The returner support

You came back home after time abroad… and suddenly everything feels wrong. Your city. Your friendships. Your routines. Even yourself. You start thinking: “I’ve outgrown this place.” But what if the place isn’t the real problem? In this episode, I share a very personal reflection about friendship, emotional patterns, overgiving, identity shifts after traveling, and the uncomfortable realization tha...

Welcome to Season 2 of The Returner Support Podcast. If you’ve ever come back home after time abroad and thought: “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” this episode is for you. In this raw and unfiltered episode, I share what really happens when you return… not the romantic version, but the messy one. After 5 weeks in Indonesia, I came back expecting everything to feel “normal.” It didn’t. Inst...

We love saying “I wasn’t escaping, I was finding myself.” But what if both are true? In this episode, I challenge the false opposition we keep living in: travel vs home, freedom vs stability, escaping vs finding yourself. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: everyone is escaping something. Scrolling, traveling, working nonstop, relationships, movement, same pattern, different tools. This episod...

Returning home isn’t just about familiarity, it’s about a strange duality: comfort and anxiety. On one hand, home feels safe, known, and grounding. On the other, it can trigger old patterns, uncomfortable memories, and questions about who you’ve become. In this episode, I explore the invisible tension of going back after living abroad: the nostalgia for family and friends, the reality of relations...

Welcome to The Returner Support Podcast , the podcast for people who came back to their home country after a long time abroad and realized that nothing is simple anymore. I’m your host, Anaïs Ruel , life transition expert, and yes, probably the friend who says the things no one else dares to say during this phase of your life. In today’s episode, we talk about something most people avoid at all co...

This end-of-year episode of The Returner Support Podcast is an invitation to slow down, reflect honestly, and stop shaming yourself for not being “where you should be.” If you’re back in your home country after time abroad, or even just visiting, and you feel heavy, lost, misunderstood, or disconnected from yourself, this episode is for you. We explore why December and January are not meant for bi...

You did everything “right”. You settled. You have friends. A job. A life you once dreamed of. And yet… something feels off. In this episode of The Returner Support Podcast , I speak directly to those quiet months after the move, whether you’re back in your home country or you decided to stay longer somewhere else. Not the honeymoon phase. Not the one-year milestone. But that in-between moment wher...

In this episode, we’re going straight into a topic almost every returner feels but barely anyone names out loud: disappointment . The disappointment you feel when you come back to your home country and nothing looks like you imagined. The people don’t ask the questions you hoped for. The connections feel different. The life you thought you were coming back to… isn’t there. I share a personal story...

In this episode, I share one of the most surprising lessons I’ve learned from the book The Easiest Way to Stop Smoking , and how it applies directly to returning to your home country after living abroad. What the author says about quitting smoking is exactly what we need to understand about going back home: it’s all about changing your associations , breaking the old brainwash, and deciding who yo...

Today’s episode is a wake-up call, in the best way. I take you into the uncomfortable truth that most people never admit: the way you handle your return home… is exactly how you handle dating… is exactly how you handle your career or business. It all points to one thing: your deepest fear of not being loved for who you truly are. And that fear? It’s running the show far more than you think. Inside...

In this episode, I get real about something I’ve been feeling lately, the pressure to have everything figured out. After returning from an inspired event and two months in the US where I felt at peace, I noticed how easy it is to slip into control mode: trying to plan every detail, solve every uncertainty, and force clarity to come faster. But here the thing, when we try to control everything, we...

If you’ve ever come back to your home country and felt the urge to leave again, this episode is for you. In today’s conversation, we’re unpacking something that hides beneath so many return stories: the fear of commitment . The fear of staying. The fear of being trapped again. I’ll share how my own return taught me to always keep one foot out the door, in relationships, in work, even in my busines...

