A safe space, gentle support and practical solutions for the highly sensitive individual,
Are you a Highly Sensitive Person? If so, you are part of a unique group of individuals who experience the world in a profoundly deep and intense way. Livvy understands that being highly sensitive can bring both incredible gifts and unique challenges. She is here to support you on your journey of self-discovery and empowerment.
Curious to learn more about HSPs? Keep reading below.
Research
The Highly Sensitive Brain:
Research has shown that the brains of HSPs work differently compared to others. They tend to process sensory information more deeply, which means they can become easily overwhelmed by external stimuli. This heightened sensitivity can lead to feelings of stress, anxiety, and emotional intensity. But it is possible to help HSPs find relief, understanding and discover what they need to flourish.
Highly sensitive people are often described as experiencing the world more intensely. This heightened sensitivity can be a double-edged sword. While it allows for deeper empathy, creativity, and richer emotional experiences, research suggests it also makes HSPs more vulnerable to mental health challenges. Studies like one published in the journal “Prevalence of Highly Sensitive Personality and Its Relationship With Depression, and Anxiety in the Saudi General Population” (2017) found a significant association between high sensitivity and both depression and anxiety. This vulnerability may stem from the constant processing of internal and external stimuli, leading to emotional overload and difficulty regulating emotions. Additionally, HSPs may be more susceptible to the effects of trauma.
According to Elaine N. Aron, a leading researcher on HSPs, their innate empathy can make them more prone to experiencing secondary traumatic stress, where they take on the emotions of others who have experienced trauma. Understanding this heightened sensitivity is crucial for HSPs and those who care for them. By adopting self-care practices and seeking support from understanding individuals, HSPs can navigate the challenges and harness the strengths of their unique emotional experience.
Discovering Your Superpowers:
While many may feel that highly sensitive is a weakness; it can become your superpower. If you are a HSP, Livvy wants to work with you to help you recognise and embrace your unique strengths, such as heightened empathy, creativity, and intuition. She will also guide you in discovering how you can use these superpowers to navigate your world with greater ease, finding lightness, joy, and peace in your daily lives.
Addressing Common Challenges:
HSP’s often face specific psychological challenges, which can include setting boundaries, dealing with overwhelm, and navigating relationships with family and friends who may not fully understand their sensitivity. Livvy never assumes that all HSPs are the same. Her approach is tailored to your individual needs and experiences.
A Practitioner Who Understands:
Livvy is a HSP herself with a high level of sensitivity. She understands the unique journey you are on because she has walked a similar path and continues too. This personal understanding and empathy allows her to provide you with the support and guidance you need.
Livvy is passionate about helping Highly Sensitive People embrace their sensitivity, discover their superpowers, and find peace and balance in their lives. Your sensitivity is a gift, and she is here to help you unwrap it and live a life that honours your unique qualities.
Navigating Trauma with Gentle Care:
For a highly sensitive individual, the experience of trauma can be especially challenging. Research and clinical experience highlight the importance of adopting a gentle and compassionate approach when helping HSPs heal from trauma. Gentle therapeutic methods prioritise creating a safe and nurturing environment that respects the sensitivity of the individual. This gentle approach can be highly effective in supporting HSPs through their healing journey, allowing them to process and recover from traumatic experiences without overwhelming their delicate nervous systems.
The Risk of Overwhelm from Well-Meaning Professionals:
It’s important to acknowledge that even professionals in the field of psychology and mental health, who have the best intentions, can inadvertently overwhelm the delicate nervous system of an HSP. Standard therapeutic techniques that may work well for the general population can be too intense for HSPs. This can result in increased stress and emotional distress, hindering the therapeutic process. As a result, it is crucial for practitioners to work from an HSP informed understanding and tailor support accordingly.
Effectiveness of Therapies for HSPs:
Numerous therapeutic approaches have been found to be effective for HSPs in addressing trauma and enhancing their overall well-being such as:
- Somatic Therapy: Somatic therapies focus on the mind-body connection, helping HSPs release stored trauma from their bodies through gentle movements and awareness techniques.
