Gifted Unleashed - SoundSage

View Details

What if the traditional education system isn't just failing students with ADHD, but also those who are gifted? This week on Gifted Unleashed, we welcome Alícia Couto from Brazil, a twice-exceptional adult who navigates the complex world of ADHD and giftedness. Alícia opens up about her transformative journey, from her sister's initial research into ADHD to her own discovery and acceptance of her neurodivergence. She shares her struggles in college, often misattributed to personal failings, and sheds light on the pervasive underdiagnosis of ADHD in women, particularly those who are gifted.

Join us as we unpack the emotional and educational challenges that come with being gifted and having ADHD. Through my personal encounters with mental health professionals—ranging from validating to deeply frustrating—we underscore the critical need for the right support systems. Alícia offers a candid perspective on how traditional education often overlooks the emotional well-being of gifted students, focusing solely on intellectual capabilities. Together, we emphasize the importance of comprehensive support that addresses both intellectual and emotional needs, and the impact of a proper diagnosis on personal validation and family dynamics.

Alicia also takes us through her career journey, revealing the disillusionment she faced in the profit-driven engineering industry and the significance of developing soft skills. Her story is a powerful reminder of the necessity for workplace accommodations for neurodivergent individuals. Alícia's insights into alternative career paths, her sensory challenges in corporate settings, and the importance of community engagement make this episode a must-listen. We conclude by expressing our heartfelt gratitude to our engaged audience, encouraging everyone to stay connected by subscribing to the podcast and the Gifted Unleashed newsletter.

Follow Alícia on Instagram @aliciacouto.english for English Classes or email her
for English Classes and Translation Services: aliciacouto.english@gmail.com

Would you like to work with me 1:1 as your gifted and 2e coach? Please send me an email at hello@giftedunleashed.com or find more information about my coaching offer on my website giftedunleashed.com/coaching

Support the Show.

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

Unlock the secrets to navigating the maze of giftedness with our guest, Matthew Zakreski, affectionately known as Dr. Matt. As a clinical psychologist and professional speaker, Dr. Matt sheds light on his personal journey from being identified as gifted in second grade to becoming an advocate for neurodivergent individuals. Together, we explore the trials and triumphs of gifted education, the concept of the performance cliff, and the challenges of imposter syndrome. Dr. Matt’s unique insights provide a compelling look into the often misunderstood world of the gifted community.

Discover the critical role of failure in the learning process, especially for those grappling with the "curse of competence." Drawing from his experience as a professional speaker, Dr. Matt shares how embracing failure has been paramount in pushing beyond comfort zones and achieving meaningful progress. We also examine the Yerkes-Dodson law, which highlights the necessity of optimal engagement at varying levels of difficulty. Through personal stories and relatable examples, we illustrate how gifted individuals can turn struggles into stepping stones.

Join us as we dive deep into the intensity and interconnectedness of the gifted mind. Hear the moving story of a child's emotional response to the Australian wildfires and learn why self-care is essential. We address imposter syndrome head-on, offering strategies for overcoming it through self-compassion and recognizing one’s unique strengths. Our candid discussion includes real-time experiences, such as a technical mishap during recording, to underscore the power of vulnerability. Stay connected with our podcast community, and learn how you can support and grow with us at giftedunleashed.com.

Would you like to work with me 1:1 as your gifted and 2e coach? Please send me an email at hello@giftedunleashe.com or find more information about my coaching offer on my website giftedunleashe.com/coaching

Support the Show.

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

Ever felt like your mind runs on a different operating system than everyone else's? Discover the powerful connection between neurodiversity and their specific coaching needs with my guests, Kate Arms and Tracy Winter, the dynamic duo behind the Neurodiversity Coaching Academy. As we unpack their personal narratives, we illuminate the emotional rollercoaster of living at the intersection of intense intellect and divergent thinking. Kate and Tracy’s candid sharing reveals the often-overlooked psychosomatic layers of giftedness, and their mission to address the unique coaching needs of this underserved community.

This episode takes us behind the scenes of the Neurodiversity Coaching Academy, where Kate and Tracy have crafted an inclusive coaching environment that's all about embracing the rapid learning and distinct needs of neurodivergent minds. Their approach, backed by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), is more than just a service—it's a lifeline for those who may have previously encountered the harm of ill-informed professional guidance. From monthly masterclasses to mentor coaching and coaching supervision , we delve into the academy's offerings and discuss the value of our coaching philosophy, designed to resonate with the fabric of neurodivergent thinking.

As the conversation unfolds, we examine the nuances of coaching neurodivergent clients, from navigating their unique 'stuckness' to leveraging their out-of-the-box solutions. We highlight how coaching diverges from therapy, focusing on the forward momentum and actionable change that clients can enact in their lives. Kate and Tracy also reflect on the profound impact that earlier awareness of gifted complexities could have had and the transformative power of coaching informed by their own journeys. For those eager to learn more about our Neurodiversity Coaching Academy’s resources, the episode wraps up with where to find our masterclasses and how to connect for mentorship opportunities.

Resources:

neurodiversitycoachingacademy.com

Kate Arms at katearms.com

Tracy Winter at nerdcoa.ch

Support the show

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

When Kaitlin Smith and I sat down to unravel the complex world of giftedness and twice-exceptionality (2e), our conversation ventured deep into the heart of what it means to be labeled 'gifted,' particularly for those navigating the dual challenges of exceptional intellect and being part of a minority. Kaitlin shares her battle against the stereotypes that sought to undermine her journey during her studies in psychotherapy. This episode promises to be a beacon for anyone who's felt too intense, too passionate, or simply too much for the mainstream narrative.

The path to self-empowerment is often obscured by the fog of cultural misconceptions. A moment of stark confrontation during Kaitlin's psychotherapeutic training brought the issues of race and identity to the forefront, leading to the creation of Our Wild Minds. This venture seeks to celebrate and uplift gifted and BIPOC adults. Our discussion peels back the layers of cultural competency, urging a move beyond broad-stroke assumptions to embrace the unique stories that shape every individual's experience. Join us as we confront these issues head-on, championing the rich interior lives of those who don't fit comfortably into society's predefined boxes (or dare I say stereotypes).

Our final thoughts cluster around the creation of sanctuaries for underrepresented voices, specifically black adults in the gifted community. Kaitlin shines a light on the Our Wild Minds Community and the Black Brilliant Circle, spaces designed to offer refuge and fellowship for gifted adults of color. Inspired by the work of Dr. Joy Lawson Davis and Dr. Donna Ford, these platforms offer twice-weekly calls, networking opportunities, and a guided journey to help members navigate giftedness and racial trauma. By sharing these stories and resources, we hope to offer a tapestry of support that recognizes the full spectrum of giftedness, fostering inclusive environments where intellectual and emotional growth can thrive.

https://www.ourwildminds.com/

Support the show

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

Feeling misunderstood or out of place can be a common experience for twice-exceptional (2e) individuals. This episode of Gifted Unleashed welcomes Julie Skolnick, author of "Gifted and Distractible," to shed light on the unique challenges faced by this remarkable group. Driven by self-love and understanding, Julie navigates us through the wide spectrum of conditions under the 2e umbrella and the importance of focusing on the strengths of these individuals.

Through an enriching conversation, we delve into the fascinating concept of 'masking', a coping mechanism often adopted by 2e individuals. Julie generously shares her "cycle for success" and provides a checklist that can help you find professionals who truly understand and support 2e individuals. We also discuss her much-anticipated book dedicated to adults in the 2e community, a beacon of hope and understanding for many.

Julie's passion for supporting and advocating for 2e individuals is further reflected in her website, withunderstandingcomescalm.com, offering free resources and a membership program for 2e adults. She also shares her upcoming course for parents, a priceless resource for those seeking guidance. As we round off our discussion, Julie emphasizes the importance of validating effort over outcomes or external motivation, a mantra not only for 2e individuals but applicable to all. So, join us on this journey of understanding and loving the twice exceptional individuals in our lives. Don't forget to follow the podcast, leave a review, and stay connected with our newsletter for all things Gifted Unleashed.

WithUnderstandingComesCalm.com
GiftedandDistractible.com
The Hay Stack A community for 2e adults

Support the show

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

Ever felt like a square peg in a round hole? Maybe it's not you, maybe it's your giftedness. I, Nadja, once wrestled with this notion, but through my journey of self-discovery, I've come to embrace my giftedness and ADHD, viewing them as unique strengths rather than limitations. Join me on this exciting journey of Gifted Unleashed, where we talk about personal experiences of how we navigate the world as gifted and 2e individuals.

The Gifted Unleashed podcast is not just about me and my guests sharing our stories. It's a platform for all of us to connect, support, and be our authentic selves. I'm thrilled to announce the relaunch of our space, where we'll explore thought-provoking topics that challenge stereotypes and stigma surrounding giftedness and twice exceptionality. Here's a little teaser for you: the upcoming episodes include an intriguing conversation with Julie Skolnick about her book "Gifted and Distractable". So, gear up for some insightful dialogues that promise to inspire and enlighten your perspectives about giftedness.

https://www.mytrudesign.com

Support the show

https://www.giftedunleashed.com

View Details

Eshwari is a young woman who grew up in India, feeling out of place and intense. She learned about giftedness and Overexcitabilities through the Unleash Monday podcast and got inspired to learn more about the topic and is on her journey of finding her way in the space and field of neurodiversity.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Your job title doesn't define you
Currently there is no gifted psychologist in India (yet!)
(Existential) Depression is not just in your head! And you need support from like minded minded is critical.
Gifted brains are not better but they are wired differently from the majority.
Overexcitabilites are your supper powers, not a faults!
Learning about your own (gifted) needs is essential and existential! Giftedness needs are not about being smarter but it is about being able to live according to your values.
Gifted people usually doubt that they are gifted in the beginning. It is not something that is obvious or comfortable to embrace.
As a gifted person we try and do a lot of things, make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself with tasks.
Take take to recharge! Make sure your energy level as a gifted person does not run low.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

If you would like to send Eshwari a message, you can send it to hello@unleashmonday.com, I will pass it forward.

Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way

More about Overexcitabilites in episode 33 with Chris Well

Join the Unleash Monday Community

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP uses her extensive experience with global, cultural, demographic, and ability diversity to help create inclusive and equitable workplaces. She is a Professor of Psychology and the founding Director of Graduate Programs in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. Prior to her academic career, she built and led successful intercultural relations programs in global organizations. Her current consulting is focused on supporting organizations in creating systemic inclusion informed by an understanding of neurodiversity. Her other areas of expertise include organizational culture assessment and change, workplace justice and civility, and training and training evaluation. She is a contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and SHRM blog, the editor of the upcoming book “Evidence-Based Organizational Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity” (Cambridge Scholars), and the editor of upcoming special issue of the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research on Disability inclusion in the workplace: From “accommodation” to inclusive organizational design.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Diversity at work includes different aspects such as race, gender but also neurodiversity.
Autism Autism Doesn’t Hold People Back at Work. Discrimination Does. (HRB)
The unemployment rate amongst college graduates with Autism in the US is 85 %! The discrimination might not be intentional but it is systemic!
If you met one Autistic person, you have met one Autistic person.
There is a misconception that autistic people are not empathic. However, autistic people might be so overwhelmed with empathy that they don’t have energy to express it or it might be too overwhelming to express.
Autistic people might develop trauma patterns due to the way people react to them over and over again.
Having an Autistic diagnosis can be empowering and helpful for self advocacy.
Moral injury can happen at work and we need to address it! This might be more prevalent in neurodivergent people. Sign up for the newsletter to be updated on the results on the study!
Even if you didn’t now things earlier, you know now and you can implement and change from this day forward! Your life experience is what it is and now you can move from this point forward!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Connect and learn more about Ludmila and her work on LinkedIn | Twitter

Organizational Psychology at Vanguard University

Read her articles: Autism does’t hold people back at work. Discrimination does. - Harvard Business Review | Neurodivergent people make great leaders, not just employees - Fast Company | Feeling distressed at work? It might be more than burnout - Fast Company | Moral injury at work: Reclaiming our agency through bettering |

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Dr. Sarabeth Berk is the leading expert on hybrid professional identity, and a hybrid professional herself. She was featured in Forbes, and is a TEDx speaker, author of More Than My Title, and recipient of a Colorado Inno on Fire award for her innovative work. Her hybrid title is Creative Disruptor because she works at the intersection of being an artist, researcher, educator, and designer.

Through groundbreaking research, Sarabeth developed a one-of-a-kind approach that takes personal branding and career development to a whole new level. Today, she helps professionals discover and articulate their hybrid professional identity and unique value in the workforce. As a result, her clients feel more seen, empowered and confident, and teams recognize each other as more than their job titles, valuing the critical yet different roles of experts, generalists, and hybrids in the workforce.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

What is your professional identity? This is different from your job title!
There are three different types of worker identities:
- Singularity: Single professional identity
- Multiplicity: Having many different but separate professional identities
- Hybrid: Having intersections of different professional identities which form a new identity (as a result from reintegration via Debrowski’s positive disintegration)
Having a hybrid career personality is common in gifted people
It takes a bit of work to identify your primary set of identities vs. your non primary identities (secondary and tertiary identities)
Vann Diagrams help to visualize and understand the intersectionalities of your hybrid professional identity
You have the permission to have a hybrid professional identity!
We go through multiple cycles of (career) identities throughout our lives: Phases of explorations followed by achievements of a certain identity.
a/r/t (artist, researcher, teacher)
Hybridity is a choice and it is developmental.
Work is like a three legged stool:
- 1. Knowing your passion
- 2. Your purpose, why you do what you do
- 3. Your identity, who are you when you fallow your passion and purpose.
You need to make sense of yourself first! No one is going to make sense for you. Especially in the gifted space.
Prefixes:
- Intra discipline = single
- Cross and multi disciplinary = separate
- Inter (between) and trans (beyond) disciplinary = hybridity

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Learn more about Sarabeth Berk and her work: morethanmytitle.com | TEDx Talk

Connect on Instagram: @morethanmytitle | LinkedIn

Venn Diagram

Learn more about Dabrowski’s theories: Episode 33

Join the Unleash Monday Community

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Colin Seale was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, where struggles in his upbringing gave birth to his passion for educational equity. Tracked early into gifted and talented programs, Colin was afforded opportunities his neighborhood peers were not. Using lessons from his experience as a math teacher, later as an attorney, and now as a keynote speaker, contributor to Forbes and author of Thinking Like a Lawyer: A Framework for Teaching Critical Thinking to All Students and Tangible Equity: A Guide for Leveraging Student Identity, Culture, and Power to Unlock Excellence In and Beyond the Classroom, Colin founded thinkLaw, to help educators leverage inquiry-based instructional strategies to close the critical thinking gap and ensure they teach and reach all students, regardless of race, zip code or what side of the poverty line they are born into. In 2021, Colin launched The BEE Project, a non-profit organization redefining who qualifies as gifted and who gets to teach gifted children by inspiring, training, and certifying Black and Latinx educators to equitably design and lead gifted programs. These programs identify and meet the unique needs of brilliant Black and Latinx children and their families who have been overlooked and underestimated by our current system. When he’s not serving as the world’s most fervent critical thinking advocate, Colin proudly serves as the world’s greatest entertainer to his two young children.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

We are all neurodivergent. But some of us are part of the outliers.
Children can have behavioural challenges because they are not being challenged at school!
The order of being identified can have a big impact of how we get support!
The label doesn’t matter, the support matters!
High achieving is not the same as being gifted.
It’s not about the achievement, it’s about the performance of the achievement!
Critical thinking skills is crucial but we treat it like a luxury good! What if we gave all kids access to critical thinking?
Recognising that none of our learning was actually objective.
Although brilliance is distributed equally, opportunity is not!
Doing right is more important than being right!
We came to normalise inequity
There is no master plan.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Learn more about Coline Seale and ThinkLaw here: thinklaw.us and raisingcriticalthinkers.us

Follow Colin on Twitter @ColinESeale @thinkLawUS | Instagram @ColinSeale @thinkLawUS | facebook thinklawUS and the facebook group tangibleequity | LinkedIn Colin Seale and his company ThinkLaw

Colin Seale’s books: Thinking like a Lawyer and Tangible Equity

Join the Unleash Monday Community

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Alice Bauer was born under the zodiac sign of Virgo and she is an orderly and organized type of person by nature. She is curious, inquisitive and likes to develop herself in all areas of life. Her interests are wide-ranging, including yoga, travel, art and music, but she is particularly fond of interior design. Already in her childhood she was constantly browsing through her mother's home magazines only to rearrange and reorganize her room afterwards. In 2007 she graduated university as an interior designer.

In spring 2017, she had a very enriching, life-changing experience decluttering her life by listening to the audiobook "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. While she had a wonderful, beautifully decorated apartment and had accumulated all sorts of possessions from the various decades of her life so far, she still always felt like she was living like a student, not like an adult. She wanted to live the way she had always dreamed of: like a lady. She decided to give her apartment a drastic detox. Within two weeks, she took every single item she owned into her hands and examined it for its importance in her future. She has parted with half of her belongings and it still feels great! She wanted to give others this revelation of satisfaction and order in their lives and therefore she completed the KonMari Consultant Trainee Course in Los Angeles in 2017. She is now officially a Certified Master KonMari™ Consultant and is working in Switzerland and Austria.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Tidying is an act of self love. The process of tidying can support you to figure out who you want to be and what brings you joy in your life.
Tidying can be a form of meditation.
Most people do not ask themselves how they want to live in their space. Create a vision to help you stay focused and motivated to get through the tidying festival.
The KonMari Method™ is simple but not easy. It follows 6 basic principles: Commit yourself to tidying, start by creating a vision, declutter first, tidy by category not location, follow the right order and always make the decision based on the question does it “spark joy?
Tidying helps you to get to know who you are. In order to love yourself you need to embrace all sides of you, the good and the ugly.
Tidying can be freeing and empowering.
If you need support, hire a tidying coach!
Sometimes chaos is needed for a creative process. But sometimes we need to tidy in order to organize our thoughts. Understanding where the balance lies for you is the goal.
Only keep in your home and in your life what “sparks joy”, let go of all the rest! Life is too short!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

konali.ch | Alice on instagram

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Atomic Habits by James Clear | The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron | Bullet Journal by Ryder Carroll

Messy - How To be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World by Tom Hardford

Join the Unleash Monday Community

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Ilana Grostern is a Montreal-based Self-Attunement and Somatic Coach. Her early career took her from graphic design to the launch of a sustainable business venture – a cloth diaper company that she ran for fifteen years. Her sensorial over-excitability attuned her to the needs of the body, leading her to pursue a certification as Canada’s first Whole30 coach.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

People who don’t know about their own giftedness lack information about themselves.
Lack of self-understanding leads to frustration and being misunderstood. Therefore, it’s important to know who we are in order to have a better relationship with ourselves but also with others.
The giftedness theme is completely missing from the mainstream.
The giftedness angle gives a lot of clarity in the coaching realm.
Somatic coaching is about healing the somatic-mind (Cartesian) split. No more “I think, therefore I am!”
A lot of chronic illnesses in the gifted population due to the resonance between the body and mind.
Ilana shows you to value neutral experiences of the body (soma) and map out what’s in the physical realm.
The mind is a “meaning making machine”! The mind will jump to mental conclusion about the body from learned paste experiences without actually tuning in. We need to break this jumping to conclusion cycle.
You are encouraged to flip the right with the left side! Ilana gives you the space to try new things without making you feel stupid.
Coaching is about accepting where you are in this moment and learning a new way of doing something.
The parents need to feel and relate to what their children go through. We start with our own healing first before we can support anyone else.
People who are in chronic survival mode, are dis-regulated and might feel overwhelmed by this approach.
Learning to increase the tolerance in the uncomfortable somatic moments will allow you to learn what the body is trying to tell you.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

ilanagrostern.com

Ilana Grostern on instagram | facebook and LinkedIn

PDF “Gifted people and their problems” by Francis Heylighen

Overexcitabilities (OEs)

Mind-body dualism

Join the Unleash Monday Community

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Bayo Moses has 8+ years as a Book Coach and Developmental Editor. When he's not looking into manuscripts, you can find him on Google Meet catching fun as a personal development coach. He shares his story growing up neurodivergent in rural Northern Nigeria and how he learned about autism in adulthood.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Bayo could not connect with his peers in school but was able to connect with older people.
Realising there is nothing wrong with yourself but with your audience.
Sometimes there is nothing wrong with you but with the teaching method.
A hearing issue can be a sensory processing difference.
Being neurodivergent is not a curse, being neurodivergent is not a problem that need fixing! It is not a disease that needs curing!
Not fitting in socially can be a pain but can also work to your advantage! It depends on how you approach it.
Being neurodivergent can be your personal super power!
The journey of self-awareness is not about happiness, it is about helping yourself!
The presentation of your story needs to be simple and audience centred! The idea might be simple but the impact can be profoundly.
We don’t need to balance things! Things are already balanced, we simply need to find what the balance is.
You are OK the way you are! There is nothing wrong with you.
Your happiness does not depend on social approval.
Purpose Driven Self-Awareness: The best way to help yourself is to help others!
Social experiences the same but the personal experience is divergent for autistic people
Let’s Talk 2e adults’ conference is the first of it’s kind you can purchase access forever, use my affiliate link

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Connect with Bayo on LinkedIn

Book The Gifted Adult by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen

Join the Let’s talk 2e adult conference with my affiliate link here

Unleash Monday Community - Join the waitlist to be the first to know when doors open!

