If you have been following my journey, you may already know that I work, live and dream in multiple languages. I don’t have a fixed home. Instead, I travel the world as a modern-day nomad, moving between cities, countries, and cultures every few weeks or months. But long before I quit my job to travel, and long before I heard the term Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK), I knew that I was one of them. I have two passports and grew up speaking two languages. I attended a French school in Germany and was surrounded by children who, in one way or another, were Cross-Cultural Kids themselves.

 

 

 

As a psychotherapist working online, most of my clients are expats, global nomads or adult CCK themselves, and many are raising the next generation of CCKs.

 

 

So, who are CCKs?

 

Cross-Cultural Kids are children who have meaningfully experienced two or more cultures during their first eighteen years of life. A few family holidays wouldn’t usually qualify, but the child of immigrants or diplomats often would. It includes cultural transitions within a country as well as moves across national borders.

Today, people move more frequently than ever. Many live in different cities and countries and move across cultural borders several times. As a result, many children grow up experiencing different cultures long before they are even old enough to drive.

The term CCK encompasses a wide range of childhood experiences: children of immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers; children adopted into another country or culture; those who grow up in globally mobile families (such as diplomatic or military households), biracial children and children from minority ethnic groups living in places where another culture is dominant.

 

 

Third Culture Kids and Cross-Cultural Kids

 

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are a subgroup of CCKs who spend a significant part of their formative years outside their parents’ culture. Typically, their parents come from the same country and grew up in a mono-cultural environment themselves, but later move abroad for several years with their children. The term was coined by the US sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1950s and has gained increasing attention over the past few decades.

In 2019, I attended the Families in Global Transitions conference, where Ruth Van Reken, co-author of the “bible” on TCKs: Third Culture Kids spoke about the newest edition of the book. She explained how they expanded the concept to include all CCKs, as many of the challenges and advantages originally associated with TCKs are shared by CCKs. While earlier conversations focused mainly on traditional TCKs, such as children of missionaries, diplomats, or military families, in today’s world, the number of children experiencing multiple cultures as bi-cultural children, migrants, immigrants or international adoptees increases every day.

These children gain a lot of experiences in a short time and find themselves in a special position, that comes with both meaningful strengths and real challenges.

 

 

Advantages of CCK and TCKs

 

Third Culture and Cross-Cultural Kids often grow up speaking more than one language – and not only in the literal sense. Their experiences broaden their perspective and foster a natural openness toward people from different backgrounds. They tend to adapt quickly, blend into new environments, and remain flexible in their daily lives, navigating the expectations of multiple cultural worlds. Many grow up feeling like “citizens of the world,” comfortable with difference and able to embrace diversity with ease.

But alongside these strengths also come very real challenges.

 

 

Difficulties Third Culture Kids and Cross-Cultural Kids may experience

 

Kids who grow up across cultures may feel that they don’t fully belong anywhere and have a sense of displacement. They may not neatly fit into their parents’ culture, yet also never feel completely at home in the other cultures they inhabit. Many describe a sense of being “in between”, outsiders who defy easy categorisation, which can lead to feelings of loneliness or isolation.

Some children who grow up in many cultures may face unresolved grief, loss, and trauma. With every move, children may leave behind people, places, routines, and cultural practices they value. Entering unfamiliar environments again and again can make them feel disoriented, or even unwelcome. Because these experiences are rarely recognised or talked about, they often become part of the invisible baggage children carry with them into adulthood.

However, many children growing up across cultures find that their experiences enrich their lives and give them unique perspectives on the world.

 

 

Working as Cross-Cultural Therapists Online

 

Whether we grew up in multiple cultures or began living a globally mobile, cross-cultural life as adults, these experiences inevitably shape our mental health. They also form a core part of my daily work as an online psychotherapist.

If you’d like to learn more about how our own cross-cultural backgrounds as therapists influence the way we practise, you can watch the following conversation from the Location Independent Therapists (LIT) Community. In it, my colleague Dr Melissa Parks and I interview fellow Cross-Cultural Online Therapist Daniela Tomer about her work with CCKs, TCKs and other global nomads:

 

 

 

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If this topic resonated with you, and you’d like support navigating your own cross-cultural experiences, you’re welcome to book a consultation in my online practice. And for regular reflections, resources and recommendations from my online practice, subscribe to my monthly newsletter!

 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels