By Evelyn Leed,
Homesickness is a common human experience, yet in a clinical setting, its impact can be profound and complex. It’s more than just a feeling of longing for one’s home – rather, homesickness is an emotional state typically triggered by the perceived or actual separation from a familiar environment, attachments, and routines. It often involves a preoccupation with home-related thoughts and a sense of anxiety and distress about the new, unfamiliar surroundings.
At its core, homesickness is often a grief response. Clients are grieving the loss of their support systems, their sense of identity tied to their previous environment, and the comfort of predictability. This psychological distress can present itself in numerous ways, such as:
- Intrusive thoughts: A persistent focus on what is being missed.
- Negative feelings: Sadness, anxiety, loneliness, and irritability.
- Behavioral changes: Social withdrawal, lack of motivation, and changes in eating or sleeping patterns.
Your client may have experienced their homesickness being dismissed as a transient phase. Despite their best efforts to navigate the emotions themselves, it can further manifest as a significant stressor contributing to anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal.
So, for counselors, recognizing and addressing homesickness is a crucial aspect of providing holistic support, particularly for clients navigating major life transitions such as studying abroad, relocating for work, or immigrating.
Approaches for client support
By applying empathetic and structured approaches, counselors can effectively guide clients through the distress of homesickness. What methods you choose to use will be tailored to your approach and relationship with the client, but the following can all be helpful to further supplement your work.
Normalizing
The first step is to assure the client that their feelings are normal and valid. You can explain that homesickness is a common response to a major life change and recommend that they frame it not as a weakness, but as a sign of their capacity for strong attachment. For example, you may say things like: “It makes sense that you feel this way. It shows how much your home and the people there mean to you.”
By providing information about why they may feel this way, it can help them understand and manage their symptoms more effectively.
CBT techniques
You may find clients struggle with many negative feelings and put themselves down – by saying things like “I’ll never make friends here”, for example. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is highly effective for addressing the negative thought patterns associated with homesickness.
Your role as a counselor is to help clients identify and challenge automatic negative thoughts. Referring to the example of making friends, you could explore evidence to the contrary or reframing it to “making new friends takes time, and I can take small steps to meet people.” Through cognitive restructuring, your aim should be to help them to examine the evidence for and against their belief, consider alternative explanations, and reframe the thought into a more balanced and realistic perspective.
Maintain a connection to home
Technology allows for constant connection, but this can sometimes hinder adjustment, so it’s about finding a healthy balance. Work with your client to create a connection schedule. Instead of constant, sporadic contact that highlights their absence, encourage them to schedule specific, meaningful calls. This allows them to be more present in their new environment between calls and gives them something to look forward to.
Something which may come up is the impact of social media. One of the challenges is that it often creates a distorted and idealized view of life, showcasing highlight reels that can leave individuals feeling as though they are missing out on something important. Counselors need to delve into strategies for managing social media use more mindfully, such as setting time limits, curating feeds to include uplifting or realistic content, and taking regular breaks to focus on the present moment.
Steps to integration
A common negative thought around homesickness is the sentiment that “everything was better back home.” This can be challenged by encouraging clients to acknowledge both the positives of their past and the potential opportunities in their present, thereby fostering a more nuanced view.
Using an “both/and” approach, acknowledge that they can both cherish their home and build a meaningful life here. Encourage them to explore ways to integrate parts of their old life into the new one. This could involve cooking a familiar meal, finding a community of people from their home region, or sharing their culture with new friends.
Grounding techniques
When feelings of anxiety or sadness become overwhelming, grounding techniques can help clients stay in the present moment. By teaching them certain methods, you can provide them with a toolkit of what to do when you’re not around. This could include:
- The 5-4-3-2-1 technique (naming five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste). It’s a powerful one to pull a client out of a spiral of homesick thoughts and back into their immediate surroundings.
- Deep breathing techniques like box breathing (inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4) or diaphragmatic breathing, focusing on expanding the belly with each inhale and contracting it with each exhale.
- Body scans, where you encourage your client to mentally scan their body, noticing any tension or relaxation, starting from their toes up to their head. The goal is simply to observe without judgment, connecting them to their physical presence in the moment, creating relaxation.
By applying these empathetic and structured approaches, counselors can provide crucial support and effectively guide clients through the emotional distress of homesickness. This process of supporting them through the transition does more than just address their immediate discomfort; it also empowers them. By learning to navigate these feelings, clients not only find the strength to overcome their current challenges but also build a foundation of resilience that will serve them well in future life changes and transitions.
Author bio
Evelyn Leed is a mental health specialist dedicated to guiding individuals through significant life transitions. Evelyn is passionate about empowering her clients to navigate change effectively, helping them build resilience and coping strategies needed to adapt and thrive. Her work is centered on providing compassionate, practical support that fosters lasting personal growth.
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting CE courses and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. These programs are online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification