Neither Here Nor There: A Guide for Immigrants and the Therapists Who Walk with Them

This book looks at the psychological experience of being an immigrant and offers strategies to foster resilience, adaptation, and well-being. At a time when over 250 million people live outside their countries of origin, this book responds to a global need among psychotherapists working with a growing, often distressed, immigrant population by emphasizing cultural awareness, trauma sensitivity, and cultural humility. This accessible and deeply empathetic guide explores the emotional complexities of migration by drawing on decades of clinical experience and the author’s own story of cultural dislocation. It examines topics such as anxiety, cultural grief, impostor syndrome and addresses the financial, systemic, linguistic and legal struggles many immigrants face. It also empowers immigrants to take an active role in their healing and growth, especially in today’s political climate, where mental health funding and services for immigrants are increasingly limited. With friendly and inclusive guidance on how to work with problems experienced by immigrants, this is an essential reading for psychoanalysts and therapists as well as anyone who has experienced immigration or any type of cultural or social dislocation.

Table of Contents:
Part I: The Immigrant's Experience 1. The Psychological Challenges of Immigration 2. The Hidden Losses of Immigration: Emotional and Practical Costs 3. Finding Yourself between Cultures Part II: Integrating and Adapting 4. The Immigrant Paradox: Sometimes the First Generation thrives more than their children and U.S. -Born peers. 5. Feeling Stuck: A broken gearbox of Emotions 6. Common Stressors in Immigrant Life Part III: Finding Your Voice 7. Finding your voice across cultures 8. Between Obligation and Longing: Navigating needs, desires, and expectations across cultures 9. What languages reveal and hide 10. Nonverbal and Cross-Cultural communication tools Part IV: Teasing out Feelings and Connecting Body and Mind 11. Identifying and Integrating emotions as an Immigrant: A guide for Immigrants and Therapists 12. Guilt, Regret, and the Emotional Cost of Migration 13. Shame, Success, and the Immigrant Imposter Syndrome 14. Understanding and Releasing Immigrant Anger 15. Diving into the Body: Trauma, Care, and the Path to Embodied Healing Part V: Exploring Your Unconscious 16. Healing with Symbols and the Imagination 17. Interpreting Dreams of Displacement and Belonging 18. Mindfulness and Creative Tools for Immigrant Healing Part VI: Reframing and Organizing 19. Challenging Biases with CBT Therapy 20. The Nine-Lens Reflective Tool: A culturally aware framework 21. Tools to Manage Ambivalence, Worry, and Self-Doubt 22. Planning and Goal-Setting for Immigrants in Transition 23. One Step, One Thread: Sewing toward the unknown path of belonging

About the Author :
Leide Porcu, PhD LP is a New York–based psychotherapist and psychoanalyst with a background in anthropology. A graduate of IPTAR and the Beck Institute, she holds a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. Her writing explores healing, identity, language, and humor. She is passionate about helping people thrive across cultures.

Review :
'Neither Here Nor There: A Guide for Immigrants and the Therapists who Walk With Them is just excellent! It outlines the major challenges facing immigrants and describes specific techniques that these individuals and their therapists can use to overcome them. Dr. Porcu draws from many different psychotherapies and other psychotherapeutic approaches, with great creativity and expertise, to create a comprehensive approach to help immigrants thrive.' Judith Beck, president of the Beck Institute 'Neither Here nor There is a much needed resource for people coping with the many challenges of immigration. Leide Porcu is herself an immigrant who has built a successful career as a therapist. She draws on her own lived experience to help others learn how to successfully master the experience. This book will give readers the knowledge to normalize the experience of coming to a new land. Dr. Porcu provides a uniquely well-informed insight into this experience. Highly recommended.' Robert L. Leahy, director, the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, clinical professor, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. 'Neither Here nor There is a companion for those who cross borders in hope, finding new layers of emotional and cultural terrain to navigate—and a bridge for the practitioners and healers who walk beside them.' Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Life. 'Neither Here Nor There is a compassionate, clear, and empowering guide for anyone navigating life between cultures. With deep psychological insight and a therapist’s grounded wisdom, Leide Porcu gives voice to the emotional, relational, and spiritual complexities of migration. What makes this book truly stand out is its invitation to reclaim agency—to move from disorientation to empowerment. Whether you are an immigrant, a child of immigrants, or someone who walks beside them, this book offers not just understanding, but tools for healing, belonging, and rising.' Neelu Kaur, author of Be Your Own Cheerleader, Speaker, organizational psychologist