Welcome back to The Returner Support Podcast , the only show dedicated to the real experiences of returning to your home country after a long time abroad. Today we’re diving deep into one of the toughest challenges many returnees face: living with family again and navigating the emotions, expectations, and old patterns that come up. In this episode, I share my personal story of returning home afte...

Returning home after living abroad can be a joyful yet disorienting experience. At first, everything feels familiar, but soon, you might notice a sense of disconnection, loneliness, or the feeling that you no longer truly belong. In today’s episode of The Returner Support Podcast , we dive deep into the concept of belonging . Inspired by the book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home , I explore w...

We’ve all been there, scrolling through Facebook groups for returnees and feeling our chest tighten with every post: “It’s impossible to make friends here.” “I feel so stuck.” “Life will never feel exciting again.” In this episode, I unpack what’s really happening beneath those reactions. It’s not just about the negativity of those posts, it’s about the quick stories our mind creates when we read...

In this episode of The Returner Support Podcast , we sit down with Eva, who spent two transformative years living in Colombia and has now been back in France for a year. She shares her experiences navigating life back home, the challenges of reconnecting with family and friends, and the lessons she’s learned about herself along the way. We dive into: How living abroad brought out a different versi...

Most people fall back into an outdated version of themselves the minute they return home after living abroad. I know, because I used to be one of them. Every time I went back, I slipped into old patterns, complaining, criticizing, settling for environments that didn’t make me happy, while secretly longing for the life I had abroad. In this episode, I’m sharing: Why we tend to fall back into our ol...

Leaving a place, and the people we love, always comes with a wave of emotions. In this episode, I share what it was like to say goodbye to my host family in the U.S., the sadness that came with it, and the patterns I noticed in myself as I navigated the days after. I talk about: The stories we tell ourselves when we leave someone or someplace we care about How I allowed myself to feel the heavines...

Have you ever gone back to a place you once lived, only to feel like old versions of yourself suddenly show up again? In this episode, I share what I discovered while revisiting a place from my past, and how that experience can mirror what you might feel when you return somewhere familiar after years away. We’ll talk about: Why younger versions of you might resurface when you revisit old environme...

It’s hard to believe this is the 50th episode of the podcast, almost one year since I started! In this special episode, I’m diving into a topic that so many returnees feel but rarely put words to: why it can feel like our time abroad was just a dream once we’re back home. I explore two key themes: grief and integration. I share my very first day back home after two years abroad, what I felt, how I...

If you’ve been telling yourself, “I don’t know what I want for my life,” or you feel lost about what to do after your time abroad, this episode is for you. We’ve been taught to ask the wrong questions, society often frames it all around career: What job will you do? Which degree will you choose? But if you don’t have that answer, it doesn’t mean you’re lost. In this conversation, I share my own st...

We need to have a different conversation. In this episode, I share why I'm done with the typical advice people give when you've come back from living abroad: keep yourself busy, plan your next trip, stay positive. These tips may come from good intentions, but they miss the heart of the experience. I dive into a Facebook post from someone who’s been home for 10 months. She’s happy to see her family...

This episode is for the ones who came back home after living abroad, and now feel stuck, confused, disconnected… or like something magical got left behind. But what if you’re not stuck? What if you're just repeating a story you unconsciously decided a long time ago? In this raw and honest episode, I’m inviting you to zoom out and realize: You get to decide how your return feels. How it looks. How...

In this episode, I open up about a recent spiral I experienced after coming back to the U.S., and the big realization that came with it: I was outsourcing my emotional validation instead of truly sitting with myself. If you’ve returned home after living abroad and feel disconnected, stuck in the past, or constantly comparing life now to life then... this episode is for you. Here’s what we explore...

In this raw and honest episode, I share what’s been unfolding since I returned to the US, and how, within just one week, this transition has already become a mirror for deeper healing. I open up about the triggers that have resurfaced, especially around people-pleasing, usefulness, and the belief that I need to earn love and belonging. I realized I’ve placed my experience in the US, and even my ho...