Articles on Giftedness
28 Jul 2025

Gifted Wounds, Gifted Healing

Because giftedness comes with unique developmental needs, sensitivities and social differences, it also carries particular vulnerabilities – especially in environments that misunderstand, minimize or exploit those differences. The resulting trauma can fracture our relationship with our gifted self, leaving us disconnected from our creativity, meaning and sense of existential belonging. In this article, Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores the nature of gifted trauma and what it means to heal it, by learning to create the conditions where it can be safely reclaimed. … Read More
10 Feb 2025

Balancing Depth and Sensitivity: Integrating Giftedness with Additional Neurodivergences

If you’re someone who navigates the unique and often complex landscape of being twice-exceptional (2e) or multiply neurodivergent—living with both giftedness and other neurodivergences—you know it’s an artform to balance the varying demands and needs of our neurodivergences. In this article, Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores how the gifted and other neurodivergent parts of our mind interact, and how we can resolve inner tension and promote inner relational harmony between these parts of ourselves. … Read More
1 Oct 2024

Exploring the Depths of the Gifted Mind

This article, which is part essay and part conversation, explores the evolution of the field of gifted psychology and the role that depth psychology plays in deepening our understanding of holistic gifted development throughout life. InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin, together with the Gifted Mindfulness Collective’s founder Kelly Pryde, looks at how depth psychology opens doorways for us to come into right relationship with our giftedness, making space for and welcoming all of our ways of gifted being, even and especially the ones that don’t fit into the old stereotypes of the “academic genius”.… Read More
29 Mar 2024

Giftedness, Narcissism & Healing

Contrary to the impression gifted literature can often give of a necessarily wise, inherently “good” and morally sensitive profile, gifted people range all the way from “saints to psychopaths”, and can inhabit various expressions of all the spaces in between throughout a lifetime. Understanding narcissism and narcissistic wounding both at the individual and collective level, and how it interacts with but is distinct from giftedness, is essential for understanding gifted development, including gifted mental and relational health, throughout the lifespan. Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores all this and gives resources for further discovery and recovery in the article below.… Read More
23 Jun 2023

Live and Grow Your Gifted Story

When we believe that our gifted biography is not special or flawless enough, when we reject our narrative because we feel we don’t fit, or sublet to someone else’s story to relate and belong, we run the risk of losing connection to ourselves, the ecosystem we’d inherently belong to, and the land we inhabit. For many, the resulting lack of depth and interconnectedness leads into loss of meaning. Fabienne Wydler explores how gifted people can learn to uncover and follow their song of creation by unpacking their narrative.… Read More
22 Nov 2022

Bringing our Giftedness into Therapy: Struggles and Growth for Gifted Therapists & Gifted Clients

Bringing our giftedness to therapy isn’t always easy, both for gifted therapists and gifted clients alike. The shame or fear we feel around our gifted complexity and/or gifted wounds, and the lack of support we’ve had for integrating our giftedness into our lives, show up in ways that dampen our ability to give and receive good gifted-specific therapy. Jennifer Harvey Sallin has written this article to open a collective discussion on the need for us to be able to bring our giftedness into the therapy process, so that our whole gifted self can heal and provide healing to others.… Read More
24 Apr 2022

Productivity, Potential, and Cultural Scripts: Making Room for Our Full Gifted Selves

The focus on productivity is important for certain tasks at certain times, but it’s only one part of a holistic expression of giftedness. If we conflate giftedness with productivity, we lose out on many rich aspects of our gifted selves, such as joy, rest, play, unstructured exploration and purposeless creativity. Trauma, culture and internalized ideologies can prime us toward a dysfunctional relationship with productivity, and thus with our understanding of our true gifted potential. Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores these themes and shares resources for change in this article.… Read More
28 Feb 2022

Sustainable Activism for Gifted People

In our current world where activism for systemic change is calling to more and more of us, how do we gifted people, with our complex minds, sensitive emotions and often very big visions, engage meaningfully without becoming overwhelmed or burned out? Jan Provoost Sallin explores how slowing down offers us a way to engage more meaningfully and sustainably in advocating for and making real change in the world.… Read More
3 Aug 2021

Being Gifted in a Changing World

Much of the gifted adult experience has been terra incognita, and many of us gifted adults have been making decisions and leading our lives using mismatched or partial knowledge of our inner ecosystems as a guide. In this article, Karin Eglinton explores our need to fully map out and integrate our full gifted selves, both for our own thriving and to act with wisdom in our changing world. … Read More
20 Jul 2020

