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.

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.

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 had a dream when I was ten years old that haunted me ever since – some sort of prophetic dream with a deep and important meaning for my life. But despite years of studying dream analysis and being able to understand every one of my crazy dreams, that childhood dream remained a mystery to me. I often thought about doing hypnosis to decode it, but was too scared to reveal the contents of my gifted mind and the fragile emotions I felt in relationship to this dream. When Georges started studying hypnosis, I knew right away that I could trust him with this delicate information! My session with him was so profound that he seemed to effortlessly help me unlock the meaning of the dream in an instant. It was almost hard to believe, since what I hadn’t understood for over 20 years suddenly became evident in a flash. I had been right all along: my dream was prophetic – a meta-blueprint for some of the major childhood losses I would need to embrace and surrender to as an adult. And Georges’ presence and perceptiveness (during that session, and in all our many interactions before and since) helped me feel safe and understood as I embarked upon that journey of surrender and healing. Thank you Georges.

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.

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.

The work I do with Karin has helped me articulate who I am and has in a way, given me permission to step in to that identity. On top of being incredibly knowledgeable as a gifted coach, she is gracious and kind which creates a space where I feel safe, and seen. I’m incredibly grateful that I get the opportunity to work with Karin and would highly, highly recommend her.

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!

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 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!

“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!”

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.

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.