The Art of Coming Home

Expecting that home will be the way it was when you left? Are you instead shocked to discover that both you and home have changed? The Art of Coming Home offers the solid advice you need to reduce the stress of the transition experience.

Veteran trainer, consultant and adventurer Craig Storti takes you step by step through the reentry experience, illuminating the text with quotes and examples from those who have gone before. He then defines the four stages of reentry—leave taking, the honeymoon, reverse culture shock, and readjustment—and what to expect at each phase. This section concludes with practical suggestions to the returnee for successful repatriation. Noting the substantial emotional and financial costs of an unsuccessful reentry, Storti next looks in depth at the specific issues faced by returning employees. In this section, you will gain a greater appreciation for the challenges confronting the returning employee, including the possibility of reduced responsibilities and authority, little acknowledgment for accomplishments overseas, and loss of status. You will also learn what both the employee and employer can do to facilitate the adjustment process.

Storti next examines reentry issues for spouses, teenagers, and young children. Most commonly returning without a job, spouses find themselves alone and bearing the burden of their own and their children’s adjustment. Storti offers them and their children advice for dealing with reentry both before and after departure from the overseas posting. Teenagers will find especially valuable a section which focuses on their particular issues.

A final chapter addresses the reentry of four specific groups: high school exchange students, international volunteers, military personnel and their families and missionaries and their children. Whether you are a recent returnee or are just now thinking of moving abroad, The Art of Coming Home sets itself apart as it integrates the process of returning home into the overseas experience.

About the Author

Craig Storti is founder and co-director of Communicating Across Cultures, a Washington, D.C.-based intercultural communication training and consulting firm specializing in the design and delivery of seminars on cross-cultural adjustment and repatriation. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he is the author of Figuring Foreigners Out, The Art of Crossing Cultures, and the bestselling Cross-Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief Encounters with Cultural Difference. He has recently published his second book of dialogues Old World/New World: Bridging Cultural Differences—Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. Storti is a veteran in the field of crossing cultures and a media spokesperson on issues of intercultural relations. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.