Empowering Parents with Sensitive Children

This is Day 15 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Megghan Thompson is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor and a Parent Coach/Mental Health Consultant. She has been working with Highly Sensitive Children, teens and their families for 10 years, and owns a group private practice in Maryland that specializes in working with HSCs, HS teens and young adult HSPs who engage in life-threatening behaviors like daily meltdowns, aggression, suicidal actions, promiscuity and self harm.

Megghan’s mission is to defeat the statistic that HSPs make up 50% of the population that seeks therapy but only make up 20% of the population. She’s doing this by building an army of parents equipped with the support and accountability to rapidly transform their relationships with their children.

Megghan is not highly sensitive; she has a highly sensitive sister which had a major impact on her early years. In her insightful article, she describes her experience and the issues that her family had having a sensitive person in their midst, especially since no one know what sensitivity was or what her sensitive sister needed. Furthermore her parents had a traditional parenting approach what created additional struggle.

Because she is not sensitive but also shared the same early environment as her sister, Megghan has the ability to see multiple perspectives which is very useful for her work and also for us if we seek greater insight into the challenges of living and working with non-sensitive people and how they may feel challenged by us. It is wonderful to have one person able to articulate those different perspectives as well as Megghan does.

 

Empowering Parents With Sensitive Children

Spirituality and Empowerment: A Love Letter From Jacquelyn Strickland

This is Day 14 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Jacquelyn has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 1993 and is now an international consultant on the trait of SPS, an educator, mentor and workshop/retreat leader based in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She has worked exclusively with HSPs since 1999. Her background in Social Work, Women’s Studies, cultural diversity, and a graduate degree in Counseling have empowered and informed her work since first finding out about the HSP trait in May of 1996, even before Elaine Aron’s first book was published.

Her therapeutic private practice included therapeutic orientations, with coaching principles, and her client’s spiritual foundation. Although no longer taking personal therapy clients, she continues to share her work with HSPs around the world via national and international retreats, workshops and online classes. She co-founded the HSP Gathering Retreats™ in 2000 with Dr. Elaine Aron, and there have been 36 national and international HSP Gathering Retreats since that time. The 37th HSP Gathering Retreat is planned for August 2020 in Colorado where Jacquelyn lives.

She has been trained in hypnotherapy, EMDR, Level II, and has been certified to utilize the Myers Briggs Personality Assessment since 1991. She is also well versed in the use of the Enneagram and uses these modalities in her work. Jacquelyn has been married to a non-HSP introvert since 1978 and is the mother of two grown sons, (one an HSP, one simply very kind. She is the grandmother of three delightful grandchildren, one of whom is almost certainly a sensitive extrovert like her grandmother.

Jacquelyn has created wonderful resources to help sensitive people have a greater understanding of how they may contribute to the world through her work. In her article she explores how her work with sensitivity has connected with her spiritual journey. Hopefully, her article will enhance your understanding about the connection between your sensitivity and your spirituality.

 

Spirituality and Empowerment: A Love Letter From Jacquelyn Strickland

Living By My Own Rules: A Guide For Sensitive People

This is Day 13 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! April Snow, LMFT is a licensed psychotherapist in downtown San Francisco who specializes in working with Highly Sensitive Introverts.

April strongly believes that being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) doesn’t have to stop you from living a fully engaged life and is on a mission to help HSPs create a life on their own terms so they can manage the overwhelm and start to thrive.

Sensitive people often discern that they need something different from what others need but often have difficulty making it happen for themselves for a variety of reasons. April explores the issue of living by your own rules in her article based on her own experience. She discusses some of the issues she faced and the choices she made. I particularly love her discussion about the importance and relevance of self-compassion for sensitive people who want to take charge of their own lives in a way that works for them.

Living By My Own Rules: A Guide For Sensitive People

From Sensitive Chameleon To Sensitive Badass

This is Day 12 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Amber Rochelle is an Intuitive Life Coach who works with Highly Sensitive Empaths to help them thrive in an often insensitive world. Known as “The Sensitive Badass®”, Amber’s mission is to change the narrative in our culture around the word “sensitive” and to lead sensitive souls to a place of empowerment.

She believes that sensitivity is a superpower if you choose to treat it as one and that this world desperately needs the healing powers that sensitives have to offer.

Amber addresses an important issue in her article that many if not most of have dealt with: trying to fit in. Because so many of us receive invalidation about our sensitive nature when we are young, we look for ways to be a part of our social and work groups by fitting and and often suppressing our sensitive characteristics.

Amber describes her experience dealing with this issue, the emotional side of her struggle and how she resolved the problem in a way that has her feeling good about who she is. It is always good to read about the real struggles of other sensitive people and Amber can help you navigate your way through the struggle of being different and being with others.

 

From Sensitive Chameleon To Sensitive Badass

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Setting Boundaries for Responsive Sensitive People

This is Day 11 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Today’s article is by Ritu Kaushal, author of the memoir The Empath’s Journey, who writes about boundaries for sensitive people.

Ritu writes about highly sensitive creatives on her blog, Walking Through Transitions. Her work has been featured on Sensitive Evolution, Tiny Buddha, and Elephant Journal. Ritu was recently awarded the silver medal at the prestigious REX awards, instituted by the United Nations & iCONGO in India, and given to people creating social impact through their work.

One of the important interests (and needs) of sensitive people is to develop the skill of setting boundaries. It might seem like no big deal but actually it is. The empathetic, energetically oriented nature of sensitive people does not make it easy to discern where to place boundaries especially with other people. It may actually be easier to set boundaries for ourselves (I will only eat one slice of cake) than with others which is why setting boundaries is a trial and error process. Since sensitive people are all different, there is no one size fits all for setting boundaries.