Our Inner Fire of Aliveness – Gifted Expression

Aliveness is a core quality that impacts all dimensions of who we are and how we show up in the world, including how we can access and express our giftedness. In this article, Karin Eglinton explores how we can center and organize ourselves and our giftedness around aliveness as a guiding force; and how we can start to reconnect with it if we have lost connection to that inner fire. … Read More
9 May 2020

Ecological Intelligence & Ecological Giftedness

Giftedness comes in many forms, and high ecological intelligence (ecological giftedness) is one of them. How can we develop our own ecological intelligence, recover full access to our ecological giftedness if we have lost touch with it, and recognize and champion the various forms of non-human intelligence (and giftedness) all around us? Join InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin as she explores these themes in this article.… Read More
17 Sep 2019

12 Meditations for the Earth

In the restoration of the planet, gifted people have a special role to fulfill. Via our project I Heart Earth, we are exploring ways to do help each of us reconnect to Nature, process our grief, find our voices and take collective action. In this article, you’ll find our first 12 meditations which include education for reawakening your connection with the Earth’s ecosystems and inspiration for taking action. … Read More
17 Jun 2019

Ecological Grief, Compassion & Action

Gifted people all over the world are struggling to feel a sense of optimism and hope regarding the state of the world, specifically the climate emergency. Many of us are finding that, before we can commit to action and contribute our intelligence and gifts to the collective task at hand, we must diligently work through our own ecological grief and trauma. In this article, InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin shares her personal journey to healing and provides insight for our own.… Read More
27 May 2019

Questions for a Gifted Multipotentialite

Gifted multipotentialites have so many interests, so many passions and so many questions about how to manage it all. In this article, inspired by an InterGifted Community Q+A, our InterGifted multipotentiality expert Marion Kee shares her wisdom on making choices, setting priorities, dealing with grief, reigniting suppressed multipotentiality, finding community, and getting support as a gifted multipotentialite. … Read More
9 May 2019

Sustainable Intensity and Self-Compassion

Gifted people are often described as “intense”. They imagine rich possibilities, feel deeply, engage passionately, and are driven to explore and understand everything. And while this offers them a unique opportunity to experience life in a profoundly vibrant way, their intensity can sometimes be wholly overwhelming and even painful. In this article, Kelly Pryde explores how gifted people can learn to live out their intensity in sustainable and self-compassionate ways. … Read More
8 Feb 2019

Overcoming Resistance & Self-Sabotage on the Gifted Journey

Some gifted people live out patterns of resistance and self-sabotage in their relationship with others, themselves and the world. Max Sawyers explores the “why” of gifted resistance and self-sabotage as well as a theory of how some of us are unwittingly living in a self-generated reality which keeps us looping around endlessly. He explores strategies for exiting that loop toward wholeness, connection and meaning.… Read More
19 Jan 2019

Conversations on Gifted Trauma Podcast

Welcome to our podcast! “Gifted trauma” is the trauma that gifted people can experience if they feel ridiculed, ignored, rejected, misunderstood, out-of-place, left out or left behind, pressured to conform, or excessively groomed or exploited as a result of their unusual minds. What’s more, gifted people’s mental complexity and often emotional intensity bring so many extra questions to the “unanswerable why” of trauma. Jennifer Harvey Sallin & her guests explore all this and the many paths of healing open to us all.
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15 Nov 2018

Supporting Gifted People: Guidelines for Therapists & Coaches (and Advice for Gifted Clients)

It is essential that therapists, coaches and other helping professionals know what giftedness is, how to recognize it in clients, and how to best support their gifted clients. Anyone helping a gifted person is, by necessity, helping a gifted mind – and gifted minds work in unique ways, have unusual needs, and grow in unconventional directions. Here are some guidelines for helping professionals and gifted clients from Jennifer Harvey Sallin.… Read More
30 Oct 2018

Mindfulness on the Path of Gifted Development

Gifted challenges such as perfectionism, heightened sensitivity, relational struggles, asynchronous abilities, cognitive complexity and emotional intensity can all be addressed effectively via a dedicated practice of robust mindfulness. Kelly Pryde, founder of our Gifted Mindfulness Collective, shares how robust mindfulness offers us valuable opportunities to support ourselves and thrive as gifted adults.… Read More
7 Oct 2018

