COACHING & MENTORING FOR KIDS & FAMILIES
We provide coaching and mentoring specifically for gifted or twice-exceptional kids, parents, and families. Having a coach or mentor who gets your unique mind and your neurodiverse family's unusual needs, challenges and opportunities makes all the difference. Our coaches and mentors are trained in psychology, coaching, and educational therapy and offer individual and family sessions via Skype anywhere in the world. Our mentoring and coaching helps you and your child(ren) understand giftedness and twice- or multi-exceptionality; manage high intensities and emotions; create relational, communication and parenting strategies; and find fitting and inspiring academic arrangements.
COGNITIVE, EMOTIONAL & SOCIAL COACHING FOR KIDS
Our coaches and mentors use an approach that combines social and emotional development with "cognitive coaching". We guide gifted and twice- or multi-exceptional kids to a higher level of social, emotional and cognitive self-awareness and integration. Educationally, we help them rediscover the joy in learning and support them and their families in carving out an appropriate educational path for based on their areas of passion and interest and their gifted- or expceptionality-specific needs. We also help them manage emotions and accommodate for exceptionalities and other challenges related to their complex cognitive profile, and support them in learning self-care and self-advocacy strategies, at home, at school, with peers, and in their own relationship with themselves.
PARENTING, RELATING, COMMUNICATION & FAMILY DYNAMICS
Parenting a gifted or twice-/multi-exceptional child (or children) is a complex and intense journey. We work with one or both parents, separately and/or together with your kids - and most often we mix and match versions of these sessions over the course of the coaching/mentoring, based on your family’s needs at the moment. Coaching and mentoring sessions provide education, strategies, emotional support, and practical guidance and resources to help you in creating a family culture that celebrates and works with giftedness and neurodiversity, so that you and your children can thrive together.
HOW IT WORKS
Most of our work is done on Skype or another virtual connection platform, unless you happen to live in the same area as one of our coaches or mentors. Email us below and we'll connect you with a coach or mentor that best meets your family's needs. Coaching / mentoring can be short-term or long-term, depending on your situation. Our kids' and family coaches' pricing ranges from 120 USD to 150 USD per hour, depending on the coaches' location and years of experience. We provide more logistical details about our coaching and mentoring on our FAQ page. If you are unsure whether you or your kids are gifted, we can help you evaluate that. We view giftedness as more than just IQ - it includes emotional, creative, interpersonal, and other forms of intelligence. While we don't do IQ testing, we do help you evaluate your giftedness from a holistic perspective. Additionally, if you feel that your family needs therapeutic rather than coaching or mentoring support, we can support you in your search for an appropriate gifted-knowledgeable therapist - get that process started via our Gifted Therapy Search page.
EMAIL US TO GET STARTED
Email us at coaching@intergifted.com or via our contact form below to tell us about where you and/or your child(ren) are on your giftedness discovery / integration journey and what kind of coaching or mentoring support you are looking for at this time. We will get back with you with a week to connect you with a coach or mentor. If you have any trouble with the form submission below, or you don't hear back from us within a week of submitting the form, please email us directly at coaching@intergifted.com.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
I’m doing a formal coaching trajectory with Willem Kuipers around work-related issues. It’s fantastic! His (academic) knowledge of giftedness is enormous, which helps a lot in understanding myself in context, plus understanding the context itself better. Because of this specific knowledge Willem is able to exactly explain why things work the way they do, and that’s based on thorough research combined with the right kind of intuition. Besides this, he is a gentle and sensitive person who very carefully phrases his thoughts and suggestions. Willem has also developed practical tools about personal preferences and career parameters that are very helpful. His way of coaching has very little to do with the regular Human Resources approach, and is an adventurous journey into learning about all aspects of giftedness that are useful for you in your given situation. For me, it all really works very well.”
Lucine - The Netherlands
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!
K. - USA
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.
Richard - US
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.
Sedona - Canada
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.
G. - South Africa
Sandra was a wonderful guide throughout my introduction to learning about my giftedness. Sandra and I clicked because she is also gifted and because I am finally experienced what’s known as “mirroring”. Genuine mirroring is crucial to a gifted person’s development and is rare. The mirroring I experienced with Sandra cannot be manufactured despite what many experts teach. Genuine mirroring is natural, reliable and authentic. Sandra taught me everyday guiding principles that were customized to me. Most frequently, I apply that I can slow down and stop any time I choose. I remind myself of this principle not only when I go into perfectionist mode, but also when others expect me to be perfect; to do and be it all. I also use it when I’m going down a new path and something doesn’t feel quite right or isn’t flowing. People have told me to slow down my whole life, but Sandra’s words were the first to hit home for me. She showed me that it’s my choice. Sandra helped me to realize that I have a tendency to “fill in” where I’m needed and wanted, which is a passive way of living life for others and not myself. I promptly resigned as President for an organization that no longer resonated with me. People have asked me if I was living the life I wanted, but Sandra’s words of “filling in” were the first to hit home for me. I believe that I can learn anything and that, in areas where I struggle, it would only require someone explaining it to me in a way that no one else had before. Sandra’s quick and simple explanations just click and have improved my life in a very short, painless, period of time. It has been a wonderful experience working with Sandra.
Erica - US
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.
Bridget - UK
Talking to Silver was crucial for me and still is, every time. I encounter a person who looks further into infinity than I ever knew when we talk. Silver really does that. She stands firm and—as she uses the word “intrepid”—really owns up to the name “Intrepid Integrity”. I am blown away. Views I held dear and that were actually doing me more harm than anything else, I could finally see as such : just thoughts. And that was the case only after ONE session. I thought about what she said ALL the time and still do. When there is a tough situation for me, I wonder, “What would I tell Silver and how would I tell her?” and the words arise naturally, as well as the attitude that I need. I meet a fellow human and a person I look up to whenever we connect and I take this opportunity again—here—to say, “Thank you Silver, for all you did for me, for all you do even when you are not around—in a sense you still are. Meeting you is a great gift to me and the help you provide allows me to fix up family members’ stories and therefore put back together a situation that is a big mess and was so for generations. Big, big issues are taken care of, which would otherwise be impossible to handle on my own. The world needs this contribution. I do. Thank you for being who you are and doing what you do.
P. - France
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!
Alyse - USA
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.
M. - Sweden
“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!”
Kelly - Canada
Ellen - US
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!
V.W. - USA
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.
I.E. - Germany
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.
Dorothy - Canada