FEELING OFF SINCE YOU MOVED HERE? YOU'RE NOT IMAGINING IT.
- Annette Tapia-Cornet
- May 5
- 3 min read
Je voelt je niet jezelf sinds je hier bent? Dat is niet voor niets.
Moving to a new country is supposed to be an adventure. And often it is. But it is also, quietly and simultaneously, one of the hardest things a person can do.
Psychologists consistently rank moving among the most stressful life events — right alongside losing a loved one, having a child, or starting a new job. For many internationals arriving in the Netherlands, several of these are happening at once. New country. New job. New school for the kids. New house. New language. And underneath all of it, the grief of the life you left behind.
That grief doesn't always announce itself. Sometimes it shows up as trouble sleeping. As a digestive system that hasn't quite settled since you arrived. As anxiety that didn't used to be there. As a child who was fine and then, suddenly, wasn't.
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THE SYSTEM WASN'T BUILT FOR YOU
Het systeem was niet voor jou gebouwd
The Dutch healthcare system is efficient and well-organized — if you know how to navigate it and if your complaints fit neatly into its framework. For many internationals, they don't.
You go to the huisarts. You describe what you're feeling. You are told to take a paracetamol and get some rest. And you leave feeling more alone than when you walked in — not because anything was done wrong, but because what you needed wasn't a diagnosis. It was someone to actually look at you.
That is what I try to offer.
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BEING SEEN IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE
Gezien worden in je eigen taal
Something happens in the treatment room when a patient realizes they can just... talk. In English. Or Spanish. Without searching for words, without worrying about being misunderstood, without performing wellness in a language that isn't theirs.
I see it every time. Shoulders drop. Breath slows. Something relaxes that has been braced for a while.
Being heard in your own language in a medical context is not a small thing. It is often the first time an international patient has felt truly comfortable in the Dutch healthcare system. And that comfort is itself therapeutic.
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WHAT I SEE, AND WHAT I CAN HELP WITH
Wat ik zie en waarmee ik kan helpen
Across the international community — whether you've been here two years or twenty, whether you came for a corporate relocation or built a life here from scratch — I tend to see similar patterns:
Sleep that has never quite regulated since the move. Digestive systems adjusting to a different food culture and a different rhythm of life. Anxiety that is hard to name because on paper, everything is fine. Children acting out, shutting down, or struggling in ways that are easy to dismiss as "just adjustment." And trailing spouses — the partners who gave up their jobs, their friends, their sense of professional identity to support someone else's opportunity — carrying a particular kind of invisible weight that rarely gets acknowledged, let alone treated.
Acupuncture won't unpack your boxes or find you a community. But it can help your body and nervous system stop running on emergency mode. It can help your child feel calmer and more settled. It can give the trailing spouse a space that is entirely theirs, where someone is paying attention to how they are doing.
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A NOTE ON KIDS
Even een briefje over kinderen
Children absorb relocation stress in ways that don't always look like stress. Sleep disruption, stomach aches, clinginess, emotional outbursts, withdrawal — these are all ways a child's body says this is a lot. Acupuncture for children is gentle, fast, and often surprisingly effective. Kids tend to respond quickly, and they love having something that is just for them.
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YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE IT ALL FIGURED OUT
Je hoeft het niet allemaal op een rijtje te hebben
If you've been brushed off, or told your labs are normal, or simply haven't found anyone here who "gets it" — I'd love to meet you.
I work in English and Spanish. I see patients at my practice in Hoofddorp and I make home visits. Wherever you are in your adjustment to life here, you are welcome.
📍 Free Spirit Acupuncture NL — Hoofddorp & aan huis