Gifted Adults & Second Childhoods: Revisiting Essential Stages of Development

Growing up without knowing we’re gifted can be like growing up in a distorted mirror. For many gifted adults, learning about their giftedness brings them back to a “second childhood” in which they can rediscover themselves in more authentic ways. They can develop socially and personally in ways they weren’t able in their “first childhood”. In this article, InterGifted founder Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores how we can best navigate the essential developmental stages of our “second (gifted) childhood”. … Read More
14 Mar 2018

On Philosophical Coaching for Gifted People

Therapy can be very helpful for a gifted person who needs support to get back into a state of equilibrium during a difficult time or heal from past wounding. But there are other forms of support for gifted people who want to fully flourish and reach their potential in meaningful and joyful ways. In this article, Miriam van der Valk shares more about the differences between therapy, coaching and mentoring, and gives us insight into the ways her own particular brand of coaching – philosophical coaching – supports gifted people in their own emergent flourishing.… Read More
14 Feb 2018

Giftedness and the Ecology of Relationships

Gifted people experience unique challenges in the field of relationships. Some of our challenges are internal and arise from the particular make-up of our intensities; others are external and result from a lack of knowledge of our special needs as a minority population. In this article, Karin Eglinton shares her story on how she learned to respond in constructive ways to both the internal and external relational challenges we gifted people face. 

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29 Nov 2017

Giftedness & Authenticity

In a neuromajority culture, being gifted or twice-exceptional provides a hundred opportunities every day for feeling like one’s authentic self isn’t “right”. It takes courage and hard work to find a way to bridge one’s authentic expression and inner sense of integrity with the external world in contexts that don’t match us well. In this article, Silver Huang shares her long journey toward that goal as a gifted and autistic person, and provides thoughts for you on how you can live authentically as a gifted or twice-exceptional person.… Read More
1 Nov 2017

Discovering Our Highest Values

As gifted people, if we are not explicitly aware of our highest values, our thoughts and behaviors can be unpredictable and our internal and external world can at times feel very chaotic. In this article, InterGifted’s founding driector Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores how gifted people can identify their highest values, and use them to channel their gifted complexity in a meaningful and grounded way.… Read More
6 Aug 2017

Reconcile, Strive for Virtue, and Pursue Wisdom! A Philosophical Inquiry into Giftedness

Some people have particularly excitable sensory and emotional systems, imagination, and intellect. They’re unusually intense, complex and driven, and often slightly at odds with themselves and the world around them. When it feels like this world is too much for you, and you’re too much for the world too – what do you do? Philosophical Counselor Miriam van der Valk helps us see how we can reconcile, strive for virtue, and pursue wisdom!
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21 Apr 2017

Letting Go of ‘Gifted Shame’

Many gifted people struggle with shame related to the ways they don’t fit into normal expectations, or the ways their “gifts” are a “bother” to others around them. In this very personal story, InterGifted founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin shares how unidentified “gifted shame” impacted her own life and how she worked her way toward self-acceptance as a gifted adult, and how you can work to overcome your own “gifted shame”. 
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giftedness learning styles
27 Mar 2017

Giftedness and Learning Styles

Many gifted people have a preference for a specific mode of taking in and processing information without being aware of it. Since our environments offer information in a way that may or may fit our preferred learning style, Willem Kuipers invites us to evaluate our learning preferences and to what extent they match our real-life learning environment. … Read More
2 Mar 2017

Gifted Parenting: Three Treasures Along the Way

As an adult, discovering your own giftedness often occurs as a side-effect of discovering your child’s giftedness. Consciously integrating these discoveries into your family life requires identity adjustment and perspective-taking. In this article, gifted mom and InterGifted family coach Kelly Pryde shares her own family’s journey toward this integration. A version of this article originally appeared in the InterGifted Community’s ebook Embracing the Gifted Quest.… Read More
9 Feb 2017

Metamorphosis in Love: Getting Ready to Love & Be Loved

Learning how to love and be loved as a gifted person sometimes takes a conscious effort to overcome negative self-views we have of our own quirky, intense or otherwise uncommon nature. In this very personal story, Sandra de Riel shares how she transformed her painful feelings of ‘gifted unworthiness’ to a certainty that she deserves to be loved – and how you can do the same.… Read More

gifts at work
27 Nov 2016

Job, Career, Vocation: Making Your Gifts Thrive

Do your gifts thrive in your current job? In this article, Trent Rhodes shares his own personal journey to discovering how to make his gifts thrive at work. He also explores the difference between a job, a career, and a vocation, showing us how we can connect to our vocation while creatively mixing elements of job and career with it to form our own unique and rewarding gifted career path.… Read More

