Expat Lifestyle Mentor and Independent Consultant

My expat story started in 2006, when we left the UK for Tokyo with a young child, two bewildered cats, and the kind of optimism you only have before reality hits. ‘Winging it’ was my talent… until it wasn’t.

 Japan was extraordinary, but expat life, and expat parenting, was sometimes disorienting, lonely, and far more complicated than I expected.

Five amazing years later, just before our planned move to Germany, everything changed in six terrifying minutes. The most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck Japan.

My daughter was already struggling with the upcoming relocation; the quake magnified everything. The fear, the aftershocks, the impossible decisions when all control had evaporated, and every option felt wrong.

When we finally landed in Berlin and my mind pieced itself back together, I decided to create the resource I so desperately needed, even before the ground shifted.

I realised parents needed fast, clear, sensible support for raising children abroad. Not a textbook. Not psychobabble. Something real. I started outlining a book… A book about moving overseas with children.

Then I remembered that at 3am I’d gone to Google, not a bookshelf. What expat parents needed was a website. Something instant, practical, and genuinely useful.

So in 2012, fuelled by caffeine and determination, ExpatChild was born – created to help families move abroad without needing to plan for future therapy.

Since then, it’s grown into a library of hundreds of articles covering every corner of expat life: the joy, the grief, the identity shifts, the goodbyes, the beginnings, and the “Why is this so hard when it’s supposed to be exciting?” moments.

No judgement. No fluff. Just honest guidance from someone who’s been in the trenches with a child, a suitcase, and a rapidly fraying sense of calm.