Psychological Support

Migrating to another country can have a big impact on your life. While it may bring you good things (like MigraCode), it can also give you stress and make you feel negative or sad. At the same time, you may have experienced things in your home country that still have an impact on how you feel now. MigraCode and their partner can help you dealing with these feelings.

Why psychological support?

It is extremely important to always share any personal issues you have - talking helps! This can be with friends or fellow students, but maybe you need someone to talk to who is specialised in helping people that deal with challenges in their lives.

This is why MigraCode works closely with Iguality, an NGO that offers free mental health support to (among others) migrant and refugee communities through dedicated voluntary professional therapists, ready to talk to you when you need it. The service is - like everything connected to MigraCode - cost-free, and you can always request to start with the service. A psychologist can help you when:

• You feel sad or negative

• You feel a lot of stress

• You have negative thoughts

• You miss family/friends

• You feel lonely or without sufficient support

• You struggle with your identity

• You face any other personal issues

How to start?

If you want to make use of this service, you can fill in this form directly. If you have some doubts, feel free to first send a message to @Vincent van Grondelle on Slack, who can assess your needs and see where you need help with, to find the best match! You can also find more information about the program through this link.

We get quite a lot of requests for this service. Please keep in mind there may be a waiting list which may take a few weeks.

What to expect?

It is possible to just have a few sessions of approximate 1 hour, or to receive support for a longer period of time. This depends on what you need help with and if you feel comfortable! Depending on availability, you can receive in Spanish, English, Catalan and Portuguese.

A MigraCode psychologist can:

• listen to your story, how you feel and/or what you struggle with

• talk with you and - if you want - try to address the root cause of any personal issues

• give you advice on how to deal with negative or sad feelings

• support you through hard times and offer tools to handle difficult situations

It also important to know that a MigraCode psychologist cannot:

• become your close friend - rather see her or him as a personal guide

• solve every issue/problem/challenge you face - it depends a lot on your situation and the specific things you struggle with

• always be available for you - he or she will support you on a long- or short-term basis, but the support you receive will happen through the planned sessions (for emergencies you can contact Vincent van Grondelle)

• receive gifts or financial compensations - the psychologists offer their support on a voluntary basis and are not expecting anything in return :)