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My clients are rarely seeking my specialty when they find me.
I can't blame them; "I like long walks on the beach & I'm HSP" is somehow NOT in our mainstream mental health vernacular yet. "Therapy for ghosts" has more google autocompletions than "therapy for HSPs."
I personally have not had ghosts, so it's not my place to say their therapy needs are less valid than those of still-alive people. I DO know that15-20% of still-alive people are HSP, and most don't know what that means because we, collectively, are not talking about it.
Most of my clients find me while they're searching for help with their anxiety, depression, addiction, relationships – without realizing their mental health issues were linked to their biological sensitivity and the strategies they’ve used to suppress and compensate for their sensitivity. They take the HSP self-test and begin to learn about what it means to be HSP -- and suddenly, things are making sense like they hadn't before.
HSPs are Highly Sensitive People. NOT sensitive like "delicate." Sensitive like "perceptive."
HSPs genetically receive more sensory data from their environments. In response, the HSP brain has a lot more material to process. Kind of like draining a super-full bathtub versus draining a bath for a toddler that's a couple inches deep. More data means thoughts and feelings get fired off more frequently and last longer. This trait has been documented in over a hundred species and occurs in 15-20% of humans.
When you're HSP, people's vibes write novels, so HSPs tend to be empathic and considerate people. They are electrified by beauty, art and music. They also become easily drained and overstimulated, are prone to people-pleasing and perfectionism and struggle to set appropriate limits with themselves and others. HSPs are often gaslighted by insensitive people, families and cultures that chronically invalidate their experiences, leaving them alone in their feelings, occupying the cross-streets of never enough and too much.
Sound familiar?
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