Gifted Coaching Testimonials

I was so relieved to discover that something like gifted coaching exists! I’ve had help from many other therapists and coaches over the years, with only partial results. Now for the first time in my life, I feel like someone understands me, and I’ve made more progress in two sessions than I had in all my years of therapy! Thank you so much.

For quite a few years, I felt like a crazy, nervous wreck. There was an almost constant struggle with almost everything in my life. I saw therapists and counsellors and talked about my feelings and my childhood, and I learnt some useful tools. I knew, of course, that I was different. That I was extra everything. That I needed extra care, so to speak. I used to tell myself that I was too sensitive for my brain, or too intelligent for my sensitivity. I was definitely too much for most, including myself a lot of the time. Then I heard about HSP some five years ago and got a lot out of studying that. I started exercising and minding what I ate – that also really improved the general state of things. And then one day, in a conversation about bored children at school, a friend tipped me off about an organisation called “Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted.” That’s when I understood that giftedness is an actual thing; an actual research field. Going through the SENG website, I cried. Then I started reading everything I could get my hands on. And then, googling around about a year later, I found InterGifted and Jennifer Harvey Sallin.

Now, I think it’s wise to live as though you’re destined to do something very good. To strive to leave this world a little better than we found it – you know. I figured the time had come for me to step up and finally do something real. Took some shaky steps. Sure I can manage on my own, I thought. But the thing is, doing everything on your own isn’t the way to go. At some point in the coaching process, it felt a little remarkable to me that I hadn’t already done this work on my own. Studied Jung’s ‘cognitive functions,’ for instance. Or even just found out my personality type according to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I guess that a part of this pretty wonderful and long overdue affair has, well, shown me how lonely I’ve been. I knew I could do a lot of things. And I have, and I do. The difference is, now I’m doing them with such grounded purpose. With more love, perhaps. It’s like I’m able to inhabit … my spot. I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but the way I live my life has changed.

If you’re considering coaching but haven’t decided, my recommendation is to just do it. Yes you’re smart, and over time you could figure it out all on your own, but that’s just the point: your time is worth something – a lot more than what you will pay your coach. One coaching session with Jen was the equivalent of at least 2 months of reading, searching, journaling, pondering, and experimenting on my own. The fact is, a lot of what we need to know and do as gifted people is counterintuitive and differs greatly from what ‘normal’ people do. The typical common sense wisdom doesn’t work for us, not because we’re necessarily better, but because we see, think, and feel about things with much greater complexity than others. Having a coach who understands this and has spent years of study and effort figuring out what works is invaluable on your quest (for whatever it is you’re seeking – for me it was happiness and fulfillment). The great thing is, InterGifted is run by people who actually know what it’s like to have a complex or intense mind, and many of the coaches were drawn to this work precisely because they were once ‘coachees’ and saw first hand what coaching could do for them. They won’t pressure you or try to sell you what you don’t need – they will do your best to help you, whether or not it’s profitable for them. The bottom line is, had InterGifted coaching been available when I was young, it could have saved me from decades of personal struggle. You owe it to yourself to see what it can do for you.

The InterGifted coaches have been an amazing resource of support for me over the last year. When I found InterGifted, I was struggling with past trauma, and career and relational problems. Jen connected me with two of the coaches who specialize in healing from trauma and career and relationships, respectively. They have both been so supportive and helpful in guiding me toward a better understanding of myself and my past, and giving me more awareness of what kind of life I want to create for myself now and for my future. Every time I have needed them, they have be there for me, through in-person sessions and often by email. Through their coaching, I have come to better understand how my giftedness affected my trauma, how to take better care of myself, what my true values are, how to better communicate with my family, and how much there really is to live for. Thank you all so much!

There have been quite a few therapists and coaches in my past, but most could at best offer only very fragmented help. Often the suggestions made by them were not appropriate for me and were less than helpful on my journey to discover who I am and why I struggle with being me so much. Of course all of this became lessons in life in itself, but not the kind of lessons I had anticipated or hoped for. They were rather the negative kind of lessons: what I really did not want to have to deal with anymore…

When I joined IG there was an instant chemistry with Jen that resulted in a couple of coaching sessions. Those were not the obligatory prefab meetings I had become accustomed to from the past. Jen engages in to the point and highly relevant discussions on high priority issues. Those issues were addressed in a way that completely suited me and helped me to continue my journey much richer in thought and armour. The way in which Jen communicates on an energetic level, being compassionate and driven and fully capable of viewing not just a fragment of me but holistically approaching triggering events, changed my disillusionment regarding helpful guidance into deep trust and utmost gratitude. The manner in which she provides suggestions and answers completely matches my lightening speed way of thinking and analyzing. She doesn’t beat around the bush but gives direct and straight in depth qualifications to issues I had previously not been able to wrap my head around. Jen offers knowledge from interesting literature and provides links that enable self-help, which is a way of learning I prefer. She is always available for opening up deeper cognitive and structurized solutions. Issues that seem to pose specific problems to highly gifted persons are no challenge for her and she will honestly and passionately provide insight in all these matters.

Jen was the right light at the right time for me. I had spent a good portion of my early adult life trying to figure myself out and how I fit into the world, and while I had made significant progress, there were missing pieces – the gifted pieces – that were keeping me stuck. Jen helped me fill in those missing pieces and ‘unlock the whole’ so that I could move forward. Without her coaching and guidance, there were aspects of myself I don’t think I would have ever embraced, let alone even recognized. Jen is an exceptional coach and human being, and should you ever have the opportunity to work with her, grab it with arms wide open!

I have had two inspiring coaching sessions with Jen. I chose to be coached by her because of the click and her specific expertise. Being able to talk with someone with the same level and thinking speed as well as with the same humor, is important as a highly gifted individual. During the deep discussion we had about personality types, I felt understood, challenged and supported to take my possibilities to the next level. I got valuable information to help me understand how things work in my head, based on my personality type. Since talking with Jen, I understand better why I fare better in some situations than others, and where my focus should be. I am ready to explore different opportunities for myself work and study wise. Jen also helped me explore where my existential depression stems from and how to prevent or deal with it, when it arises again. Thank you Jen, for your great insights and support!

It has been very valuable to put some focus my intensities and how they can work for me and not against me. It is brilliant to have someone on the other side of the world cheering for me, believing in me and making sure that I progress and don’t get side-tracked. And the best part: I can be myself and not hold back.

I do not know how it all happened, but Intergifted Coaching was pivotal in pointing out the obvious that was concealed within a lifelong swirl of complexities. My Intergifted Coach provided compassionate insight without shaming my brain. Together, we redirected my intensities to support only the most potent Actionables. The result? I took these elevated possibilities and ran! The simplified Actionables expanded in fabulous ways. Intergifted Coaching has triggered a momentum of freedom and creative manifestation in all areas of my life!

Jen has it down to a fine art form. The quality of her mind-to-mind interactions is so brilliantly resonant and fluid that she gets to the ‘magic point’ in a way that is fast, congruent, and rings true. I have found her work effective because she embodies it as a living process.

For the first few years after learning I was gifted, determining my level of giftedness seemed like something unnecessary to pursue. It was enough to know why I was different. But after talking to Jen, I discovered that identifying my level was actually a necessary key for unlocking the ways in which I mask my giftedness, not only from others, but also from myself. Thanks to Jen’s insights, I’m making meaningful progress in understanding my gifted needs and nature. If you’d like to move to the next level of connecting with your gifted self, I recommend Jen as an excellent guide!

I was so grateful to find the InterGifted site, after many years of struggling in isolation as a parent of a gifted teen. I reached out and received the support I needed to help myself as well as my son. The orienting session was useful for me as a starting point. It provided me with the clarity and perspective I needed in my situation and, most importantly, a plan for how to move forward. A plan and support felt like a massive relief like a light was shone in a dark tunnel of uncertainty, confusion and fear.  It was something I was in desperate need of, and Fabienne provided the guidance to get started and continues to be a resource for me today. At a very vulnerable time, I put my trust in the process and appreciated the resources, suggestions and therapist options provided. The parent coaching I am receiving now has been long overdue and it has given me the channel through which I can vent, express my worries, feel understood, and discuss strategies to help me be the best mom I can to my amazing, intense child. Just knowing there are people who understand the gifted mind is a huge comfort and gives me the hope I need that we will all be OK.

People believe living with high intelligence ‘is great’ and ‘makes life easy’. They have no idea what an exceptional mind can be like in everyday interaction. Words cannot express what meeting my coach Jen has meant to me. Finally, my thoughts, feelings and abilities were allowed to exist. A couple of sessions has helped me more than years of traditional coaching and support. This is the first time I have met a person who can understand my mind and my abilities; explain needs and ways to work. It has been a huge help in my professional life. Jen is the first person who acknowledged just how different my mind is. If you are on the higher range of giftedness, I can highly recommend this service. I feel like an extremely rare, colorful bird finally released into its natural habitat.

What can I say about Jennifer’s coaching work? I can’t even begin to find the words.