asynchronous
2 Nov 2016

‘In-Sync’: The Power of Tribe – A Perspective on Giftedness

Gifted loneliness is a painful reaction to not getting our real human needs for understanding and connection met. It is a feeling of being out-of-sync with the world around us. In this beautiful essay, originally written for InterGifted’s Book Embracing the Gifted Quest, Lea Stublarec explores our need to feel ‘In-Sync’ as gifted people, and the many ways we can rekindle our connection to ourselves, to our fellow gifted human, and to all of humanity.… Read More

gifted mastery
21 Oct 2016

How Gifted People Can Reach Mastery: The Gifted Coaching Process

As a gifted person, what should you do with your life? How should you use your talents? How can you find your inner callings and attain excellence in your domains of interest? Answering these questions requires persistent work over time, and a commitment to pushing yourself past the limits of your natural intelligence. In this article, Jennifer Harvey Sallin shares the process she guides her gifted clients through, from reconnecting with their inner calling(s) to creatively blending their many domains of interest.… Read More
29 Aug 2016

What If I Chose Excellence Over Perfection?

Excellence is a healthy version of perfectionism which allows your gifted idealism to serve as an inspiration for action, rather than to reign as a tyrant for whom nothing is ever good enough! In this personal story, Sandra de Riel shares how she discovered the difference between the two, and how she was able to overcome her gifted perfectionism once and for all!… Read More

Gifted Workers: Hitting the target
22 Aug 2016

Book Review: Gifted Workers: Hitting the Target

Looking at gifted people as “missiles”, Noks’ and Sieuwke’s book, Gifted Workers: Hitting the Target, points to our very powerful energy that, when aimed at the right target, can make a huge positive impact. However, when off-track, that same powerful energy can be a destructive force to both to ourselves and others. This is a book which helps gifted adults in the workplace to understand the potential and the dangers, and guides them forward toward making their most positive impact. Learn more in this book review by Jennifer Harvey Sallin.… Read More
5 Aug 2016

Let There Be Complexity

For gifted people, complexity is normal. We view and understand issues from many perspectives, and gather and interpret information at various levels. But not only is it normal for us, we NEED it. Without complexity in our lives, our work can feels fragmented or superficial, and life can feel meaningless. Learn more about your need for complexity and how to fill it in this article by Willem Kuipers.… Read More
24 Jun 2016

High, Exceptional & Profound Giftedness

Relatively little that has been written about the unique experience and cognition of highly, exceptionally and profoundly gifted people. In this article, InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores how high+ cognition is defined by meta-thinking and mind-matricing, and illustrates the particular internal and social experiences of the rarely found highly, exceptionally and profoundly gifted minds.… Read More

carried emotions
24 Jun 2016

Emotions and Carried Emotions

Many gifted people carry around others’ emotions with them and confuse them with their own. They feel fear, anger, shame and other emotions that they’ve picked up along the way, but are not organic to them. These emotions can turn into beliefs or voices that go contrary to one’s best interests. Learn more about where they come from and how to free yourself from them in this article by InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin.… Read More

personality flow
24 Jun 2016

Personality Preferences: Extroversion, Introversion & Authentic Action

Have you ever wondered why at times your creativity and productivity seem to flow, and other times you can’t think straight and produce mediocre work? Why at times you are happy to be with people, and other times you are fed up with their presence? Each of us has a preferred way of approaching and ordering activities and tasks, and this information is crucial for gifted people wanting channel their intensity, fulfill their potential, and live authentically. Learn about your own personality flow preferences in this article by InterGifted’s founder Jennifer Harvey Sallin.

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binoculars
24 Jun 2016

Binocular Behavior & The Gifted – A Dysfunctional Form of Self-Protection and Control

Gifted people sometimes use “binoculars” to observe people and create theories about what is happening in others’ minds; this can be healthy at times, but also very painful at times. This article by InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin helps gifted individuals to understand the crucial role that differences in cognitive timing play in the tendency to relate with others from a distance, and gives guidance for how to avoid letting “binoculars” keep you from relating directly with the world around you.… Read More
24 Jun 2016

Living with Intensity: Giftedness & Self-Actualization

Often accompanied by an intense inner disharmony, giftedness has more than once been confused with pathology in the course of history. However, rather than mental weakness or illness, Dabrowski looked at giftedness as a great catalyst for self-actualization. Learn about Dabrowski’s Overexcitabilities, Theory of Positive Disintegration and the climb toward gifted self-actualization in this article by InterGifted’s founding director Jennifer Harvey Sallin.… Read More