Counselling helps to strategically manage the emotional challenges young migrants face.

Young migrants face many hidden emotional challenges that go mostly unnoticed because parents and
caregivers face their own existential transition. Migrants experience trauma, often in all its forms,
social isolation, cultural shock and stress. Counselling can help unpack these feelings, build coping
skills, and find support. It will allow you to take control of trying to belong. You don’t have to face it alone. Be brave to talk about your feelings and struggles. Go to counselling and learn how to navigate your journey through this.

Migration can be full of hope – new skies, new streets, new opportunities. It can also be challenging – no
friends, no support, no belonging, no understanding! We all speak English (to varying degrees) but
suddenly it sounds like a different language with a different vocabulary and different way it falls on the
ear. Beneath the excitement and the struggle, young migrants are often burdened by invisible weights.
These challenges have been part of a young migrant’s journey for many years, even if no one talks
about it. This post will explore those challenges and highlight how seeing a counsellor may help to
lighten the burden.

The Quiet Struggles Young Migrants Carry Every Day

1. Trauma and Loss
Trauma finds us in our normal everyday lives. Migrants and Refugees are even more prone to have had experienced serious trauma during their journey to make the choice to immigrate. Trauma is not always big trauma like war, death, being a victim of crime, or loss and fear of survival; it is also sometimes little things that can impact like circumstances changing for example being sent to daycare when mum suddenly has to work to financially support the family and no longer looks after you during the day, or meeting a harsh word or bully on the playground, or even feeling lost because you miss home so much that it hurts physically. These are the things migrants face that does not vanish on touch down but can have a severe impact on mental health.

2. Cultural Adjustment and Identity Stress
The cultural adjustment in the new country is a huge learning curve. Learning new systems, juggling translation and the use of languages, figuring out where you belong, clouds every day with little hurdles. Slang that you don’t get, social cues that confuse you, or trying to fit in without losing yourself are common experiences every day. It is exhausting to feel “in-between” worlds all the time. Your constant distress heightens your emotional experience and people often feel overwhelmed and unsure what to do.

3. Social Isolation & Belonging Issues
You might be surrounded by people but still feel unseen. Never quite belong here in your adopted country, nor the same in your country of origin where people will tell of your change and where things are moving on and you have no experience of that journey. It slowly infiltrates our reality and changes experiences, relationships and belonging. It can contribute to feeling anxious or even depressed.
4. Barriers to Accessing Help
Being unseen is the biggest barrier to access help. All members of the same family are in various phases of adjusting after migration and people get caught in their own existential survival, where they don’t necessarily have the capacity to notice another’s existential crisis. Shame, stigma, fear of privacy or fear of push back from those left behind in the country of origin, not knowing what services exist, language barriers, cultural differences about mental health… all of it can block someone asking for help.

5. Systemic and Unseen Pressures
There are so many systemic and unseen pressures: feeling judged, struggling to be understood, having to start from scratch, trying to navigate a foreign system with its own legalities, all happening at once. Many wrap themselves in resilience like a coat, looking strong, and keeping going, but under the surface the anxiety and weight of fitting in is real.

These challenges often remain hidden, quietly influencing moods, behaviours, and the way young migrants experience themselves and everyday life in Australia. It can be overwhelming, even when everything seems fine on the outside.

The Role of Psychotherapy in Helping Young Migrants
At Elmarie Bekker Counselling, we work closely with young migrants to help them navigate these hidden struggles by:
●    Dealing with their emotions and helping them put words to feelings like grief, guilt, or fear.
Sometimes they’ve carried these emotions for years without saying them aloud.
●    Discovering language to describe when someone doesn’t have the words for what they feel.
A small but powerful step!
●    Acknowledging their experiences and their reality as being shaped by not just what is
happening in the here and now, but by the culture and people left behind.
●    Navigating new life challenges and systems by providing a safe space to find their new voice.
●    Facilitate healing and finding support and reconnecting with networks, mentors, and
communities.
●    Validating their strength and resilience, but also their emotional intelligence for seeking help
and recognizing seeking support is part of thriving, not failing.

Looking for help?
If you’re a young migrant, feeling weighed down by all the changes, come to Elmarie Bekker Counselling. I have lived the migrant experience and although all our experiences are different, I can help you find your voice, make sense of your feelings, and help you find a little more ease in you, your family or your child’s everyday life. Reach out, I’d love to walk this journey with you.