Gifted Therapy for Children and Adults
Ditch overwhelm and shame. Build connection and joy!
My gifted clients struggle like you do. Despite being intensely curious, creative and intelligent, life is hard. They have really strong emotions that can make daily life and relationships difficult to navigate. They crave depth and complexity, which means a lot of tasks at work or school seem boring and tedious. They have high expectations and a tough inner critic, so making mistakes feels like the end of the world.
Having a different brain means that what makes gifted people feel satisfaction, belonging and joy is sometimes different from what the majority of people experience. Therapy helps you discover what a happy, fulfilled life looks like for you, your child or your family.
Sections below:
Gifted Children
Gifted Adults
Twice-Exceptional
Gifted children
Gifted children have high abilities that also come with high levels of intensity. They develop asynchronously, which means that although they are advanced in some areas, they lag behind in others. Gifted children often struggle in areas of social-emotional development.
Common difficulties that gifted children experience:
Strong feelings can lead to frequent emotional outbursts and meltdowns
Different interests than other children their age can make it hard for them to develop friendships
High standards often lead to perfectionism and difficulty tolerating when things don’t meet their expectations
Sensory sensitivities make certain sounds, tastes or textures really overwhelming
Transitions can be difficult when they are exploring one of their passions
Unique way of thinking can lead to feeling different and isolated from others
Low self-esteem as a result of negative interactions with peers, teachers, etc.
Early awareness of big existential questions that scare them
These struggles can lead to or be symptoms of anxiety, depression, OCD, autism, ADHD, etc. As a parent it can be so painful to watch your child suffer with some of these troubles but be unsure of how to help them. You’ve tried countless parenting tips, read all the articles you can find, but your child doesn’t seem to be responding. You may lay awake at night, worried about your child’s future. You may berate yourself for losing your cool with your child, once again. You may wonder if things will ever get better.
Therapy can be transformative for a gifted child and help them to feel more at peace with themselves and the world. Therapy helps gifted children develop the tools to manage their emotions, express themselves effectively and build their confidence. I use the research-backed methods of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), informed by my knowledge and work with gifted children, to help them become more aware of how their brains work, decrease their negative thoughts and react to difficult situations in a healthier way.
Gifted Adults
When gifted adults come into therapy they are often feeling stuck and overwhelmed by life. People looking at my clients from the outside may see them as accomplished and talented. Yet on the inside, the gifted adults I see are often plagued by self-doubt, frustration and fear.
Gifted adults often deal with a pretty harsh inner critic that tells them they aren’t doing enough, haven’t accomplished enough or are failing at life. They can be prone to worry and negative thinking.
They may also struggle with procrastination, time management and/or focus, which can make work, home life and daily tasks really difficult. It also takes a big toll on their confidence.
What they really want is to feel inspired and passionate about life again. They long for relationships that feel deep and satisfying. They want to be able to do daily tasks without beating up on themselves every second.
Like my clients, you deserve to feel excited about your life again and confident that you can reach the goals you have created for yourself. Therapy helps you to develop tools to manage stress and other strong emotions, create strategies to improve executive functioning and practice self-compassion and acceptance. You become able to handle life’s ups and downs, do things in a way that works for your unique brain and feel fulfilled.
Twice-Exceptional
The term “twice-exceptional” or 2E refers to people who are gifted and also struggle with a disability, like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, mental illness, physical disabilities, etc. They are often immensely talented and focused on their interests, but also have needs in other areas that require attention and support.
Twice-exceptional people face multiple challenges: others often assume that either their gifted abilities will make up for their disabling condition or others will only focus on their difficulties rather than their strengths. 2E kids may be overlooked for accommodations like 504 plans and IEPs because they score well on standardized tests, which cuts them off from vital resources.
Here are some common struggles of Twice-Exceptional people:
Corrected or shamed a lot as children - Neurodiverse children get more negative feedback than neurotypical children
Difficulty getting diagnosed with either their disability or giftedness because one can obscure the other
Perfectionism and anxiety as a result of trying to fit in
Needs are dismissed or unaddressed - For children this may sometimes mean their needs are ignored because the behavior they are using to communicate their struggle is what people focus on, instead of the unmet need
Hard to find people who understand them
Lack of appropriate accommodations at institutions or in society as a whole
Ableism
Therapy can help twice-exceptional children and adults because we focus on building strengths and treating differences with compassion and research-backed strategies. We help you to find and cultivate relationships and environments that are supportive, where you can thrive.
For parents of twice-exceptional children, you may be struggling intensely with how to help your child because they may exhibit very strong emotional reactions and behaviors. Your 2E child may have trouble dealing with social situations, sensory overload, authority, demands or expressing themselves effectively. Therapy can help give them context about how their brain works differently, validate their experiences to build self-esteem, introduce them to tools that other 2E children have found beneficial, and help them advocate for the accommodations they need from institutions.