I am greatly enjoying the correspondence and interaction with other members of this unique group, a sense of real belonging. I’m feeling like part of a vibrant family of like minds and hearts.

I am so glad InterGifted came into my life. I was very alone and had almost given up believing I would meet people like me. It just felt like there weren’t any. But then I met Jen and she changed my life! She’s made me feel less alone and that people could like me and my uniqueness. She’s become my mentor and my friend and has even helped me know what kind of gifted person I am, exceptionally! As well, I’ve been so blessed to meet and become friends with so many extraordinary people, people like me! It’s just great enjoying being with peers and people who make me feel like I belong, because I do. Thank you IG for what you’ve brought into my life. It means everything.

The InterGifted community has been a haven of support for me, and a continual source of inspiration. Never before in my life was I able to find peers who understood me or encouraged me to keep growing beyond traditional societal expectations. Thank you for this wonderful community!

Over the last 2 years, I have been researching the giftedness literature and contacting gifted experts trying to make sense of what is going on and how we can best support our son. During all this research, I had an a-ha moment and thought, ‘Wait a second, I think I might be gifted, too. This sounds a lot like me’. It all explained so much…and then I discovered InterGifted … and Jennifer Harvey Sallin … and all of you. It feels like discovering a long, lost family you didn’t know you had. People who nod when you explain things rather than look at you like you have 2 heads. People who have been there, done that. People who cheer you on and support you, rather than shake their heads, thinking, ‘Yeah, okay…you think you’re special. Right.’ All that to say, I am so grateful for this community and to be here learning from all of you. I hope that I can offer support and encouragement in return, as well.

I’m so proud of this community I’ve formed. It is full of kind, caring, passionate, unique and fascinating people from all over the world. There is never a lack of inspiration, support, and creativity in this group. I had never been interested in belonging to groups before I formed InterGifted. Now even I love to check Facebook and participate in discussions – something I thought I’d never do! It’s because of the quality of the members and the depth of their minds and hearts. No less important is that InterGifted’s community for me has been a portal to deeply meaningful friendships and collaborations, something I too thought might have not been meant for me.

I’m in the field of gifted education, and I’ve found the InterGifted community to be a wonderful resource for me in better understanding how giftedness affects adults, and in helping my students have better hopes for the future – not to mention the positive impact it’s had on my own life! Thank you InterGifted, for being there and for all you do to support the global gifted community.

This group has changed my life!

I’ve been involved in gifted education for over 20 years. As a personal passion and to facilitate my work with gifted students, I’ve done extensive personal reading and studying about the social-emotional aspect of gifted. Still, finding IG and interacting with the leaders and members has been an unexpected kind of homecoming. To be able to talk about my own giftedness openly and without apology has brought about a whole new level of awareness. Because I can mention something I’m observing or experiencing or puzzling over to the group and be pretty much guaranteed that someone will relate to or support me, I find myself actually feeling and experiencing things more deeply. I think this is the result of not having to distill things down to language or experience that everyone will understand with the typical alternative of simply keeping it to myself. On a daily basis I am probed by members to ponder a question or idea that is new or from a perspective not yet considered. I feel like, in this secret world, I am invited to grow more fully into all that I am meant to be.

I feel such profound gratitude for having become part of this group that is exactly like another member worded: like an overdue family reunion. I broke contact with the larger part of my family of origin, and have all life felt so in need of kindness and support and the gentle softness in which I could spread my wings, not just be a one-way adviser, one-way conveyer of love and knowledge and for some the sacrificial lamb. Having deeply meaningful conversations here or by other means with members of IG fills my heart with such joy. I can finally let go of all the shame over not finding what I needed, not even daring to admit how much I need and how little I found outside myself. It really hit me when reading Jennifer’s article on high+ giftedness: the always sooner or (very rarely) later being confronted with the limited mutual interest, understanding, intensity span or any other mutual field of anything meaningful I’d be looking for in others. Jennifer describes it so accurately as “just getting started” and the other just wanting to get out of the intense contact. There wasn’t very much reason for celebration of life before, even if I kept lighting my candle for me vigourously and in spite of what I saw in the world outside me. I’d like to give you all in IG a thank you hug for being who you are and sharing that with me, and making me be more and more OK with who I am.

I am so happy to have found IG.  It’s unlocked a lot of things for me; most of what I need to deal with, but also a renewed passion to explore topics I’ve touched on such as taking a different view on personality styles that is seen from a gifted perspective. You provide such a great platform which incorporates all of its members. I’ve been like the Lochness monster submerged for many years and suddenly resurfaced; realizing just what opportunities and info gathering I missed. Thanks for this great initiative, and being supportive and a mine of information. IG helps to remind those struggling with just how special they are to know they’re extra special. That’s what it did for me.

Thank you for creating such a great website full of helpful resources for gifted adults, and especially for hosting communities for like-minded people to interact. A gifted mind can be both a great blessing and an isolating curse, and it’s a comfort to connect with others who understand.

I found InterGifted on the day I discovered that I might be gifted in some way. I threw caution to the winds and signed up for the InterGifted Newsletter and  joined the InterGifted Facebook Group immediately, in spite of my fear of not being truly gifted and it being obvious to people who were that I wasn’t. The InterGifted community is incredibly welcoming, non-judgmental and supportive. I felt right at home as a “different” thinker – and felt validated at every turn. In spite of my fears, the subject of whether I’m really gifted – or gifted enough to belong to the community – has never even come up. It is a non-issue. Everyone is totally accepting of everyone else’s views, perspectives and experiences: if you identify with thinking differently or being different and feeling inadequate or being criticised because of it, you belong. It feels like coming home – to a home you never really believed existed. The InterGifted coaches lead the way – with Jen riding point, setting the tone and disarming fear by being truly open, vulnerable, authentic and empathic. I encourage you to take the plunge: it will change your life!

IG, for me, has been an incredible source of personal development and fulfillment. Until I started working with Jen and InterGifted, I struggled greatly trying to fit in with others and to ‘fix’ myself – IG has helped me to realize that I don’t need fixing! I just need to understand myself and how to use my abilities effectively. It has been a huge relief, and the benefits are only beginning.

If I could sum up my experience in Intergifted in one word, it would be: validation. Validation of all the struggles I’ve had over the years, of how my gifted mind works and why it didn’t work well in the world I grew up in. That’s allowed me to discover how to create a world in which it does work well! It’s changed everything for me.

I’m 31 and have felt more real connection and community within InterGifted in the last six months than I have in all the years prior. I begin to “feel” human, rather than my previous sense of self – an object that existed for other people’s purposes. I find myself bursting with unreserved love and gratitude as a result of this connection. I am far more alive than I have ever been.