Lisa Velazquez
Free
Cultural Transition Expert
Lisa Velazquez Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Cultural Transition, Raising Multilingual/Multicultural Children
- Career Focus
- Cross-Cultural Trainer and Coach, Workshops, Speaker on Cultural Topics
- Affiliation
- International Coach Federation, Coach Training Alliance, The Interchange Institute
Moving to a new country can be challenging on many levels - emotional, physical or philosophical. Different cultures have different mindsets and especially at the beginning of the adjustment period it can be stressful to try to find your place in this new environment.
The good news - you don't have to struggle alone during this adjustment period!
As a Cross-Cultural Trainer and Coach Lisa helps individuals and families adjust to life in a new culture and supports parents who want to raise multilingual and multicultural children.
She shares her own insights and gives her clients practical tools to fully embrace their cross-cultural experience. This helps her clients to realize their full potential in their new environment much faster and with less stress. In the process of the coaching relationship, they receive not only a step-by-step plan, but also gain self-knowledge, deeper insight into their own culture, and knowledge about the new culture.
For more information visit her website and sign up for your free "Three Simple Techniques for a Successful Adjustment to a New Culture" and for the free monthly newsletter "Building Cultural Awareness".
Free Articles & Book Excerpts
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
How to Effectively Communicate Across Cultures
If you are a good communicator in your own culture, does that automatically make you competent in another culture? The answer is no, if you only interpret through your own cultural glasses and don’t take cultural differences into account. Since communication happens on both a verbal and on a non-verbal level, understanding non-verbal signals in a conversation is just as important as understanding what is said. To be able to interpret non-verbal signals from another culture accurately it is first necessary to become aware of your own non-verbal signals.
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Cross-Cultural Awareness - Is it Personal or Cultural?
Living in a foreign country provides us with many experiences – meeting new people, visiting exotic places, tasting different foods, and communicating in a new language. However, the most valuable experience, I believe, is getting to know yourself better while away from everything familiar. From little on we have absorbed and assimilated countless experiences, and have become predominantly familiar with our own cultural group. In a foreign setting, we are challenged by more frequent differences, and through these will find out what is unique about us.
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Relocation - Five Strategies for a Successful Adjustment to a New Culture
Do you ever wonder why some people are more successful than others in adjusting to a new culture? Here are five strategies that will help you to make your cross-cultural experience a success. One - Begin with the End in Mindr Close your eyes and imagine you have already mastered your biggest current obstacle or have been able to adjust fully to your new culture. How would you like to characterize your experience? What have you learned? What insights have you gained? What adventures have you had in the new country?
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Relocation - Five Ways to Help Your Children Adjust to a New Culture
The conce s your children will have depend a lot on their age. In general, young children will miss family, friends and familiar places. Older children, in addition, will be conce ed how their daily routines will be affected, and teenagers will worry about fitting in and about their social life. Although the needs of children in these different age groups vary greatly, the following tips will be helpful to all of them. One - Give your children unconditional love and supportr What children need the most to feel safe and secure is their family.
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What Time Do You Run On?
Experiencing a different time system than what you’re used to, either when interacting with people from a different culture or when moving to a new country, can be a source of deep “culture shock”. Being unaware that there are time systems completely different from those familiar to you can lead to incorrect assumptions, serious misunderstandings, and a lot of frustration. Imagine yourself inviting people to your new home for a welcome party at 6 pm. When will your guests arrive? When would you like your guests to arrive?
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Cultural Iceberg: A Metaphor for Transitioning into a New Culture
Picture an iceberg in your mind. Imagine, you are on a ship sailing towards an iceberg that is off in the distance. What exactly do you feel as it looms ever larger? How much of the iceberg is above water and how much of the iceberg is below water? There are many different metaphors used to ...
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Stages of Culture Shock
Culture shock is the emotional and sometimes even physical discomfort people feel when they have to leave everything familiar behind and have to find their way in a new culture that has a different way of life and a different mindset. Overcoming culture shock takes time and can't happen over ...
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New Year's Resolution
My all-time favorite quote is "Be the change you want to see in the world" from Mahatma Gandhi. This has been my New Year's resolution for a number of years now and will again be my resolution for this year. From past experience I already know that I will fall short over and over again throughout the course of the year. I know that I will forget about it, at times even on purpose, as it happens with most resolutions.
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Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Lisa Velazquez
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."
Goethe