About Gifted Therapy
Therapy is sometimes a very important step on gifted people's healing and developmental journey, and having a therapist who understands and supports your giftedness can be essential in your process. While we don't offer gifted therapy, we do provide training for gifted therapists, and we provide some helpful information below as you search for a gifted therapist who matches your needs and goals.
GIFTED THERAPY RESOURCES
outside of our network
Directories, recommendations & advice for your search:
- Bright Insight Support Network's directory of therapists and coaches for gifted and 2e adults (find it at the bottom of the resources page)
- There is a growing body of gifted-specific therapists, and googling "gifted therapist" or "therapist for gifted adults" will now turn up some very helpful options
- Remember to look outside of your geographical area, as many therapists now offer online sessions throughout the world
- You may want to consider different forms of therapy, including talk and somatic therapies, which can help you address issues in a holistic way
- Some of the therapeutic approaches we most commonly recommend for gifted people are: Internal Family Systems, Brainspotting, Compassionate Inquiry, Somatic Experiencing, Embodied Processing and Root Cause Therapy
- Article: Supporting Gifted People: Guidelines for Therapists & Coaches (and Advice for Gifted Clients), by Jennifer Harvey Sallin
- Article: Bringing our Giftedness into Therapy: Struggles and Growth for Gifted Therapists & Gifted Clients, by Jennifer Harvey Sallin
It may also be helpful to review what therapy can address:
- Healing from physical and psychological trauma, as well as complex trauma, gifted-specific trauma and other childhood or adult emotional wounding and fragmentation
- Healing from break-ups, divorce, separation, abusive relationships or other relational rupture, and (re)learning to trust after trust has been broken
- Addressing states of apathy, depression, existential depression, anger, rage, grief, anxiety, toxic shame and toxic perfectionism
- Healing emotional and psychological trauma and wounding through the body (in body-based approaches)
- Treating mental health issues and addictions
- Intensive couples- or family-oriented work to resolve long-standing conflicts
- Learning basic functional strategies for twice- or multi-exceptional challenges
- Learning basic self-reflection and self-regulation skills
If you are in a phase of your development where you are ready to focus on envisioning and building toward future goals, you may find that coaching and integration work are a better fit for you, and that is something we at InterGifted provide.
GIFTED PSYCHOLOGY TRAINING
for therapists
If you are a therapist wanting to specialize in working with gifted clients, we invite you to explore our founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin's Gifted Psychology Trainings for therapists and coaches. These trainings are 3, 6 and 12 months long, offering a special learning space and journey for you as a gifted person, and for your skill development as a therapist or coach. Topics covered include:
- the differences between therapy, coaching and mentoring, and how each modality is suited for gifted clients at different stages in their self-discovery and personal development
- gifted-specific presenting problems in therapy and how to work through them
- mental health, twice-exceptionality and misdiagnosis in the gifted population
- working with gifted-specific trauma
- career, personal and spiritual development for gifted people
- giftedness across the lifespan
- giftedness profiling using a holistic model of intelligence
- special populations
- common therapeutic trajectories for gifted clients
- and more...
