bike ride

Have you ever tried to explain something to your children in the hope they would just listen and take your word for it? That they wouldn’t have to find it out the hard way by actually experiencing it? Welcome to a parental treasure trove. In writing this book, Linda Janssen takes us under her parental wing and invites us to do just that: listen. Browse this book before you move. Flip through its pages while unpacking boxes. Open it randomly in the fall, winter, and spring. When you reach the end, start all over again. These pages contain a well-written harvest of wisdom, both Janssen’s own and that of many wise others, gleaned from many fields of human experience. As with any food rich in nutrition, this book is best sampled regularly and digested slowly. If Janssen had had a book like this at her disposal, she might not have had to write this herself, meaning we wouldn’t be able to read it. Go figure. That must be the power of emotional resilience.

The topic of emotional resiliency is near and dear to my own heart, and in The Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures, Janssen has written a comprehensive guide to help expats navigate the multiple challenges and stresses that come with living overseas. Reading this will help parents to become more aware of the experiences their children and adolescents might face, and find tools that will help their families to become more resilient. School personnel and therapists who work with Third Culture Kids will also benefit from reading this book if they want to truly understand the joys, as well as the tribulations, of life outside one’s home culture and country.

Janssen skillfully weaves her own thoughts and experiences with those who have lived, loved and studied all facets of the expatriate life. With this book, which should be packed in the suitcase of anyone heading to that vast unknown, Expatland, the chances of becoming The Emotionally Resilient Expat will be significantly increased.