Gifted Therapy Search

While InterGifted does not offer therapy, we also understand that therapy is sometimes a very important step on gifted people's healing and developmental journey. Given that gifted-knowledgeable therapists can be hard to find, we offer assistance for finding a gifted-specific therapist who will be able to provide attuned therapeutic support for you and your unique neurocognitive profile and needs. Learn more about gifted-specific therapy and our therapy-search service below.

THERAPY OR COACHING?

Many people who come to us are unsure whether they need therapy or coaching. Most simply put, therapy is designed to support you when you are not in an emotionally or psychologically stable place (i.e. struggling with traumatic reactions, excessive negative emotion such as fear, anger, apathy, or shame, which are affecting your daily life and ability to fully engage in relationships). Coaching is for when you are stable and feeling ready to construct, refine and make progress on personal, emotional, relational and professional goals.

Sometimes, people find their personal landscape is a mixture between those states and goals. You can be ready to learn about your giftedness and explore new career options, all the while struggling with mental health issues, trauma reactions, and other heavy negative emotions related to specific life issues. For many, engaging in therapy for the heavier aspects which need therapeutic support while simultaneously exploring gifted coaching for the more stable and goal-oriented aspects of their life is the right solution. For people in this situation, we suggest you schedule an orienting session with us in which we will help sort through the various threads of your healing and development needs in order to construct a solution tailored to your situation and goals (learn more below).

Feel free to learn more on therapy and coaching from this article by our founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin: Supporting Gifted People: Guidelines for Therapists & Coaches (and Advice for Gifted Clients), and at our Gifted Coaching and Gifted Coaching FAQs pages.

WHAT GIFTED-SPECIFIC THERAPY ADDRESSES

Here's a bit more detail on what you can expect to address in therapy (you may find it insightful to compare this list with the list on our coaching page).

Healing from physical and psychological trauma, as well as complex trauma, gifted-specific trauma and other childhood or adult emotional wounding
Healing from break-ups, divorce, separation, abusive relationships or other relational rupture, and (re)learning to trust after trust has been broken
Addressing states of apathy, depression, existential depression, anger, rage, grief, anxiety, toxic shame and toxic perfectionism
Treating mental health issues and addictions
Intensive couples- or family-oriented work to resolve long-standing conflicts
Learning basic functional strategies for twice- or multi-exceptional challenges
Learning basic self-reflection and self-regulation skills

ECO-THERAPY

As part of our efforts to support everyone (gifted and non-gifted alike) in their processing of ecological grief and heavy feelings related to the current climate emergency, we are also available to help you find a therapist who can help you process your grief or trauma about the state of the world. If you've processed your negative feelings and want support for finding your unique contribution and calling in the collective task of healing the earth, we can connect you with a knowledgeable coach. These efforts are part of the work of our partner project: I Heart Earth.

BODY-BASED TRAUMA THERAPY

Sometimes it is important to work through trauma directly via the body, rather than exclusively via the mind. We have a gifted-specific body-based practitioner on our InterGifted team who offers virtual sessions, and you can learn about her here.

GETTING STARTED

Our therapy search service includes a 30-minute call with one of our coaches where we take inventory of your current needs and situation, and then a subsequent search for a fitting therapist for you. The therapy search process costs 150 euros in total; in the case of searches for multiple individuals (such as a parents and children, additional charges will apply). When you're ready, email us at support@intergifted.com or via the form below. Our therapy search coordinator, Karin Eglinton, will schedule a call with you to get the process started.

If you're hesitating between coaching and therapy, feel you may benefit from both, or would like a personalized recommendation of how to combine the various approaches for your particular needs, we suggest you schedule an orienting session with us. Orienting sessions typically last one to 1.5 hours and focus on helping you take inventory of your various needs for healing and development in order to cocreate a generative plan for you, which include personalized therapy, coaching or other resource recommendations. Costs for orienting sessions are 160 euros per hour.

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.

Gary - New Zealand

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!

Darren - 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

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

Jen’s coaching gently shoe-horned me out of Professional Freeze. HEPG mirroring was precisely what was missing to push me off of a suffocating pin-head of misplaced priorities. I was overwhelmed by too many choices and stale allegiance to old beliefs. Her feedback was an invaluable intervention. It interrupted what felt like an endless spiral of entropic, ineffectual efforts to articulate the coherence of my own ideas. She gave me permission to claim the elegance of the perspective on which I hang my professional hat. Her expert guidance and ability to wrap your head around my professional vision gave me hope that my ambitions are not only attainable but vital to others.

Now I have reclaimed my original voice. It’s something to be genuinely proud of and develop. As importantly, I learned it’s possible to trust myself and my instincts to articulate what’s most vital about my work. Staying connected to that vitality, I feel confident, will fuel me through a successful implementation of my vision. I look forward to my future now and anticipate a life based as much on delight as on due-diligence. I have been searching for Jen’s kind of coaching for over ten years. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with her.

Ellen - US

We connected with Lea as we needed advice and support in regards to parenting our gifted daughter. It was great to speak with someone who is familiar with parenting a gifted child. She provided us with valuable literature, information and support. Lea is a wonderful and warm person and she has an amazing energy. I highly recommend a chat with her for all parenting questions (or non-parenting questions).

Lena & Michael - Norway

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.

Claire - UK

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

I have worked with Esther for several sessions over the past few months and have found her to be not only extremely patient but also precise in her attunement and advice. She has unwavering commitment to supporting her clients alignment with and embodiment of their highest life force as autonomous guidance from within. Working with her has been indispensable in supporting ever deeper development and I highly recommend her services to those who seek to take their journey to the next level.

S.H. - Australia

Long distance body work with Esther is a very healing and transformative experience. I really appreciate and value her perceptive and attuned way of working. She has been a wonderful ally and support for addressing trauma on a body-based physical level.

M.G. - Germany

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

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!

Olivia B. - Canada

I learned more in 3 Skype sessions with Jen from halfway across the globe than I did in years of sitting in therapy. You just handed me the information that I needed (no, that I craved) and I felt like a dying tree being revived by a rainstorm. Like manna from heaven. Clarity crystallizing from out of the fog. For that, I will be forever grateful!

Mary Ann - USA

Connecting with Karin was life-changing. It’s been great to hear that I’m not crazy and that most of the things that happen to me are shared by others. Finding my identity is sometimes confusing and pushes me to confront some things I’ve never confronted. It’s great to do this with someone supporting me, at my pace. I love the fact that Karin is just there when you need it, with a tailored coaching method, not pushing me with a pre-established way of working. Every time we finish a session I have a smile and I feel peaceful, back on track. It’s been a great process and I’m excited for what’s coming. If you are looking for a coach, I can’t recommend Karin enough.

Chris - Chile

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.

Lena - Sweden