- Affirmations: Positive affirmations can be a powerful tool for HSPs to reframe their thoughts and beliefs, promoting self-compassion and healing.
- Movement and Dance: Creative movement and dance therapies allow HSPs to express their emotions and release tension in a non-verbal and gentle way.
- Art Therapy: Art therapy provides a creative outlet for HSPs to explore and process their emotions, often revealing insights and promoting healing.
- Nature Therapy: Spending time in nature offers a soothing and grounding experience for HSPs, helping them reconnect with their inner selves and reduce stress.
- Brain integration: Therapies that focus on integrating the brain, have shown promise in helping HSPs process trauma and reduce emotional distress.
Research continues to explore the effectiveness of these therapies specifically for HSPs, and the results are promising. As the understanding of HSPs’ unique needs deepens, therapeutic approaches that prioritise gentleness, empathy, and tailored support are becoming increasingly recognised as essential for their healing and well-being.
Common challenges HSP’s encounter:
- Overstimulation: HSPs are highly attuned to their surroundings, which allows them to appreciate beauty, subtleties, and nuances that others may miss. However, this heightened sensitivity can lead to overstimulation and feelings of overwhelm in noisy or crowded environments.
- Cannablisitic empathy: Well thats what it can feel like. HSPs possess a deep sense of empathy, enabling them to understand and connect with others on a profound level. Yet, absorbing the emotions of others can sometimes result in emotional exhaustion and a feeling of not knowing who you are.
- Overwhelming emotions: HSPs experience emotions with great intensity, allowing for a rich and meaningful emotional life. On the flip side, this intensity can also make them more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and mood swings.
- Perfectionism: Their meticulous attention to detail often leads to thorough and accurate work in their personal and professional endeavours. However, perfectionism can sometimes lead to self-criticism, procrastination and excessive worry about making mistakes. HSPs tend to hold themselves and others to high standards, promoting excellence in their work and relationships. Yet, setting unrealistic expectations for themselves can result in self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. It can also lead to relationship problems at work and home.
- Rumination: It is natural for HSP to engage in alot of self-reflection, which can lead to personal growth, self-awareness, and a deeper understanding of themselves. However, if this becomes overthinking and rumination it can result in increased stress and anxiety as well as depression, alcohol dependency and food addiction.
- Disconnected, mistrusted &/or miscalibrated intuition: Due to their enhanced ability to form patterns, HSPs possess a strong intuitive sense, which can guide them in making wise decisions and choices. Negative belief patterns from trauma, may have a significant influence on the development of this intuition leading to unbalanced conclusions and decisions. On the other hand, a highly sensitive person may have not had their intuition nurtured which can lead to second-guessing their intuitive feelings can create inner conflict and uncertainty and lack of connection to the ones body and emotions.
- Over-caring: HSPs tend to deeply care for the well-being of others, often making them reliable and compassionate friends, partners, and family members. However, putting others’ needs before their own can sometimes lead to neglecting self-care and emotional exhaustion, not to mention unhealthy relationships.
- Being taken advantage of: HSPs’ thoughtfulness and consideration for others contribute to harmonious relationships and a supportive social circle. Nevertheless, they may struggle with assertiveness and setting boundaries, which can result in feeling taken advantage of.
- Setting clear boundaries: They understand and respect personal boundaries, creating a safe and nurturing environment for themselves and those around them. Nonetheless, difficulty in setting clear boundaries can sometimes lead to feelings of being overwhelmed by the demands of others as well as problems with others.
Recognising both the positive aspects and potential challenges of being highly sensitive is an important step toward self-awareness and emotional well-being for HSPs.
Livvy is ready to help you bloom
gentle tools, HSP informed & tailored
Livvy is ready to help you bloom
gentle tools, HSP informed & tailored