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

John Syc’s background includes his own 2eAm (twice-exceptional autism male) discovery leading to his own call to action for integration and a life commitment to the path of higher levels of consciousness in tandem with psychological wholeness. His lifelong personal journey, a psychological and social work advanced educational background, and over ten years of being a psychotherapist provide insight that he shares with his clients on their journey.

Presently, John offers 60-minute or 90-minute coaching sessions Internationally through a video-conference-based medium (e.g., Zoom).

You can reach out to John if you are ready to begin your journey’s call to action at john@johnsyc.com.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Neurodivergent children and adults may have a hard time fitting in and might be subject to bulling.
Not all gifted people do well on a standardised IQ test. Some people have very spiky gifted profiles.
Trauma can mask giftedness and it influences how you present yourself fin the world
An neurodivergent diagnosis (such as autism) can give answers on why your life is the way it is!
The DSM 5 is the standard for mental health and is a pathological assessment. However, not all divergent thinking patterns are pathological.
Gifted psychology is not a thing in the mainstream psychology (yet).
There is autism burnout and autism fatigue. Energy management is therefore very important for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
The world is a socially constructed system. If you do not fit in it doesn’t mean it’s pathological!
John created online service to serve 2/e autism male (2eAm).
Let’s Talk 2e adults’ conference is the first of it’s kind you can purchase access forever, use my affiliate link

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

John’s website: johnsyc.com

Dabrowski's theory of Overexcitabilities (OEs)

InterGifted.com

Join the Let’s talk 2e adult conference with my affiliate link here

Unleash Monday Community - Join the waitlist to be the first to know when doors open!

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

As a psychologist, trainer, assessor, writer and advocate, Jennifer Harvey Sallin is dedicated to raising awareness about adult giftedness and twice-/multi-exceptionality (2e/me) and meaningfully supporting gifted/2e/me people in their personal and social development. She has specialized in supporting gifted adults for the last decade, and in 2015, she created InterGifted to allow gifted people to socially engage in meaningful ways and to personally develop in community. Learn more about why Jenhere.

Jen has developed a holistic model of giftedness that is particularly useful for gifted adults in their giftedness (re)discovery, integration and personal and professional development. She uses this model in providing qualitative assessmentsto gifted adults, as well as in training professional therapists, coaches and other helping professionals to better support their gifted clients.

Jen has created an initiative for reconnecting with the Earth during this time of global & ecological crisis: I Heart Earth.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

An IQ test measures something but it does not test for the full range of giftedness.
There is no consensus to the answer of the question of what intelligence is.
Gifted people usually are more intense than non gifted people. However, there is a distinction between complexity (giftedness) and intensity (OEs).
Understanding your own giftedness profile and potential twice-exceptionalities helps you understand yourself better and helps supports you in your self developmental journey.
Trauma can cause a developmental issues such as shutting down certain parts of your intelligence and playing up for example emotional intelligence in a role as a caretaker.
Gifted people have gifted needs and if they don’t get met, life doesn’t feel fulfilled.
For a qualitative assessment you need to be in a mental state where you are able to work on yourself in the realm of self-development.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

InterGifted.com and Jen’s model on giftedness, article on High, Exceptional & Profound Giftedness

Learn more and schedule an assessment with InterGifted

Jen’s Gifted Trauma Podcast and the previous episode with Jen at Unleash Monday

Courses for coaches and therapists at InterGifted

Overexcitabilities (OEs)

Different models on giftedness

Difference between OEs & giftedness article

Let’s talk 2e adult conference with my affiliate link here

Unleash Monday Community - Join the waitlist!

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Lucy Knight always knew she was different and was finally diagnosed autistic at 31. A lot in her life has changed for the better since she got diagnosed and now she advocates for myself and other autistic people. She has a blog called Autisms Alright where she shares her own story and important resources on the topic of autism.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Without a diagnosis you might choose a career path not really suited for your needs.
Misophonia is a condition in which individuals experience intense anger and disgust when they are confronted with sounds made by other humans.
Without a diagnosis, you can't advocate for yourself because as an employee you are not entitled to certain accommodations.
A diagnosis can feel like a big relief with finally being able to understand yourself and to have a vocabulary.
Unfortunately, no one really tells you how to advocate for yourself once you do get a diagnosis. Nobody actually tells you what to do.
It is important that you learn how to advocate for yourself and not wait for employers know what to do.
Lucy is able to work and thrive in an open office setting but only because her employer listened to her and incorporated adaptations.
People with autism might do to jobs at work: The job you expect of them, but they are also masking and applying learned social skills which might not come naturally to them.
Being autistic, Lucy says she can’t tell easily how she feels at any given time. Which she finds really bizarre.
Because employment is about the employee as much as the employer it is important to that it works out for both and disclosing your disability can help you advocate for yourself but also gives the employer a chance to make these accommodations.
Lucy mentions that because she didn't have a label at school, she believes it helped her improve her social skills. Sometimes when people have a label, it's a bit like we're going to excuse their behavior rather than help them change it. We'll just excuse it, because they have a label. And that’s not really setting someone up for success at employment.
Let’s Talk 2e adults’ conference is the first of it’s kind and completely free for the first 24 hours on November 1st, 2021 - you can purchase access forever, use my affiliate link

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Lucy’s blog: Autisms Alright: Disability is not a Dirty Word - Discrimination is! autisms-alright.co.uk

Connect with Lucy on Instagram @autisms_alright and on LinkedIn

Join the Let’s talk 2e adult conference with my affiliate link here

Unleash Monday Community - Join the waitlist to be the first to know when doors open!

UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Christiane Wells, PhD, LSW, is the Director of Qualitative Research at the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development. She studies the lived experience of giftedness and emotional development through the lens of Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration and critical psychology. She has investigated the history of Dąbrowski’s constructs and their evolution and also studies Polish in order to read his original works. Her background in qualitative methods includes using text and content analysis techniques to examine and evaluate data and bodies of literature. Chris is also a therapist in private practice with gifted and twice-exceptional adults.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

The DSM does not cover giftedness. You might not get a diagnosis which answers all your questions and covers all your needs.
The word gifted is not only a word important for children’s education. Giftedness does not end after school. Gifted programs focus on the academic but not what it means to be gifted.
The label gifted can be burdened with high expectations (can lead to gifted trauma).
Gifted children not necessarily thrive academically.
If you are an extreme outlier, being in a regular school can feel like torture!
Parents often learn through their children about their own giftedness and twice-exceptionality (2e).
ADHD diagnosis could potentially be a sign of Overexcitabilities (OEs).
You can be gifted outside of the stereotypes.
Not all of Dabrowski's work has been translated yet.
There needs to be respect for the inner experience of giftedness!
Let’s Talk 2e adults’ conference is the first of it’s kind and completely free for the first 24 hours on November 1st, 2021 - you can purchase access forever, use my affiliate link

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Christianewells.com | Twitter | facebook group for parents of gifted and 2e kids

Chris as keynote speaker at the 15th Dabrowski Congress

The Gifted Development Center

Michael Piechowski | Book Living with Intensity

Reexamining Overexcitability: A Framework for Understanding Intense Experience by Michael Piechowski and Chris Wells PDF download

positivedisintegration.com | SENGifted.org | Book Exceptionally Gifted Children

Let’s talk 2e adult conference

Unleash Monday Community | UnleashMonday.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Julie Skolnick is the Founder of With Understanding Comes Calm, LLC, through which she passionately guides parents of gifted and distractible children, mentors 2e adults, trains teachers on how to understand and address 2e strengths and struggles.

Julie serves as Secretary to the Maryland Superintendent’s Gifted and Talented Advisory Council and is an advisor for “The G Word” film. Julie is the SENG Maryland liaison, a SENG Model Parent Group trained facilitator and on the Simultaneous Supports committee for the National Association for Gifted Children.

More about Julie in episode 14

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

It is important for 2e adults to know who they are, to know their needs of strengths and weaknesses.
Until now, very few research has been done on this population of twice-exceptional adults.
Twice-exceptional (2e) stands for gifted + a learning difference or learning disability such as Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc.
Gifted and 2e adults often resist.
Giftedness can be described as heightened awareness.
Let’s Talk 2e adults’ conference is the first of it’s kind & completely free for the first 24 hours on November 1st, 2021 - you can purchase access forever, use my affiliate link
Talking about 2e is all about positive re-framing!
If you are a gifted or 2e adult, work with someone who understands giftedness in addition to anything else you might be experience (anxiety, trauma, depression, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc.)
Imposter Syndrome is self doubt and is tied to perfectionism & gifted underachievement.
To overcome gifted perfectionism understand that you care and give yourself permission to make mistakes, it is how we learn and grow.
It’s important to overcome your imposter syndrome so that you can live your life without regrets!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Join the Let’s talk 2e adult conference with my affiliate link here

Let’s Talk 2e adults facebook group

With Understanding Comes Calm | Instagram | facebook | LinkedIn

2e resources

Let’s Talk 2e | Conference for Educators & Teachers Lounge on facebook

Schedule a free 20 min consultation with Julie

Unleash Monday Community - Join the waitlist to be the first to know when doors open!

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Lotte van Lith is a lecturer, instructor and senior trainer on the psychology, practice and art of personal and creative development (amongst others at the School of Thinking at Free University of Brussels and the Buckminster College). In her own company, A Lot of Complexity, she guides intense and driven adolescents and adults in their personal and creative development and regularly organizes vivid seminars and courses on topics ranging from sense making and creative giftedness to emotional development. She often gives presentations and is known in the Netherlands and Belgium for her work with the theory of positive disintegration. In 2021, her book "Intens mens" is published.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted people have difficulties working for someone else. They don’t like norms & rules, they need creative space
Gifted children in a non-gifted setting struggle because they don’t receive the educational resources they
Gifted children can get disillusioned at school. Gifted children try to understand the environment instead of getting to know themselves and try to cope with the differences
One big aspect of giftedness is the emotional wellbeing of gifted people . It's part of being human and very important for the creative & personal development
Giftedness can be described as complex thoughts & thought processes, incl. complex emotions
If gifted people are in an environment where they are not mirrored there are emotional & motivational consequences
It is important to know about your own giftedness as you need context to understand your experience
A coach specialized in giftedness is aware of the complexities and neurodiversity which means that this person probably did not receive adequate mirroring and thus may struggle with trying to understand what is happening inside and outside that person as a consequence of being different
Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (including the OEs), is about emotional and personality development
Positive Disintegration comes with an existential crisis which creates the conditions to experience deeper values. It is an individual trajectory about psychological development
People who are gifted, tend to drive towards creativity, a potential to be creative, to think & to act creatively and to find creative solutions
It's important to have a safe & brave space for gifted people to be vulnerable and to be able to challenged to be more
Give yourself the opportunity to be just a little bit curious about who you are and what your experience entails

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Lotte van Lith’s website: lottevanlith.nl

Instagram: @levenskunst_volgens_lotte

alotofcomplexity.com (English) and alotofcomplexity.nl (Dutch)

positievedesintegratie.nl

Connect with Lotte on LinkedIn and facebook

Overexcitabilities by Kazimierz Dąbrowski

If you want to join the Unleash Monday Community as a founding member join here: Unleash Monday Community. Doors close on 15th of September 2021.

