• Psychotherapy and EMDR for expats in Mechelen – Antwerp

  • Are you looking for psychotherapy and EMDR in Mechelen or Antwerp — as an expat, international?  This practice offers more than just professional support — it creates a grounded, English-speaking space for those quietly carrying emotional burdens while living abroad.

  • The Silent Weight of Living Abroad: A Safe Space for Expats and Internationals

    No matter how successful, strong, or resilient you may be as an expat – you often carry an invisible emotional backpack with you.

    Behind the international careers, exciting opportunities, and new adventures, there can be quiet inner struggles that rarely find a voice. In the high-performance environments you move through, there’s often little room for vulnerability – let alone for the deeper wounds that migration, loss of belonging, or constant pressure can uncover. Because even when everything seems “well arranged,” even when you are managing just fine in your new surroundings… 

    that doesn’t always mean things feel calm or light on the inside.

    The inside often tells a more complex story. What seems like a promising new chapter professionally can awaken deeper personal layers: feelings of disconnection, uncertainty, or emotional loneliness. You might feel like you’re standing on shifting ground — not truly rooted anywhere. “Home” becomes not just the country you left behind, but the ease and rhythm that made you feel safe. You miss familiar faces, the music of your language, and the simplicity of small daily rituals. In this new landscape, your identity may start to feel blurry. Who are you, now that familiar roles, rhythms, or social status no longer apply? You may find yourself caught in between — no longer fully who you were, not yet who you are becoming.

    And even when you’re fluent in the language around you, expressing your inner world — especially your emotions — can feel like an entirely different challenge. You may struggle to truly feel heard or seen, even when surrounded by others. The result? A subtle, persistent loneliness that words don’t always reach.

    Relationships can also come under pressure. When your partner or family becomes your only anchor, the dependency can weigh heavily. Cultural stress, the absence of a broader support system, and day-to-day tension may leave you feeling emotionally stretched thin. And building meaningful new connections in your host country? That takes time — and trust — and both are rare commodities in a transient life.

    Many expats quietly grieve losses they can’t name: the loss of autonomy, identity, rituals, a language, or even a sense of ease. These are not always visible or validated by others — but they matter. And when absent they start to hurt.

    Sometimes, moving abroad stirs up old wounds that seemed to be buried a long time ago. New environments, uncertainty, and stress can re-open subconscious attachment injuries or reawaken survival patterns you thought you left in the past. It may feel like you are carrying more than just luggage — you also carry parts of yourself that have long waited to be seen, held, and understood.

    What many expats and/or internationals quietly long for (…as was shared with me over the years)

    Not quick fixes.
    Not surface-level advice.
    But space — to breathe, to feel, to grieve & to heal

    A place to land, without having to wear a mask.
    Where you don’t need to translate your pain into something more “acceptable.”

    A therapist who understands the invisible layers of displacement — Without fear of being “too much.”

  • Chrißt'll Scholiers
    Registered Psychotherapist & Psychotraumatologist
    ECP Holder – European Certified Psychotherapist

    My name is Chrißt’ll Scholiers – an ECP-certified psychotherapist and psychotraumatologist – with a focus on integrative, psychodynamic, and psychoanalytically inspired psychotherapy.
    In my practice, I work with adults who find themselves caught in recurring emotional patterns — often rooted in unresolved trauma, disrupted attachment, or long-standing inner wounds.

    This is a place that invites depth, reflection, and reconnection:
    With yourself. With your story. And with the person you’re becoming. Each therapeutic process is shaped around your individual rhythm, your emotional capacity, and your unique life context. Nothing is one-size-fits-all.

    My focus lies in particular on (complex) trauma, attachment injuries, dissociative experiences, identity struggles, and the long-term impact of early developmental wounds on personality.

    Alongside my long-term work, I also offer focused EMDR sessions for clearly defined, single-incident traumas (Type I), Only when stability and readiness allow.

    What you won’t find here are quick fixes or superficial answers. What you will find is grounded presence, care, and a therapeutic space where your full experience is welcome – even the parts that haven’t yet had room to breathe.

    Welcome – in your time, in your truth.
    You’re not too much. You’re not alone. And your story matters here.

  • Location - Psychotherapy Practice

  • Although I was born and raised in Belgium, my professional background for the past three decades has been rooted in international, English-speaking work environments. I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with colleagues from across the globe – from Europe and the Middle East to Asia and North & South America. In my conversations with them, and later also during my training as a psychotherapist, it became increasingly clear how many expats and internationals living abroad struggle to find a safe and trustworthy space to process their emotional challenges.

    Many shared how hard it was to access mental health care that felt (culturally) sensitive and linguistically comfortable enough, in English – a language not always fluently and professionally spoken by local belgian therapists.

    Although English is not my native language, it has been my primary professional language for over 30 years. A significant part of my psychology and psychotherapy training was followed in English. My education in psychodynamic therapy and EMDR training was both taught and practiced entirely in English. This background allows me to offer psychotherapy and trauma therapy in English with confidence, warmth, and the nuance needed.

    So if you’re navigating life in Belgium as an expat or international, and you’re looking for a place where your story can be heard and held in English then you are truly welcome here.