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’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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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!

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.