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Aileen Kelleher is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in Chicago. She specializes in working with gifted and twice exceptional children, adults and families.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Being able to have some distance from your thoughts, being able to not over identify yourself, your sense of self with the thoughts that come into your head and knowing not everything you're thinking is a fact or the truth.
Mindfulness practice can help you to start to observe your thoughts without judgment.
Giftedness often comes with one, two or more overexcitabilites (OEs) as defined by Dabrowski as intellectual imagination, sensory, psychomotor, and emotional intensities.
Children with imagination intensities for example can find an escape in video games where they create whole new worlds.
Gifted children often times are treated by adults or by parents as if they are on par with adults. They are being treated as if they have the ability to manage their emotions the way adults do. But they really don't. If anything, as we know, through asynchronous development, gifted kids probably have less capacity than other kids at their age to manage their emotions sometimes.
As a gifted adult you sometimes have to peel back the layers or undo some of the things that you've developed as coping mechanisms that are no longer serving you because you had to get through a world and a system that wasn't built for you.
Gifted people often set very high standards for how they believe they should perform or how they believe they should act.
Gifted kids can feel like they're wrong because they're different as opposed to they're just different.
If you're a parent of a gifted kid, get involved in the gifted community because parents are a wealth of information.
It is important to get the whole family involved as intensities and sensitivities of all family members should be addressed.
When the parents start to heal, the kids start to heal and vice versa and everyone kind of relaxes around one another.
It is difficult for 2e children to find an educational fit.
The main issue of why this idea of being different is so hard for kids and adults, because we want to fit in. We're wired to connect and to belong.
Social perfectionism, means that you feel like you have to look perfect in social situations in order to be accepted. But the way people connect is often through their vulnerabilities.
Most of the families don't like the term gifted, it causes an insecurity because what if you don't live up to that standard?
Trauma stores and manifests in the body.
If you are a gifted adult know that you are worthy of love and belonging the way you are! You don't have to earn it. You don't have to be smart enough. You don't have to be talented enough. You don't have to be creative enough.
Show your vulnerability! As your vulnerability is an asset and their sensitivity and intensity are assets. There’s not something wrong with you! 💝

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Aileen Kelleher’s website: aileenkelleher.com and Instagram: @aileen.imagines

Overexcitabilities by Kazimierz Dąbrowski

If you want to join the Unleash Monday Community as a founding member join here: Unleash Monday Community. Doors close on 15th of September 2021.

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Happy Birthday Unleash Monday! Exactly a year ago I launched this podcast on the topic of gifted adults. In this episode I am sharing on how it all started, what I experienced in my own personal gifted journey over the last year and where Unleash Monday is going in year two!

I would like to use this opportunity of this episode to say thank you to all my past guests who have helped form this show and made it into this incredible resource which it is today. I would also like to thank all of you listening to the show and especially if you have left a review or sent me a message, you made my day and you keep me motivated to show up for you consistency for this amazing community.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Your giftedness discovery is not linear.
There are a lot more components to take into consideration than a single IQ test.
You know yourself best! If someone is giving you a diagnosis, take the prognosis with a grain of salt!
Do your own reading and inquiries on the topic of giftedness and twice-exceptionality.
Do you want to be a part of the founding members to join the upcoming Unleash Monday Community? Send me an email at hello@unleashmonday.com and tell my why you would like to join 🤗

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

If you want to join the upcoming Unleash Monday Community, send an email to hello@unleashmonday.com

Listen to all episodes at UnleashMonday.com

InterGifted

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Natasa Heydra loves working within different areas of art, culture and design. She is a textile artist, teaches Visual Arts at the Kulturskolen in Viborg & curates and organises exhibitions, publications and art-projects. She has always been fascinated by cultural expressions of identity, like fashion, language, behaviour, music and art. The signs, the codes to help you uncover the multiplicity of identities in our society. Where does one end and starts another? The periphery is where the most interesting forms & stories reveal themselves. It is the edge between belonging and being an outcast. She is drawn to these odd-ones-out in society: the subcultures, the underground, the underdogs. These groups are often the most outspoken in their expression of who they are or want to be. "It took a move away from Holland to Denmark to make the link between my fascination with the odds one out and my own feelings of not belonging. From city girl to country girl, from a successful career to starting up from scratch at 45+...'who am i now?' I felt lost. While trying to get a grip on my new environment i started to see how much of my life i have been adapting to my surroundings as a strategy to fit in. That i often follow a self-created expectation of what i believe is expected of me. And now actually being the odd-one-out, the immigrant, it made me realise that the lost, sad and unsatisfied feeling i had carried with me my whole life, came from doing exactly that...adapting and hiding my thoughts, intensities and true self. Exploring and embracing being a gifted adult, ignites listening and looking at myself with clarity, acceptance and love. It is like finding a sense of belonging in myself, that i am 'already' forever grateful for." - Natasa Heydra

