Acculturative stress

Acculturative stress is the strain that comes with adapting to a new culture. It can come from learning a language, rebuilding a career, facing discrimination, or holding two sets of expectations at once: the ones you grew up with and the ones around you now.

It is not a weakness or a diagnosis. It is a common response to a demanding experience, and it can affect mood, sleep, relationships and your sense of who you are. It was the focus of my PhD research at Boston College, and it is at the center of my work.

What acculturative stress can feel like

• Feeling like an outsider both here and back home
• Exhaustion from translating, explaining or adapting all day
• Loneliness, or missing family, food, language and community
• Conflict with parents or children about how to live
• Pressure to succeed that makes rest feel impossible
• Stress from discrimination or from being treated as foreign

Who I work with

• Immigrants and refugees at any stage of settling
• Children of immigrants balancing two sets of expectations
• Families where generations see the move differently
• People who moved for work, study or marriage and feel stuck between worlds
• Teens growing up between their family's culture and the one at school

How we work together

Culturally responsive therapy grounded in two decades of work and research on acculturative stress, combining CBT skills with a strengths-based look at what your culture and your journey have given you.

We start with your story: where you come from, why and how you moved, and what settling here has asked of you.

We name the specific pressures you are carrying, whether that is language, work, family, discrimination or identity, and use CBT skills to manage the stress they create.

Strengths-based work brings in what your culture and your journey have given you, so that belonging can mean more than choosing one side.

For immigrants and children of immigrants

Acculturative stress doesn't end with the first generation. Children of immigrants often grow up between their parents' world and the one outside the front door, and feel they never fully belong to either.

I came to the United States from Kosovo, and this is the part of my work that is closest to my own life. You won't have to explain why it is complicated.

Online sessions across Illinois, in English or Albanian

Sessions are by secure video, so you can meet from home or anywhere private, as long as you are in Illinois at the time of the session. We can work in English or in Albanian, whichever feels more natural.

The first session

• Understanding what brought you to therapy
• Agreeing on what you want help with
• Talking through how we will work together

Fees and insurance

Sessions are $180 for 50 minutes. Most major insurance plans accepted. See fees and insurance for the details.

Questions people ask

See also: Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and PTSD, Grief, Life transitions.