Moving abroad is an opportunity

Moving abroad is also a challenge

Connect Expat helps you to gather conditions for a successful expatriation

Jacques Attali – world-renowned French ‘global thinker’ – predicts that in the future, the human race will return to a nomadic state, albeit of a new kind. Having lived in more than 13 different countries since 1993, I have personal experience of how the nomadic state of being an expat can be a source of discovery and personal enrichment, as well as a source of difficulties.

Some of the challenges faced by an expat include: being uprooted; living far away from family and friends; the importance of the role of the ‘trailing spouse’ to the expatriation’s success or failure; the need to maintain a social life while preserving a meaningful career – despite moving countries; not to mention the challenges of cultural identity and sense of belonging to a group.

I have seen first-hand how much a well-prepared relocation can make a huge difference to each family member, and in turn allows companies to bring out the best from their employees.

Connect Expat places my experience and know-how at your disposal: you are able to center yourself, to identify the resources within, as well as your skills and values; you re-connect with your core and find a greater harmony with your environment. I also respond to companies’ and their expatriates’ needs to make their experience a real success.

Coaching sessions can be conducted in either English or French, and can also take place via Skype.

Sophrology is an approach to mindfulness, using practical and mental exercise, to achieve harmony. Sessions take place either one-to-one or in a group, and can be held either at company, non-profit organization, or my own premises.

Nathalie DORBES
More About Nathalie DANSETTE
We are our own greatest healer! We need guidance through the maze of our emotions, and Nathalie is the best guide that I know. Attentive and generous, she respects each person’s rhythm and needs; she possesses the tact of those who know how to listen to the heart and the soul.
Delphine Germano

Fashion consultant in Madrid and New York, expat of 12 years

Nathalie has a genuine belief in her clients’ potential for change and transformation. This sets the stage for her role of being a catalyst and facilitator for her clients, supporting them in the process of inducing insight and transformation.
Walter Fuellemann

ICRC’s Head of Delegation since the 90’s, ICRC

Nathalie listens very attentively and compassionately. She knows how to reformulate my sometimes foggy/muddled ideas, which allows me to take a step back and see more clearly. I appreciate her talent in helping me regain confidence in myself and in the abilities that Nathalie enabled me to identify, and to align with my project’s needs.
Isabelle De La Selle

Art lecturer, expat of 20 years

Areas of expertise
Coaching
Expatriation is in itself a process of repeated change; the type of coaching I offer is an efficient way to navigate this process.

My coaching approach is based on active listening, development of self esteem, neuroscience, and positive psychology. You will identify your objective, while respecting your strengths, your skills and your values; this objective will help you to give meaning to your everyday life and will motivate you to move forward; ultimately you will learn to use your internal resources to live more fully in your present, and to prepare your future.

You alone are the expert on your own life; only you can know what you really need. As your Coach, I am here to help you clarify your thoughts, and assist you in removing any obstacles that prevent you moving forward.

You will be proud of your journey. You will take control of your life, and regain confidence in yourself.

Facing exclusively toward the future, I don’t seek to analyse your past nor to provide a particular therapy; I simply help you to ask yourself the right questions.

The coaching sessions take place either in person or via Skype.

Mindfulness
I teach Mindfulness through a practice called Sophrology. Created in the 1960s by Professor Caycedo, Sophrology has its origins, among others, in Raja Yoga, Zen meditation and Buddhism. To practice Sophrology enables us to find an internal harmony, and becomes an excellent tool in recognizing our propensity to spread ourselves too thinly. As expats, we are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon of dispersion or fragmentation of the self. We can suffer geographic and cultural fragmentation, having lost our roots and bearings; and we can suffer temporal fragmentation, finding it difficult to imagine our future or to grieve our past experiences.

To add insult to injury, we tend to ruminate and worry, and live solely within our minds by cutting off the messages sent to us by our bodies.

The challenge is to learn how to face up to these situations, and to diminish our weaknesses in order to eventually emerge, reinforced and re-unified with ourselves.

Just as a jeweler strings pearls onto a silk thread, I help you identify your common thread, the thread that enables you to link each one of your relocations, as well as your qualities, skills and values.

