club in Zurich, where my client base was already made up almost entirely of internationally relocated professionals. I explained the psychological toll this transition often takes: the fear of having made the wrong decision, isolation, avoidance, a shaken sense of identity, and deep homesickness — patterns I later explored more fully in my book, Cultural Grief.
RSI - Telegiornale (2016)
"Svizzera difficile per gli espatriati"
In this Italian-language interview for RSI's evening news, I was asked why it's often so hard for trailing spouses to settle in Switzerland — and why building genuine friendships with Swiss locals can be particularly difficult. I spoke about the painful feeling of not belonging that so many expats experience, especially in the first years after relocating, and why that sense of disconnection is a real psychological struggle, not just an inconvenience.
NZZ am Sonntag
"Jetlag der Seele" (2015)
In this feature on what's now known as "Expat-Blues" — the migration-related depression affecting many highly qualified newcomers to Switzerland — I was interviewed as the expert on the psychological cycle expats go through: the initial honeymoon phase, followed by disillusionment, and often a real grieving process once the excitement fades. The article also follows one of my clients through her own journey adjusting to life in Switzerland. This is the same understanding that later became the foundation of my book, Cultural Grief.
NZZ am Sonntag, "Fondueplausch und Expat-Blues" (2012)
This article covered the Canton of Zurich's integration efforts for highly qualified foreign professionals — and how these had started to include the psychological wellbeing of expat spouses, not just welcome events and networking. I was quoted ahead of speaking at a canton-organized event on the topic, where I shared what I was seeing with a client base that, at the time, was almost entirely made up of expats: after an initial euphoric phase, many struggled with homesickness and isolation, especially those who had given up careers to follow a partner to Switzerland. I also spoke about the loss of identity, self-doubt, and fear of failure many of these clients experienced.
20 Minuten, "Warum Schweizer keine neuen Freunde wollen" (2016)
This piece looked at why Switzerland consistently ranks near the bottom of international surveys for how easy it is to make local friends. I explained that Swiss friendship carries a different weight than in many other cultures — for Americans or Brits, friendship can be as simple as sharing a beer, but for the Swiss, a friend is someone you turn to when things go wrong, which makes it a much bigger commitment to offer. I talked about why the Swiss reputation for being reliable and orderly extends to friendship too, and why expats often mistake this reserve for personal rejection, when it's really just a different, more deliberate approach to letting people in.
20 Minuten, "Ausländer finden die Schweizer unfreundlich" (2016)
This article covered an international survey ranking Switzerland's declining popularity among expats — despite high quality of life, the country scored poorly on friendliness and welcoming culture, with many newcomers struggling to build local friendships. I confirmed that many of my clients don't find real social connection here and can become depressed as a result. I explained a concrete cultural mismatch behind this: while Americans, for example, tend to strike up conversation easily, many Swiss avoid eye contact with strangers, which blocks the kind of spontaneous small talk that helps relationships get started elsewhere. I also pointed out that Switzerland's linguistic diversity — with dialect spoken everywhere — makes it one of the harder countries to feel linguistically at home in, especially for expats on limited-term contracts who can't be expected to learn a new language at every posting.
Read the full article (online)
EB Zürich (EB NAVI #9), "Dazugehören ist ein seelisches Grundbedürfnis"
In this in-depth interview, I explained why belonging is a genuine psychological need, not a luxury — right alongside basic needs like eating and sleeping. Expats and their partners often have to rebuild their entire social world from scratch, which takes real courage and can be exhausting. I introduced the Adlerian framework I use in my practice: the three life tasks of love, work, and community, and how relocation can throw all three off balance at once. I also spoke about grief as a natural, healing part of moving to a new country — something our culture tends to suppress — and about the particular strain relocation places on couples, when one partner suddenly has to be everything to the other: partner, family, friend, and career coach all at once. Read the full interview (PDF)
Lucify.ch, Interview on Cultural Grief (2018)
In this video interview with Juliet Manning, I explained the psychological foundation behind Cultural Grief: that grief isn't only something we feel after losing a person, but any time we leave something behind — a job, a friend, a familiar environment. When people relocate, they're usually aware of the tangible losses, but not the deeper one: because we place so much of our identity in the communities around us, moving often means leaving behind a version of our identity too, before a new one has had the chance to form. I also spoke about why mingling with people from your own culture abroad can feel comforting, but isn't a long-term solution on its own — real adjustment requires accepting that grieving this kind of loss is normal, not a sign that something is wrong with you.
Curious to learn more about Cultural Grief, or how it might relate to your own experience?
Read more about the book, or contact me to schedule a free, no-obligation conversation.