I did it. I started my own private practice. 

Not only that, I created a private practice that is one of a kind. Literally no one else is doing what I am doing (that I know of). Honestly, when I first had this idea, I wasn’t even sure it was possible.

I am opening a fully virtual, expressive arts therapy practice, specifically for a globally mobile target population - Third Culture Kids (TCKs).

Why? Because I grew up as a TCK, I know how hard it is, I know what kind of mental health struggles exist for this population, and I know how limited and inaccessible mental health care can be for kids like us.

For those who don’t know, Third Culture Kids are kids who grow up outside of their passport country, typically because of a parent’s work. Examples of TCKs include children of missionaries, military personnel, international educators or diplomats. They are not a small population, but they have gone underrecognized and underrepresented for a long time.

The very fact that TCKs are a globally mobile population means that the following things are also likely to be true:

• They are culturally complex.

• Their social support systems will look different from those of children who grow up in one place.

• They may be more likely to develop specific mental health symptoms.

• The right kind of mental health care may be inaccessible where they live.

• They may have to wait until adulthood to process the stuff of their childhood simply because that’s when they will be able to access therapy. Or because they don’t realize what a big deal some of the stuff that they are going through is until it shows up as mental health symptoms in adulthood.

Even if this is not true for all TCKs, it’s true for a lot of us. 

So, I decided to create a therapy practice to try to address as many of these problems as I can:

• I grew up as a TCK, so I understand TCK issues. 

• I am now a qualified therapist so I also understand mental health and how to navigate it

• This private practice has an international reach. This is perhaps the most critical, and the most controversial aspect of this business. But after a year of researching credentials, licensure, laws, ethics, liability, asking for meetings with as many people as I knew to get their advice, and spending a good amount of time weighing the pros and cons of starting something with so many question marks… I figured out how to do it.

• By providing expressive arts therapy, (not counseling or even art therapy) this practice will be able to extend beyond the borders of the country and state that I personally live in. 

• By being virtual, this practice is accessible to anyone who has the technology to find it.

• By operating as a private pay practice, your access to care and quality of care is not dictated by third parties such as health insurance companies. 

• By using my unique and fully transparent pricing model, you are able to estimate your treatment costs ahead of time and maintain scheduling flexibility, without needing to compromise on the care that you/your TCK receives.

In addition to thinking of ways to meet a global need for the kind of care I will be offering, this practice is also a gift to myself.

I am a TCK. I want to do meaningful work without being tied to one place. Owning and operating a virtual therapy practice allows me to do the work that I know I am meant to do, in the best way that I can, while also being able to live the life I want outside of the office. I want to be able to make decisions about where I live based on what is best for me and my family, and not based on where a physical therapy office is.

Though unconventional, this plan has been well thought out. This business has been in development for over a year. I have a host of wise, experienced, creative professionals mentoring and encouraging me.

I am ready.

It is ready.

Here it is:

Amina TCK Therapy, LLC