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.

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.

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.

Just before joining IG I had the privilege of sharing some thoughts with Willem Kuipers, who is also a coach within the IG coaching network. He was the first person to respond to me in a way that was open, respectful and containing all the elements I needed to progress. His view of Xi connected deeply with me and his insights have been very meaningful and extremely helpful.

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 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.

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.

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!

Karin works with me in the form of an informal conversation in a safe atmosphere. She picks me up from where I’m in my actual developmental state. I feel encouraged to try new steps, gain other point of views – expansion of consciousness. I learned to realize and acknowledge that I’m really gifted. She helps me to develop my authentic self. I learn about myself, how I’m functioning, about healthy boundaries that help me, as an empathic, overexcitable person to be in the outer world, without self-betrayal. I feel answered, legitimized and alive. Thank you Karin for your loving support.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.