Meaning-Making
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
The cognitive and narrative process by which individuals construct a coherent understanding of their experiences (including loss, transition, and disruption) integrating them into a broader sense of identity and purpose. In the context of international living, meaning-making is a primary psychological mechanism through which repeated relocations can be transformed from sources of loss into sources of growth and identity strength.
Comparable terms
Narrative coherence (psychology — the dimension of meaning-making concerned with constructing a coherent life story) · Sense-making (organizational psychology, coaching — broader; applies to any complex or ambiguous situation) · Existential meaning (clinical — the deeper, values-based dimension of meaning beyond narrative) · Post-traumatic growth (see separate entry — the outcome that sustained meaning-making can produce)
Why this matters
Without meaning-making, repeated moves and losses can feel random and pointless. With it, mobility can become a source of wisdom, compassion, and direction. It is a central pathway from “this happened to me” toward “this is part of my story.”
Cross-references
Post-Traumatic Growth (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Ambiguous Loss (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Expandable Worldview (Identity & Belonging); Resilience (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Flourishing (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Sense of Agency (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Identity Confusion (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Unresolved Grief (Wellbeing & Mental Health). Resilience and meaning-making are mutually reinforcing — meaning-making builds the coherent narrative that sustains resilience, while resilience provides the psychological stability that meaning-making requires. Flourishing and sense of agency are the positive outcomes most closely associated with sustained meaning-making practice; identity confusion and unresolved grief are the two clinical presentations in internationally mobile populations most directly addressed by meaning-making as a therapeutic approach.
Sources
Park, C.L. (2005). Religion as a meaning-making framework in coping with life stress. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 707–729. The foundational paper establishing the meaning-making model of coping, which distinguishes global meaning (worldview and sense of purpose) from situational meaning (the interpretation of specific events).
Boss, P. (2006). Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss. W.W. Norton. Positions meaning-making as the central therapeutic task when loss cannot be resolved, directly applicable to internationally mobile individuals navigating repeated ambiguous losses.
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