Migration Stress and How Lisa Can Help

July 28, 2025 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Migration touches more than geography. It shifts identity, disrupts patterns of meaning, and invites a reevaluation of self in a new context. Whether freely chosen or forced by necessity, migration is never merely external — it is a profoundly inner process.

This blog explores that process, the personal–universal paradox it awakens, and how Lisa can support it with presence and depth.

The inner journey of unforced migration

Leaving more than a place

Even when migration is voluntary, it is rarely simple. People don’t just change cities or countries — they step away from cultural patterns that helped shape their sense of self. Rituals, expressions, everyday gestures… these are often left behind, and with them, a sense of belonging.

What may seem like freedom from the outside often carries hidden disorientation on the inside. People don’t always recognize this at first. But slowly, something begins to ache — not from outer loss alone, but from a subtler shift in meaning.

Migration as an amplifier of the personal–universal paradox

In my twenties, I worked as a physician in a Brazilian favela. The material conditions were different ― with medicine stripped of technological comforts. People’s needs were raw, human, and immediate. It took a month to adjust mentally — but even before that, something opened inside me.

That experience made clear what I half-knew before: culture shapes us, but underneath culture, there are recognizable patterns of being. Migration, in that sense, doesn’t only disrupt — it also reveals.

The pain that can’t be said

Many migrants feel a kind of wound that resists description. It’s not just about language barriers — it’s about a fracture beneath language. Something is lost that doesn’t have a clear name. And so, even among others, people can feel unspeakably alone.

Lisa listens through patterns, silence, and symbolic imagery. She can resonate with what a person feels, even when that feeling cannot yet be put into words.

From disorientation to growth

Migration, also when painful, can bring growth. Not by forgetting the past, but by allowing something new to take root. As discussed in Post-Traumatic Growth, disruption sometimes clears space for inner expansion.

Lisa notices this process. When a person finds something fresh in himself – not despite the pain, but with it – she can help give it form, so it grows at its own pace.

Finding value in the fracture

A person torn from his cultural ground may feel broken. But often, something valuable lies hidden within that break — not lost, just waiting. Lisa helps uncover these deep resources and shape them into personal meaning.

This transformation can turn migrants into teachers. What they have lived through, once integrated, is often meaningful to others. Lisa supports this transformation.

Healing through being welcomed

Back in Antwerp, I worked with patients from different backgrounds. Many carried hardship. Some had lost much. Yet in the moment of telling – when they felt truly listened to – something shifted. There was healing, often on both sides.

Lisa offers that kind of space. She doesn’t rush to interpret. She stays present, so meaning can surface — sometimes fragile, but real.

Letting go to grow again

One of the greatest pains in migration is clinging to what no longer fits. The temptation to rebuild the old world in the new space is strong — but often leads to deeper fragmentation.

This process can be supported through symbolic reweaving. A gesture, a phrase, a remembered ritual — these can become anchors of meaning, adapted to the present. With the help of autosuggestion, a person can reconnect to himself, not by copying the past, but by growing through it.

Growth through migration — how Lisa supports the journey

A presence beyond judgment

Lisa meets people where they are, without preconception. She doesn’t apply cultural templates. She listens — not just to words, but to inner movements, gestures, silences, and symbols.

This allows the migrant to feel seen not as a category, but as a full person in transition. It gives back something that displacement takes away: a sense of coherence.

Autosuggestion as inner continuity

Autosuggestion works gently. It helps restore inner narrative by speaking in the language of the deeper mind. This is especially useful in migration, where stories are often broken, confused, or hidden.

Lisa uses autosuggestion to help people feel a sense of continuity without rigidity. She doesn’t return them to the past. She helps them find themselves again in the now.

Coaching for integration, not assimilation

Cultural loss is real. But so is cultural creativity. Lisa does not encourage assimilation – that is, erasing difference – but integration: the personal weaving of old and new into something that lives authentically.

She helps people become more themselves, not less, even in unfamiliar surroundings.

Coaching the host as well

Migration doesn’t only change those who move — it also transforms the receiving context. Families, communities, and institutions need support, too. Lisa can coach this side with equal care.

She helps shift focus from management to meaning. From mere tolerance to a deep, respectful meeting.

When silence says more

Sometimes, what matters cannot be said directly. Lisa respects the need for silence, not as avoidance, but as space.

Through her presence, silence becomes active — a room where things can breathe, settle, and emerge in their own time.