Ritu has provided us with an article that will help. She explores the issue of boundaries by taking you on a journey through her own efforts and experiences about setting boundaries and what she learned as a result.

 

Setting Boundaries For Responsive Sensitive People

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Were You Burdened With Too Much Too Soon?

This is Day 10 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Today’s article is by Imi Lo, an award-winning psychotherapist, a published author, teacher and podcast host, who discusses the common problem of parentification for sensitive people. Her book, Emotional Sensitivity and Intensity (Hodder and Stoughton, 2018), is available worldwide and in multiple languages. Imi is a qualified Clinical Psychotherapist, Art Therapist, Social Worker, Certified Schema Therapist (ISST), Mentalisation-based Therapy Practitioner, EMDR Therapist, and Mindfulness Teacher.

 

She works holistically, synthesising East and Western philosophies and spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Japanese Psychology, the Enneagram and Existential philosophy. She is a Clinical Supervisor and Trainer and delivers workshops and lectures to psychotherapists and trainees.

 

Young sensitive individuals can be susceptible to having been placed in a role where others lean on them inappropriately. This often happens because of the wonderful empathetic and emotional awareness that sensitive children naturally have.

 

Imi has provided us with wonderful insights into the important role parentification, especially emotional parentification, plays in our development and how it may have affected your choices and survival strategies as a child. She describes the costs and coping mechanisms many parentified children use and also offers a pathway for healing the harm caused by being placed in such a role. Imi’s article is compassionate and important for all sensitive people who have had too much and inappropriate responsibility at a young age.

 

https://sensitiveevolution.com/were-you-burdened-with-too-much-too-soon/

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How Doing Your Inner Work Saves You

This is Day 9 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Today’s article is by Maria Hill, founder of Sensitive Evolution, who shares how she used her sensitivity to assist with her inner work in dealing with the consequences of a toxic family environment.

She is the author of The Emerging Sensitive: A Guide For Finding Your Place In The World and the immersive Emerging Sensitive Program which uses cultural and personal development frameworks to help sensitive people master their sensitivity and turn it into the asset it can be. She also hosts the Emerging Sensitive Movie Club focused on movies and discussions about living in the world as a sensitive person and navigating the challenging cultural shifts of our times. Maria is a longtime meditator, reiki master, student of alternative health and Ayurveda. Maria is also an abstract painter whose portfolio can be found at Infinite Shape and also very interested in animal and human rights and the environment.

Many of us did not know about our sensitivity when we were young. Maria knew at a very young age that she was different. She also was born into a highly toxic environment which we know can bring adverse consequences for sensitive people. In this article she describes the process she used of letting her sensitivity inform her and help her develop some important skills. In essence her sensitivity helped her to save herself and she was able to turn her sensitivity into a valuable resource.

 

How Doing Your Inner Work Saves You

 

How To Accept Your Sensitivity As A Gift

This is Day 8 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Today’s article is by Jason Freeman, who is a professional speaker, author, and bravery coach traveling the country sharing his inspirational and transformative journey and he does it with a pronounced speech impediment.

Jason Freeman is a professional speaker, author, and bravery coach who travels the country sharing his inspirational and transformative journey with captivated audiences . . . and he does it with a pronounced speech impediment.

From the dream affirming standing ovation following his TEDx talk in Sugarland, TX to his earliest moments in front of an attentive crowd, Jason has learned to trust his seemingly contradictory calling to speak in front of live audiences. He has shared the stage with well-known speakers in the transformational, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and business worlds and has charmed audiences at The California Teacher’s Summit, Kyle Cease’s Evolving Out Loud, The Habitude Warrior Conference, The People First Conference in San Diego, and San Diego State University, amongst others.

Jason has a unique and wonderful role as a bravery coach. I personally had never heard of a bravery coach but think it beautifully describes Jason. He is a master at taking challenges and turning them into a gift. His openness to challenge has become a skill and source of enrichment for himself and others. He has had numerous challenges and in this article he shares how he learned to work with his sensitivity. Jason is an inspiring person who is a model of how to transform life’s hurdles into assets. In this article he talks about how he was able to accept his sensitivity as a gift.

 

How To Accept Your Sensitivity As A Gift

The Hypocrisy Of Sensitive People

This is Day 7 of the 2020 Empowerment Guide For Sensitive People! Today’s article is by Jeannette Folan who is an Integrative Health Coach for Sensitives and creator of the first-ever accredited HSP Certification Training Program for mental health professionals through Nickerson Institute.

She is the author of the novel “Diary of a Teenage Empath – The Awakening”, as well as other digital tools and activity books for children and teens. In 2019, she co-launched the first-ever accredited HSP Certification Training Program for mental health professionals with her mentor, Dr. Wendy Nickerson.

As an Integrative Health Coach, Jeannette has a lot of experience helping sensitive people to thrive. We all know that sensitive people can be challenged by the negative energy of others and it can result in a sensitive person taking the position of victim. It may be fair to say that we all do that to some extent until we begin to work on our role in any depleting dynamics.

In this article, Jeannette describes an important dynamic that can keep us depleted and stuck and how she herself worked on changing this negative dynamic in some of her relationships. This is an honest article that offers a pathway out of draining energetic relationships and is a message as well as a reminder we all need to hear some of the time.

Please click link to view article: https://sensitiveevolution.com/the-hypocrisy-of-sensitive-people/