The Everyday Expat Support Center

with Jessica L. Scott-Reid

The Trailing Spouse: Who are We?

Let’s Blog it Out!

What’s with the term “Trailing Spouse”?

“a person who follows his or her life partner to another city because of a work assignment. . . often associated with people involved in an expatriate assignment but is also used by academia on domestic assignments”- Wikipedia

“Trailing” is not a bad word; it’s true!

Term is used in both academic and popular realms.

Is gender neutral.

Challenges unique to the trailing spouse

Beyond the usual psychological and sociocultural issues faced by expats due to acculturation, recent research has shown that trailing spouses suffer unique challenges due to additional changes in lifestyle:

Loss of employment.

Loss of community.

Loss of purpose.

Loss of identity.

For more information see: “Adaptation of Trailing Spouses: Does Gender Matter?” by Anne. M Braseby, 2010.

Matter?

Anne M. Braseby

How can writing help?The Basics

Writing can be done by anyone, anywhere, with basic writing skills, minimal tools, and for minimal cost.

Writing “holds thoughts still”, allowing reason to play alongside emotion, bringing structure and organization to chaos.

Writing the Mind Alive, the Proprioceptive Method for Finding your Authentic Voice, by L. T. Metcalf and T. Simon

Writing can provide proven physical health benefits, such as reduced blood pressure and muscle tension.

“Investigators have now found that writing about traumatic experiences produces improvements in immune functions, drops in physician visits for illness, and better performance at school and work”.

Emotion, Disclosure, and Health, by J. W. Pennebaker

Blogging Defined

Online web logs.

Normally counter chronological.

Exist within public online environments.

Can include pictures and other multimedia, but are mainly made up of text.

Normally personal in nature, expressive, informative, and entertaining.

Can be autobiographical or relating to a certain subject; or both, or neither.

Blogging for Community

Blogging inserts us into a community of others who share a in similar interest or circumstance.

Blogging within communities helps fight isolation, keeping us connected to the world regardless of our location.

For more information see: Psychotherapy 2.0s MySpace® Blogging as Self-therapy, by L. Tan

Allows us to receive feedback from others, which can offer validation, encouragement, new perspectives, & deeper understanding of ourselves and our thoughts in relation to others.

Being able to read and respond to others’ blogs allows us to “define [our] positions in the context of others’ writing as well as outline [our] own perspectives on particular issues ”.

Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in education; weblogs can be used in classrooms to enhance literacy and critical thinking skills, by J. A. Oravec, 2002

Blogging for the (Re)Creation of Self

Research has shown that due to public audience, bloggers tend to be more invested in their writing than with usual journal or diary writing.

For more see: Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and

impact on comprehension, by N. B. Ellison & Y. Wu, 2008.

In other words, this deeper awareness of public image can lead to more rereading, editing, rewriting than with typical journal or diary writing.

Rereading, reinterpreting, and rewriting encourages deeper reflection, which allows us to see ourselves and our circumstances, events and other people, in new lights and with new understanding.

For more see: Reflective Practice, Writing and Professional Development, by G. Bolton.

This new understanding helps us to (re)construct a sense of who we are within our new environment and lifestyle.

Blogging also allows us to become an authority on something, to construct ourselves as a particular someone.

Provides a record of ourselves over time, which can be reflected upon further in the future.