19 Jan 2019

Conversations on Gifted Trauma Podcast

 

Conversations on Gifted Trauma is a podcast that addresses trauma, gifted-specific trauma, and the many paths to healing for gifted adults. "Gifted trauma" is the trauma that gifted people can experience if they feel ridiculed, ignored, rejected, misunderstood, out-of-place, left out or left behind, pressured to conform, or excessively groomed or exploited as a result of their unusual minds. Gifted people's experiences of other non-gifted specific traumas are also unique, as their heightened mental and often emotional intensity and complexity bring so many extra questions to the "unanswerable why" of trauma. Healing the fragmentation, confusion and loss of connection to self and others that result from trauma and gifted-specific trauma is a necessary part of the journey back to wholeness and thriving as a gifted adult.

Listen below or on anchor.fm, and find our updated episode resource lists below.

If you have benefited from our podcast, consider supporting it by making a donation at www.paypal.me/intergifted.

CONVERSATION 1: HEALING GIFTED SHAME

In episode 1, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton explore what gifted trauma is, as well as the shame gifted people often feel for carrying their usually unidentified gifted traumas. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 2: HEALING THROUGH (GIFTED) CONNECTION

In episode 2, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton explore what we need in terms of gifted-specific understanding and mirroring to begin to heal from our gifted-specific traumas. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 3: GIFTED TRAUMA & THE BODY

In episode 3, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton venture into into the often underexplored territory of the relationship between (gifted) trauma and our bodies. It is a complex and sometimes daunting relationship, but also rich and hopeful in terms of the doors for healing that open through body-based approaches. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 4: GIFTED NEEDS & SYMBOLISM

In episode 4, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton explore our knowledge (and lack thereof) of our gifted-specific needs. To do so, we explore how in response to gifted-specific trauma, we often use symbols to represent ourselves to ourselves, and thus we get distanced from a present-moment awareness of our gifted-specific needs. It's a negative feedback-loop, and here we explore how it happens, and how to exit the loop and become aware of and dynamically responsive to your own gifted needs. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 5: GIFTED TRAUMA & THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

In episode 5, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton venture into an exploration of how gifted trauma predisposes us to strong and painful - and sometimes debilitating - reactions to the climate emergency. Karin shares her personal story of how she was affected by this and worked through it, and we explore together what a gifted person can do now to heal from the inside as well as contribute to the healing of the planet. It is a raw and real, and honest and hopeful conversation. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 6: HEALTHY BOUNDARIES, PART 1 -- CULTIVATING ALIVENESS

In episode 6, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton explore an essential topic to gifted relating and gifted trauma: cultivating healthy boundaries. Specifically, we explore the roles of aliveness, coherence, and organization in helping us create sustainable relationships with our gifted and non-gifted peers. In this discussion, we especially focus on our quality of aliveness; what it means and how it can become distorted through trauma, as well as how to (re)learn to cherish and value our aliveness and use it actively as a solid foundation for cultivating healthy boundaries. This is part 1 of 3. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 7: HEALTHY BOUNDARIES, PART 2 -- CULTIVATING COHERENCE

In episode 7, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton continue our exploration on cultivating healthy boundaries by looking deeply at individual, social and collective coherence and its role in helping us to be generative and boundaried adults. This is one of our longer episodes, and it reflects the importance of this topic in our world of quickly compiling and accelerating crises and conflicts. This is part 2 of 3. Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 8: HEALTHY BOUNDARIES, PART 3 -- CULTIVATING INNER ORGANIZATION

In episode 8, Jennifer Harvey Sallin & Karin Eglinton conclude their three-part episode series on healthy boundaries by exploring the cultivation of inner organization. Particularly important in this discussion are educational trauma and various dominant ideologies which, when unnamed and unnoticed, make it difficult for us to show up in the world in an organized, generative and well-boundaried manner. We explore the process of self-reeducation and unlearning that many of us must commit to in order to recover our inner organization, employ healthy boundaries, and inhabit our place and role in the current world.

Links and resources mentioned are:

CONVERSATION 9: GIFTEDNESS & OUR INNER AND OUTER NATURE, with Eric Windhorst

In episode 9, Jennifer Harvey Sallin and ecotherapist & coach Eric Windhorst explore our gifted connection to our inner & outer nature, as well as to fundamental consciousness. When fragmentation caused by trauma keeps parts of us disconnected from what is true within us and around us, we can provide conditions to welcome the fragmented parts back home. Time in outer nature, compassionate attention to our inner nature, connection to fundamental consciousness, and importantly, support from loving people in our lives are the ingredients for healing and growth. Eric shares moving stories of clients' healing journeys, as well as deep insights for listeners on their own healing path.

You can learn more about Eric's work at www.ericwindhorst.ca.

CONVERSATION 10: GIFTEDNESS, LONELINESS & THE ART OF GIFTED CONNECTION, with Lotte van Lith

In episode 10, Jennifer Harvey Sallin talks with Dutch giftedness specialist, coach, lecturer, trainer and author Lotte van Lith. Jennifer & Lotte explore the types of loneliness a gifted person can experience, including intellectual, emotional, family, social, physical, existential, creative, physical and more. Giftedness is about exchange, and when we cannot share our giftedness, it can feel as though it isn’t real or doesn’t exist, and that can lead to feelings of deep isolation from humanity and from ourselves. Given our modern cultures have pushed us toward emotional disconnection and relational separation through restricted narratives about what life is, who we are, and what giftedness is, it is our work as gifted individuals to open up our minds and hearts to a broader understanding of ourselves, life, and our relationship to the various forms of intelligence that exist throughout the earth and beyond. The Art of Gifted Connection is, in other words, deep work that we do to become aware of, in humble awe of, and in grateful and generous communion with the complexity in and all around us - biologically, emotionally, philosophically, cosmologically.

