You’re probably holding it really well on the outside. Calls from back home ask how you are doing amidst uncertainty, and you smile and tell them things are okay. In rooms with your friends, you reminisce about your best days back home and go on a hunt to find the next best thing in your city. You plan for trips to the nearby countries over Eid holiday breaks or consider going home as often as possible. When you’re home, a part of you is torn at having to go back home, and a part of you that is excited to.

This dichotomy is specific to those of us who grew up in one country only to move to another in their adult life. Everything seems right, and yet so wrong. You are constantly walking the line between going back home and staying back. That stress starts taking a toll on you. Yes, you’re great at the work you do, and you go through the motions of life, but something feels wrong still. And it eats away at you. The flour doesn’t make the rotis right, the food you cook doesn’t taste the same, you’re not sure how to fit in with your colleagues at work.

That feeling has a name. It’s not homesickness exactly, and it’s not ingratitude. It’s the specific exhaustion of building a life in two places at once while meeting everyone’s expectations in both. It makes complete sense that you’re tired. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.

I’m Aditi, a counselling psychologist based in Bangalore, working online with adults across India and internationally — including clients in the UAE and across West Asia. I work with people navigating exactly this: the weight of displacement, cultural expectation, burnout, identity, and the quiet grief of a life lived between two homes.

My approach is led by you. I don’t give advice or diagnose. I work somatically where that feels right and follow your pace from there. I’m queer and trans affirming and work with adults of all genders.

Sessions are 50 minutes, online, conducted in English, Hindi, or Gujarati. The first call is a 20 minute no-pressure conversation to see if we’re the right fit.