The document discusses blogging as a tool for trailing spouses to cope with challenges of relocation. Trailing spouses face issues like loss of employment, community, purpose and identity when relocating due to a partner's job. Blogging can help by providing an outlet for writing about experiences and connecting to others facing similar situations. Writing about experiences can improve health and allow deeper reflection on one's self and circumstances. Blogging inserts people into an online community and allows them to receive feedback and support as they adapt to a new location and lifestyle.

1. The Trailing Spouse:
Who are We?
Let’s Blog it Out!
The Everyda y Expat Support Center with Jessica
L. Scott-Reid

2. What’s with the term
“Trailing Spouse”?
“a person who follows his or her life partner to another city because of a
work assignment. . . often associated with people involved in an expatriate
assignment but is also used by academia on domestic assignments”­
Wikipedia
“Trailing” is not a bad word; it’s true!
Term is used in both academic and popular realms.
Is gender neutral.

3. Challenges unique to the
trailing spouse
Beyond the usual psychological and sociocultural issues faced by expats
due to acculturation, recent research has shown that trailing spouses
suffer unique challenges due to additional changes in lifestyle:
Loss of employment.
Loss of community.
Loss of purpose.
Loss of identity.
For more information see: “Adaptation of Trailing Spouses: Does Gender Matter?” by
Anne. M Braseby, 2010.
Matter?
Anne M. Braseby

4. How can writing help?
The Basics
Writing can be done by anyone, anywhere, with basic writing skills, minimal tools, and for minimal cost.
Writing “holds thoughts still”, allowing reason to play alongside emotion, bringing structure and
organization to chaos.
Writing the Mind Alive, the Proprioceptive Method for Finding your Authentic Voice, by L. T. Metcalf
and T. Simon
Writing can provide proven physical health benefits, such as reduced blood pressure and muscle tension.
“Investigators have now found that writing about traumatic experiences produces improvements in
immune functions, drops in physician visits for illness, and better performance at school and work”.
Emotion, Disclosure, and Health, by J. W. Pennebaker

5. Blogging Defined
Online web logs.
Normally counter chronological.
Exist within public online environments.
Can include pictures and other multimedia, but are mainly made up of
text.
Normally personal in nature, expressive, informative, and entertaining.
Can be autobiographical or relating to a certain subject; or both, or
neither.

6. Blogging for Community
Blogging inserts us into a community of others who share a in similar interest or
circumstance.
Blogging within communities helps fight isolation, keeping us connected to the
world regardless of our location.
For more information see: Psychotherapy 2.0s MySpace® Blogging as Self­
therapy, by L. Tan
Allows us to receive feedback from others, which can offer validation,
encouragement, new perspectives, & deeper understanding of ourselves and our
thoughts in relation to others.
Being able to read and respond to others’ blogs allows us to “define [our]
positions in the context of others’ writing as well as outline [our] own
perspectives on particular issues ”.
Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in education; weblogs can be used in classrooms to
enhance literacy and critical thinking skills, by J. A. Oravec, 2002

7. Blogging for the
(Re)Creation of Self
(Re)Creation of Self
Research has shown that due to public audience, bloggers tend to be more invested in their writing than with
usual journal or diary writing.
For more see: Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on
comprehension, by N. B. Ellison & Y. Wu, 2008.
In other words, this deeper awareness of public image can lead to more rereading, editing, rewriting than
with typical journal or diary writing.
Rereading, reinterpreting, and rewriting encourages deeper reflection, which allows us to see ourselves and
our circumstances, events and other people, in new lights and with new understanding.
For more see: Reflective Practice, Writing and Professional Development, by G. Bolton.
This new understanding helps us to (re)construct a sense of who we are within our new environment and
lifestyle.
Blogging also allows us to become an authority on something, to construct ourselves as a particular
someone.
Provides a record of ourselves over time, which can be reflected upon further in the future.