Below you'll find the resources mentioned in our episode:

Lotte’s websites:

We recommend the work & writings of:

  • Peter Wohlleben on trees, especially his book The Hidden Life of Trees
  • Carlo Rovelli on quantum loop gravity (nature of reality), especially his book Reality is Not What it Seems
  • Dan Siegel on the mind, especially his book Mind: A The Journey to the Heart of Being Human
  • Terry Real on relationships & intergenerational trauma
  • Gabor Maté on physical, emotional & relational health & collective trauma
  • Jonice Webb on Childhood Emotional Neglect, especially her book Running on Empty
  • Joanna Macy on the interconnected web of life
  • Tich Naht Hahn on the interdependent web of life
  • David Montgomery & Anne Biklé, especially the book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
  • Kiss The Ground, including their documentary of the same name
  • Jeremy Lent, especially his books The Web of Meaning & The Patterning Instinct
  • Jason Hickel, especially his books Less is More and The Divide
  • Oded Galor, especially his book The Journey of Humanity

CONVERSATION 11: THE EFFECTS OF INTERGENERATIONAL & COLLECTIVE TRAUMA ON GIFTEDNESS, with Marc Smolowitz

In episode 11, Jennifer Harvey Sallin talks with The G Word Film director Marc Smolowitz on the topic of intergenerational and collective traumas, how they affect giftedness expression, and how we can find empowerment and healing. Marc was born into a family of holocaust survivors, came out as gay in his teens, lost countless friends during the height of the AIDS epidemic, and even nearly died of AIDS himself when he was in his 30's. These family-line, societal and personal traumas intersected with and affected Marc’s experience and expression of giftedness all along his life path, sometimes in very difficult ways and sometimes in very empowering ways. He shares his story with us, and how he has taken his various identities (some of which were born in trauma) and woven them together into resilient and rooted authenticity. He shares the role that community has played in his life, and how each of us has the opportunity to use the lives we’ve been born into and the adversity we face to ultimately strengthen our self-understanding, pride in our identities, and our meaningful connection to life and others.

Below you'll find the resources mentioned in our episode:

Marc's websites:

The work & writings of:

Other resources

 

CONVERSATION 12: GIFTEDNESS, POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION & MENTAL HEALTH, with Christiane Wells

In episode 12, Jennifer Harvey Sallin talks with psychologist and founding president of The Dabrowski Center, Christiane Wells, on the topic of giftedness, positive disintegration and mental health. Chris became an expert on Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration after learning in her 30's how much the theory positively reframed her experiences as a child and young adult struggling with what she thought -- and was told by mainstream psychiatry -- were various mental illnesses. Through the frame of overexcitabilties and advanced personality development, Chris realized that the traits she had considered proof of her "brokenness" were actually full of developmental potential and gave her a unique and meaningful perspective on what life is and what makes it worth living. In addition to hearing Chris's story, Jennifer and Chris discuss the limits of mainstream views on mental health, the harm of normative stereotypes on gifted people, the differences between the intensity of overexcitabilities and the complexity of giftedness, how not all gifted people have overexcitabilities and not all overexcitable people are gifted, how gifted trauma and trauma from being overexcitable and misunderstood are different from each other, and advice and resources for listeners.

Below you'll find the resources mentioned in our episode:

 

Thank you for listening. We will add additional episodes here as they become available.

 

3 Responses

  1. Andrea Pellegrino
    | Reply

    Let’s see, where to start. I have had a very complicated question I’ve been pondering for years, and have asked several specialist Including geneticist and all but one blank stared me. The one who did not simply admitted she did not have an answer.

    Through dealing with my own mystery of chronic health issues, and subsequently researching physiology & genetics, I learned that by enlarge metabolic processes regulate auditory processing & catecholamines regulate functions such as fluid reasoning and visual-spatial … from a battery of testing as a child I knew a tested low in auditory processing but very high both visual-spatial and fluid reasoning. I also knew from at home genetics test results cross compared to a whole slew of genetic databases that my COMT gene in theory produced a higher rate of catecholamines. …. so I started thinking about the genetic components of what actually made brains work “differently” or “quicker” and it also got me thinking about the whole 2e thinking and masking. and how strengths can hid weakness and vise versa and how some can both mask each other.

    i have been tested for a collection of metabolic disorders because many of my systems appear to be related to fatty acid oxidation issues or glycogen storage … yet all the test have not show the algorithm results the doctors expect to see so things are dismissed.

    I have also been aware of how I can hyper focus and almost get into a hyper engaged, hyper focused state of concentration where everything gets tuned out, and i am so focused and it’s so fun … but it drains me too.

    It is not lost on me that both of these aspects deal with the way the body uses energy sources … particularly when it comes to Dabrowski’s theory of overexcitabilities.

    The major question I have pondered and proposed to doctors is like how 2e traits can mask each other in terms of identify intellectual ability, can the same genetic components that control those aspects of a person mask what would be expected results in terms of physiological manifestation of diseases in the body as well.

    Still pondering. Still waiting for an answer. But I LOVE that someone else is thinking about this stuff and talking about it! I thought o was alone!

  2. Belonging to the World: Jen's Art | Mermaid Forest
    | Reply

    […] Conversations on Gifted Trauma, a podcast where we discuss the very real phenomenon of “gifted trauma” from our own experiences, that of coaching clients and gifted peers; […]

  3. Integrating Our Intuitive Selves as Gifted Adults | Mermaid Forest
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    […] clients all over the world. You may also want to listen to my podcast with Jennifer Harvey Sallin, Conversations On Gifted Trauma, particularly our episode on the body. Externalize through your creativity: There are many ways to […]

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