As a profoundly gifted adult, I have found other consultants, counsellors and psychologists to be a poor fit for my rapidly evolving and fractally intense needs. Therefore, even though I actively sought mentoring for years, I never, ever, felt genuinely helped by any of the professionals I’d spoken to. I was always left sad and disappointed and just made do with what little I got. Most of the time, I would overwhelm them with the ways and means I’d already researched, applied and tackled. Many were the times I would prepare extensively for a session, going in with all my notes, hoping to tell them, “Well, here’s what I’ve done, so I was wondering if you have anything further to suggest?” and to receive a response along the lines of, “Oh okay, well if those haven’t worked as well as you desired, here’s what more you can do.” No. In fact, every time it’s either a blank face, an overwhelmed face, a bored face, or even a threatened face, and then complete change of subject or a reversion to patent basics, again and again. It was mutually frustrating and resource depleting.

With Jennifer, however, I realised that what I needed and craved all these decades was challenge. I needed a coach who could challenge me to push my comfort zones beyond what I was capable of on my own, without a professionally neutral third-party perspective. I needed a coach who was not only as driven as I am myself to constantly evolve, self-actualise and even self-transcend, but who also approaches those goals as a profoundly gifted person would. This made such a difference to my sense of self, identity and worth, when I realised that I wasn’t wrong all these years, I was simply working with the wrong people out of sheer ignorance.

Gifted people need gifted coaches. There is no two ways about it. We need a gifted coach who can not only match our speed, intensity and diversity but who is also trained and personally experienced with all the skills and toolsets required to achieve what we desire.

Jennifer is an extremely wise, compassionate and skillful coach who not only has the professional training and capacity but also a unique kindness and genuine curiosity that allows her to connect with her gifted clients as fellow human beings, and that is a quality is so rare to find in coaches and mentors these days. My sessions with Jennifer always leave me feeling seen and heard, appreciated and supported and most importantly of all, spiritually, psychologically and practically empowered to take the next right small step toward creating the life I desire and deserve as who I am.

I’m twice-exceptional – gifted and autistic. I spent most of my life feeling ashamed of the way my mind worked and trying so hard to make it fit into the mould of what people expected of me. At the age of forty, I found InterGifted and started coaching with Jen. She understood me more in just a couple conversations than anyone had in my whole life, even my closest friends and family. In coaching with Jen, I finally understood that I am a meta-thinker, and that this makes my mental process very different than the norm (even more different than I already thought, considering my autism). I have known about my autism much longer than I have known about my giftedness, so now I have a lot of knowledge to integrate. But I feel very hopeful for the first time in a long time, as now I can evaluate my true potential and build upon it, rather than continuing to try to be something I’m not or fulfill others’ ideas of my potential. I am reaching a level of self-acceptance and hope through coaching that I never thought was possible for me. Thank you Jen!

Thank you so much for what you do. I was so confused about my identity, and learning about giftedness has been incredibly healing. I no longer feel alone and I have hope now, because I’ve figured out what I need help for and I know where it get it. This is such an amazing journey of self-discovery and recovery!

I’ve been blessed and guided to meet my coach, Jen, which has started a new journey for me that I never thought was an option: finding out that all this time, what I thought, felt and experienced was not madness but a gift that wasn’t recognized and nurtured. Looking back, my Soul was like a child in a corner tethered by whirlwinds of rejection, defeat, fear, confusion and an overwhelming mix of emotions, in a room full of kids, and not understanding why I couldn’t I be like them.  It only took one hand of another gifted mentor to help me feel safe enough to start getting in touch and love my Being. What a beautiful thing we get by coming together to love, live, learn and support one another!!!  I can now play with the kids!  Thank you with all my heart!

If, like me, you’re new to the whole giftedness thing and turning over stones in the hope of finding something that you don’t know you don’t know, book a session to get unbiased and your-need focused advice and insights. It’s very interactive and results in as much self-discovery as new insight offered.

Before I met Fabienne, I was not aware of many things. I hardly knew my gifted/very sensitive and neurodiverse side, which I kept ignoring out of habit, ignorance, insecurity. The work with Fabienne addressed exactly this part of my inner being, which remained hidden for a long time and needs support in ‘coming out’ and growing, building up self-esteem. This has strengthened me on many levels, especially because in Fabienne I found someone who could be a mirror to myself – to my needs, perceptions. I felt heard and supported and I knew, I am not alone in my path finding myself.

I experience Fabienne as very dedicated, focused and listening, she understands very well from her own experience how complex and different one’s own perception can be and she has encouraged me to pursue this.