I assist you to re-string the necklace of your life, to make a unique piece that reflects your unique self.

Sophrology sessions take place either in a one-on-one or group context.

Sitting Meditation
Ask a thousand different meditation practitioners to define meditation, and you will receive a thousand different responses.
I began meditating in 2000 in Nepal, and later I used a book to accompany my practice: The Calm Technique by Paul Wilson was my bible for many long years and I would like to use the author’s definition. For me, “meditation is close to the idea of Being. When you live in the present moment, when nothing distracts you, if you are neither attached to the past nor worried about the future, if your mind and your emotions serve you and no longer command you, then your conscious ‘is’, you ‘are’, you feel fully yourself. This state is Being.”

You can reach this state in your daily life through regular sitting meditation. While in Geneva, I particularly appreciated practicing group sitting meditation, and therefore the opportunity to feel the energy of that group. The group meditation sessions that I lead are a time of sharing – a value which I hold particularly dear.

Offers

Corporates

Sophrology or Meditation
According to 2004’ studies carried out by University researchers from Princeton NJ USA, ten minutes of daily meditation significantly increase our powers of concentration. By facilitating meditation in your workplace, you enable your colleagues to better face their day-to-day challenges and to manage problems such as stress, insomnia, or cultural disorientation. Employees feel revitalized, and able to perform at their professional best.
For corporate clients I offer weekly group sessions of sophrology or meditation at the company premises, either early morning, at lunch break, or at the end of the working day.
Individual Coaching Sessions
Individual coaching sessions for your employees are conducted either in our outside the workplace, according to individual needs. I help clients work on challenges arising in their professional life as a result of their relocation: preparation to start a new position abroad, starting the new job, adapting to new social and cultural situations, and managing stress.

I also offer assistance to the families of your expat employees, to facilitate a faster settling-in period, and to give them the tools necessary for becoming active agents in the relocation, thus providing essential support to your employees. This family assistance service can form part of the relocation services provided by your company.

Non-profit organization

Meditation and sophrology
Meditation and sophrology practice, 1h weekly sessions with groups of up to 10.
Workshops
Workshop facilitation on various themes for non-profit organizations that welcome expats. For example: Having a better expat experience; Living through change; The benefits of co-development in problem solving; Identifying your skills and values to define your future career; Managing your time.

Private clients

Sophrology sessions
On my premises, in the form of weekly, individually-tailored sessions lasting one hour. A few private sessions are normally sufficient to re-establish your equilibrium. Then you may join one of my sophrology groups to realize the full benefit of group practice. You learn how to practice autonomously, and absorb the benefits of listening to your body’s messages into your everyday life. This practice will allow you to activate your inner positive energy, to feel good about your physical self, to become conscious of your attitudes and reactions, and therefore develop your ability to approach everyday life in a more serene and optimistic manner.
Sophrology is also an excellent tool for children and adolescents to help them overcome the difficulties they may encounter during, or as a result of, their relocation. It is possible to organize family practice sessions.
Private Coaching
We meet once a week or fortnight, according to your needs, either on my premises or via Skype , I help you to clarify your objectives, remove obstacles, and regulate your emotions; ultimately you will hold all the winning cards to ensure your expatriation is a success.
Only 6 sessions make a real differencies.
I was coached by Nathalie during a time of professional doubt. I wanted to re-connect with my deepest desires and find the strength to follow my dreams. From within a fog of doubt, obstacles and fears, a thread emerged. By tugging on this thread, little by little the fog dissipated, and everything became clear and self-evident.
Eléonore Larue 2014

Creator, illustrator - France

Nathalie has a natural gift for letting you find your own way by helping you connecting with your emotions and your personal resources and fully benefit from both. Her open smile calls for a concrete and firm professionalism which can be revealed in any sophrology or coaching sessions.
Elisabetta Frullani

Project Manager Supply Chain - expatriated since 2013

Nathalie’s positive energy, and her gentle yet no-nonsense approach, helped me see that the only things holding me back were my own thought patterns. I loved getting very practical results from my coaching sessions. I highly recommend personal coaching with Nathalie.
Jan Decomps

Communication Professional, expat of 16 years

+ Testimony

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