Adapting to Change: Annabel's Challenges in Pursuing Psychology in Finland

Annabel's journey to Finland began over 20 years ago when she met her Finnish husband while studying psychology in Australia. In December 2006, she moved to Finland, and a year later, they married. This marked the start of her new life and adventure in a different culture.

Impressions of Finland

It was incredibly cold for me when I arrived in Finland. I had to buy a new warmer jacket immediately because it was December. Coming from Australia, it was incredibly different here. I was not used to the long dark nights, and I am still not used to it, not even to the long summer nights. The weather is still very hard for me. When I just came here, my impression was that here is the opposite of what I come from Australia. There was not much international food, they were not used to foreigners here, and the weather was very different from where I come from.

Favorite aspects of living in Finland as a woman

Finnish people have organized their lives in quite a peaceful way. The important thing is that children have good schooling, everything is safe, there is good transport, and there are areas of nature to walk to, and it is very peaceful as well. I like going to the sauna, and I guess one of my absolute favorite aspects is being able to go to work easily as a woman, having a job, and having a balanced life with children, too. Even if I was setting up a business and didn't have much money, I could still have children and child care, which is impossible in my home country of Australia.

Finding a Job, Financial Stability, and Friends is a challenge.

The biggest challenge was finding a job. I was told multiple times that I needed to learn the Finnish language to get any kind of job. It was discouraging and frustrating to know that. I had a part-time job teaching English. I didn't have any money, which was a hard situation. My friends had good jobs in Australia, but I didn't have a job here, and I didn't even know if I could get any job. The challenge continued when I wanted to do a PhD in psychology in Finland, but the study system in Australia was different, and my degree from Australia didn't allow me to do a PhD here in Finland.

My other challenge was making friends in Finland because it is a work-based culture. For example, people go to lunch with work colleagues. Also, I could not continue my studies here; I was not a student; I had no classes, no one to meet, no student activities, and no parties. So, isolation was definitely a big challenge. It was hard to meet people or share experiences. At that time, in 2007- 2008, there was not even much social media. So, isolation was for sure a hard situation for me.

Balancing two languages

My experience of learning the language was that I took many university courses, especially intensive ones, and YKI test preparation courses.

Learning Finnish was easier when I spent more time with my Finnish family and started to hear them speaking Finnish, which helped me develop an ear for the language. But speaking Finnish has been really difficult because I don't get many opportunities to speak it.

So, I have passed the YKI test, but I simply don't use it, which is a bit of a shame in all these years of living in Finland.However, it also reflects what life is like for an international person in Helsinki who speaks English. Many Finns prefer to speak English with me.

I speak English at work with clients. I use Finnish when it is needed.

Also, I was discouraged by my earlier experiences, and specifically, I set up a career that didn't require Finnish. I avoided having to work using Finnish, so I only use English at work when I can.

I use Finnish when dealing with authorities or professionals. I run a healthcare company in Finland, and I use Finnish in emails, meetings, or phone calls when required.

Building a career in Finland

I studied in Australia, obtaining two master's degrees in Asian studies, economy, history, society, and politics, specifically China and the Chinese language. My second master's is in psychology, and I'm registered as a psychologist.

My profession is a clinical psychologist here in Finland. So, I meet with people on a daily basis. To do my work, which I define as assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental conditions. Somebody may come to me with depression. And I will assess them to see how depressed they are what is wrong with them. Then I treat them, and I use many therapies and different methods to treat them, about 20 or 30 different therapeutic methods. In Australia, we have been taught to use a therapy method that is more applicable to the situation.

My personal approach, which I learned in my studies in Australia, is different from the Finnish system. My website, Compass Psychology, describes my approach and the therapies I use in more detail.

However, it is hard to say that because I work privately, I use English at work, and my practice is just psychology. We have a scientist-practitioner method, which means we regularly train our psychologists, and we use lots of different methods. But from what I have heard, the Finnish system is more based on medical health with doctors and nurses. But our practice is a lot just psychology and also is not psychotherapy necessarily like in Finland.

I was rejected many times when I arrived in Finland. I guess for lots of people, the situation is the same, and they have experience like me unless they are in IT or a more technical field, which makes it easier for them to find work in Finland. But as a psychologist, no. I had to do everything by myself. I had to employ myself.  

I have done some training in one psychotherapy method in Finland, but I often have to continue my education and training by organizing events in English through the association. So the experience is that I have to do it all, really!

I have not been given many resources or support networks, nobody has actively helped me. But the most important thing has been the people I met early on, such as my husband's friends and social network. That is the most important thing; having connections with Finnish people. For example, a friend who is a psychologist helped me get registered and started in Finland.

Having connections with Finnish people and the support of like-minded colleagues is very important; I have met once a month with them for the last 6 or 7 years to talk about the difficulty of being a practitioner in Finland.

Network and Volunteering in building connections

I am involved in an association called Psychological Practitioners Finland ry (the website mentalhealth.fi). We want people interested in the Psychotherapy Education course in English. We want to help foreigners get training in psychotherapy so that they can pursue this career in Finland. There is a page about this on our association's website.

This is an association of 70 or 80 foreign psychologists and psychotherapists. We get together to share information, support, and network with each other.

The other volunteer work I have done is that for a year, I was helping as the chair of a kindergarten. It was very good and beneficial for me to meet other local parents and contribute to the community. I asked if I could do the job in English, and they said I could, and it worked very nicely. It was very beneficial for me to learn how to do things here, and I felt better about my place in Finland.

I connect with immigrants through my volunteer work with Psychological Practitioners Finland ry. You can read more about them at Mentalhealth. fi. I am the chair of that organization, and we have connected with Moniheli, for example, a grant-awarding association, and we meet other groups within that.

I have connected with the local community. I was the chair of the local kindergarten, and I met other parents in the community that way. The most important part of connecting in Finland is learning how Finnish life is conducted in volunteer work. It was a good experience to help make social connections with migrants or people I met. We do hobbies, and school activities like that.

Advice to Foreigners in Finland

If I were going to give advice, it would be to decide what the most important thing about living in Finland is for you and what is important in your life regarding a job and studies. For different people, different things are important; for some people, living in a place that is safe, easy to live, comfortable, and clean and everything works could be a big priority. People from Australia who are not looking for those things may need to think carefully about what kind of work they can get here, what studies they can do, and how they can build their careers here. It can take 10 to 15 years, and in some cases, it may not work out how they want to.

I have seen foreigners here who hit the ceiling, and it is important to realize what you get from living in Finland instead of somewhere else. It might be, for example, living near your own children, having children go to Finnish schools, or living in Europe. So my advice is to think about your values, and if they are not going to be met, then Finland is not a place for you, which I also think is completely okay.

Enhancing Support for Immigrants in Finland

I think they really need to interview people with training programs or personalized meetings with someone who is an expert on how to set up your life in Finland for every single migrant. When foreigners come here, there is so much new information or things that may seem unusual. Therefore, people need to be interviewed by social workers. Every single person needs it when they arrive in Finland. The introduction and interview must be compulsory for everyone with a resident permit. That would be extremely useful.