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Bevor ich Fabienne traf, war mir vieles gar nicht bewusst. Meine begabte/sehr sensible und neurodiverse Seite kannte ich bis dato kaum, hatte sie aus Gewohnheit, Unwissenheit, Unsicherheit immer wieder ignoriert. Die Arbeit mit Fabienne hat genau diesen Teil im inneren Sein angesprochen, der lange versteckt blieb und nun Unterstützung dabei braucht, um “herauszukommen” und zu wachsen, ein Selbstwertgefühl aufzubauen. Das hat mich auf vielen Ebenen gestärkt, vor allem weil ich in Fabienne jemanden gefunden habe, der mir selbst – in meinen Bedürfnissen – ein Spiegel sein konnte und damit dem Wunsch, damit nicht allein zu sein, Halt gegeben wurde.

Fabienne erlebe ich als sehr aufmerksam, konzentriert und zuhörend, sie versteht es sehr gut aus eigener Erfahrung wie komplex und anders die eigene Wahrnehmung sein kann und sie hat mich darin bestärkt, diesem nachzugehen.

This is the first time in my life that my authentic self has been seen and understood, and it is having a profound impact on my life. I am learning to stop censoring myself and to allow myself to grieve the years I’ve tried but not succeeded in finding understanding from my social circle. I spent so many self-destructive years trying to fix and change myself so that I could fit in, when now I can see that there was nothing wrong with me; I just needed space to be and explore myself as I am. I’m getting that space in gifted coaching, and discovering how much value I have just as I am. And while sometimes it’s scary and confronting, it is also profoundly liberating and affirming. If you’re thinking about the possibility of coaching with an InterGifted coach, don’t delay. You’ll thank yourself later!

I came to coaching with a big need to find a meaningful career. I was certain that when somebody finally could see what was inside of “me”, they would request immediately that I use my gifts to help others in “important” ways, and would want to help me get on the right track for that. What I learned working with Fabienne is that any belt that feels too tight is not where I belong. And that I have a unique way of being of service that first and foremost supports my joy and my health. I used the material that came up in our sessions to think creatively and to get in touch with what is most meaningful to me, and came out the other side with a very clear idea of what that is. I took a huge step towards undoing the need to prove myself, because after realizing what works for me and brings me joy, I find myself not doing all the rest of things I had put in the way of myself.

When people ask me what it’s like working with Jen, I tell them it’s like having someone understand you without you having to explain anything to them. Jen seems to know and be able to articulate my complex thoughts, motivations and needs in a way no one ever has in my life; and because of this, I understand myself and can, in turn, communicate my inner world much more effectively than I could ever before. Working with Jen has helped me make it through an extreme positive disintegration, develop healthy relational boundaries, and hone in on a career path that, for the first time, makes sense for me and my unusual brain. In the midst of all of that, I was able to sort out and heal from patterns of intergenerational trauma that I hadn’t even known I was being affected by. All in all, Jen is an unusual human and I mean that in the best sense. Thank you Jen.

It is always a joy speaking with Jen. It is a form of syncing, speaking and thinking in tandem, profound and meaningful, in a way that might send us both into a wild laughing fit. At last, here is a conversation where communication feels crisp and clear, unmuddled and deconfused. And at the same time there is a fluidity to the whole. For once, I let my administrator role go, I forget who said what and when, and stop trying to manipulate the conversation. Complex becomes simple, when you speak with Jen.

Jen is truly compassionate, understanding, generous and accommodating – and seems to ‘get’ exactly what you are thinking, feeling and fearing. She’s very accessible and approachable, in spite of being busy and is so authentic that you feel, continually, that she is on your side and identifies with and shares your challenges. I strongly recommend that you contact Jen directly if you feel the need for a consummately professional and highly competent advice and support: she’ll direct you to the best coach to work with, if she isn’t the best option or if she can’t fit you in.

I finally feel like I can go at my speed and I don’t have to slow down or explain everything – my coach just gets me. This is a game-changer for me!

Thank you so much for your help in allowing me to understand my giftedness. I started the year not even knowing I was gifted but thanks to a chance encounter which led me to the InterGifted website I was able to receive some coaching and mentoring from the wonderful Jen who identified me as gifted in our first session. Thank you very much for helping me discover my true self, it has been a wonderful journey which I am looking forward to continuing.

Thank you InterGifted for providing such a unique and well suited coaching setup for your target audience. Being able to mix and match from the group of coaches has in itself been inspiring and has provided me with renewed hope and energy. I have been searching for an appropriate coach for quite some time and had never found someone that I felt would understand all of the aspects that I wanted to discuss. When Jennifer offered the opportunity to meet with more than one coach, the profound relief of finding a solution better suited to my needs washed over me and filled my soul. Such a fantastic program of ‘custom plans’ being created for the coaching process goes a long way towards instilling a sense of being understood and anchors in the feeling of finding a community wherein I can express myself freely. With appreciation and gratitude to Jennifer and all involved with InterGifted.