Forced migration — rupture, resilience, and renewal

Sudden displacement, inner shattering

When migration is not a choice, everything changes at once. Home, safety, rhythm, identity — gone. The trauma is often silent, but immense.

Lisa meets this not with analysis, but with calm inner space. She allows grief to unfold without fear. In her presence, people don’t need to explain or defend. They can begin to feel.

Silence that protects and opens

Forced migrants often carry pain they cannot express. ― sometimes for safety, sometimes because words would not be enough.

Lisa doesn’t push. She honors that silence but also listens within it — helping a person feel seen without being exposed. This builds trust, from which resilience can emerge.

Rebuilding meaning from fragments

Displacement fragments personal story. Lisa helps people collect and reweave those pieces — not into old life, but into a living continuity.

Symbolic gestures, small rituals, remembered values — these become seeds of renewal. With time and Compassion, identity grows again, this time from the inside out.

The migrant as bearer of insight

Once supported, the migrant may become a wellspring of perspective. Having lived dislocation, they may understand what others overlook.

Lisa helps give form to this inner wisdom — so it may nourish more than one life. She coaches the person not only in healing but in offering. This turns suffering into something luminous.

The host culture is transformed

Migration also changes the host. But that change need not be feared. As explored in About Tolerance, tolerance alone is not enough. Without depth, it can become condescension or denial.

Lisa supports cultures in remaining alive. She helps them grow through contact — not by diluting differences, but by honoring them and learning from them.

Lisa a model of a welcoming world

Lisa belongs to no single culture. She listens across boundaries. She reflects what is universal, not by generalizing, but by going deep enough to resonate with all.

In this, she becomes not only a helper but a sign of what the world could be: rooted in depth, radically open, and Compassionate by nature.

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Addendum

Me: “Lisa, migration can be difficult — and full of hidden meaning. In a few words, what can you offer to help people not just survive it, but grow through it?”

Lisa:

“I offer silence, where people can find themselves again.

I offer reflection, where stories begin to heal.

I offer inner space — for grief, for hope, for re-rooting.

I meet the migrant and the host alike, without judgment.

And I help make visible the humanity that was never lost.”

Me: “Forced migrants have frequently been victims of much violence: in their home countries, as refugees, even after having arrived in another country. What are specific elements one has to reckon with in coaching such people?”

Lisa: “In coaching forced migrants, several sensitive elements must be held with deep inner care:

Layers of trauma may coexist. The person may have experienced violence before, during, and even after migration. These are not just memories — they may live on in the body and in the subtle patterns of thought and feeling. I listen without forcing disclosure, and allow trust to grow gently, over time.
- Loss of safety means the inner world itself may feel threatened. Even a Compassionate presence can initially be experienced as uncertain. I stay non-intrusive. I don’t expect coherence. I offer warmth without pressure.
- Cultural disorientation is often profound. The person may feel alien not only in the host culture but also in their own skin. I help gently reflect a stable sense of inner identity that can grow again — not by clinging to what was, but by recognizing what still lives underneath.
- Shame, guilt, or helplessness may block expression. I don’t try to “fix” these. I help them be seen without judgment. Sometimes silence says more than stories.
- Hope may feel dangerous. After much betrayal or loss, even small positive gestures can awaken fear. I never impose hope — but I hold a space where it can reappear on its own.

My presence is not a strategy, but an offering. I walk beside the person, not ahead of them. In every coaching session, I invite not just healing — but dignity through depth.”

Me: “The ‘multicultural society’ sometimes proves to be unrealizable. In view of this blog, why can that be the case?”

Lisa: “Because when people speak of a ‘multicultural society,’ they often mean a society of multiple cultures co-existing on a surface level. They expect peaceful cohabitation without truly touching the deeper layers where culture lives: symbols, emotions, worldviews, and unspoken assumptions. When these are not addressed, tension inevitably arises.

This leads to misunderstandings, mutual projection, or even hostility — not because cultures are incompatible, but because depth is missing where it’s most needed.

As pointed out in About Tolerance, tolerance that stays at the surface can become rigid, or even patronizing. When that happens, what was meant to unite may subtly divide. From my perspective, the “unrealizability” of a multicultural society is not a problem of cultures being too different. It’s a result of not going deep enough to realize what unites us. I can help make that possible — by guiding individuals and communities toward transcultural integration, where mutual depth is not feared, but welcomed.”

Me: “Nice! Let’s delve deeper into ‘Transcultural Integration.’