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Giftedness is not only about high intellectual intelligence, it is more about how your brain works in a different way from the majority of people.
Being gifted can be lonely and be accomplished by feelings anxiety and depression.
There is this feeling of something is missing.
Finding out about giftedness as an adult, gives a lot of answers to the lifelong feeling of being lost and lonely and the feeling of extreme stress and anxiety.
Being mirrored by others is important for wellbeing.
Shed your preconceived thoughts of what giftedness is. Giftedness is so much more than what we know from the stereotypes.
Knowing about your own giftedness and neurodivergence calms you down!
When you don’t realise how your brain works differently, you get hurt by people because there are misunderstandings.
As unidentified gifted people, we are not used to fitting into a box.
We need to stop feeling ashamed of who we are.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Natasa Heydra on Instagram @hey_the_thread and website ungirly.com

Book The Gifted Adult by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen

The podcast episode with Pascale Coutanceau

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Carrie Pokrefke is an Audit Manager for BECU, the nation’s largest Community Credit Union, based in Seattle, Washington. She is an accomplished and experienced leader with over 20 years of experience in financial services as both an internal auditor and as a state and federal regulator. She enjoys building inclusive, high-performing teams through developing and mentoring employees, building relationships, and connecting people. Carrie serves on the SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) Board of Directors and Executive Committee as the Finance Officer and is also Co-Chair of the Development Committee. She is a trained SENG Model Parent Group (SMPG) facilitator and presented at the 2020 SENG Annual Conference. Carrie loves to travel and has achieved her goal of visiting all seven continents. Besides traveling, she is a photographer, drummer, painter, writer, and humanitarian. Carrie enjoys public speaking. Carrie was recently selected to BECU’s 2021 Building Inclusion and Leveraging Differences (BILD) Council. She serves on the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions’ (NAFCU) Compliance/BSA/Risk Network Steering Committee and the Northwest Credit Union Association’s (NWCUA) Awards Committee. She holds a Bachelor in Science in Banking and Finance with a minor in Speech Communication from the University of Southern Mississippi.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

It is normal for gifted people to feel stupid! Doubting you are gifted is a good indicator of giftedness!
Imposter Syndrome is something a lot of gifted adults struggle with. It helps understanding it and taking it for what it is!
It can be hard for gifted people to see their own giftedness, yet they usually have no difficulties seeing giftedness in other gifted children and adults.
The giftedness journey is usually a continuous research for more resources and insights into the giftedness theory and experiences.
The gifted population has this tendency to want to fit in. Being identified gifted can feel like you are even further away from the normal populations simply from a statistical standpoint.
Gifted adults may have perfectionism tendencies.
The word “gifted” has this connotation that things are easy for us, but things are not always easy and it's not always a gift.
It's important for us to roll with the word gifted. There are people who want to change it, but the value in labelling it is that we know which rabbit hole it is!
If you are gifted, finding a therapist who understands or is gifted themselves is really helpful.
Usually you realize that most of your friends are also gifted!
Understanding one’s giftedness and neurodivergence helps to become a better leader!
SENG stands for the Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted and was founded by Dr. James T. Webb in 1981.
There is a gap in reaching the gifted adults!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Carrie Pokrefke LinkedIn photography website and Instagram

ShareYourMeTooStory

SENG.org

Dabrowski’s Overexcitabilities

Overexcitabilities and the gifted: SENG resource

The Gottman Institute

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Liz studied communication design with a sub-specialization in interactivity and multimedia where she focused on web design. She has been working in the corporate world for 4 years throughout that time she always had people who wanted her help in creating logos so in 2019 she created the brand Mytrudesign to provide brand design services to independent entrepreneurs.

Creating designs from thoughts and ideas of her clients is what brings Liz passion, especially listening to ideas that are intangibles and bring them to life. She believes that every person is unique in their one way and therefore Liz focuses on the design process and takes it meticulously and personally in order to give you a meaningful and consistent design.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

In Spanish the word for giftedness is “superdotado”
Sometimes the reason you have difficulties to connect with others is because your brain is wired a bit differently, not because there is something wrong with you.
Sometimes people become introverts because they are not understood and they start shutting down a bit.
Creativity can sometimes not be put into words and it can be such a beautiful and fulfilling journey
Empathy and caring deeply about the environment and the world can be a sign of giftedness.
Compassion and empathy is something not everyone can feel as deeply.
Feeling out of place and not being understood can be a sign of giftedness.
There don’t seem to be gifted school programs currently available in Equator in the public schools.
Realising you are gifted gives you a sense of peace and makes you want to connect with other like minded people.
Gifted adults face difficulties in a neurotypical corporate setting
A brand is more than just a logo, it creates a look and feel of a whole business and portraits the values and the emotions of the business.
It’s OK to feel out of place sometimes and you can use this as your fuel! And don’t just believe what people say! Keep feeling what you are feeling and find validation for that. You are not wrong, you are just wired a bit differently.
No need to fulfil other people’s expectations.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Liz Trujillo’s website liztrujillo.com and Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Tracy has been an executive and leadership coach for over ten years. She helps neurodivergent leaders become superstar leaders through nerd coach, her coaching practice.

Tracy has coached up and down the career ladder, from job seekers to vice-presidents, and has worked in different industries, including technology, government, academia, and health care. Tracy helps her clients, individuals or teams, develop new perspectives that lead to new behaviors, behaviors more likely to get the results they want, whether it’s a promotion, more team cohesion, or just being heard, seen, and valued for their ideas.

Tracy also teaches doctoral classes Organizational Leadership and Business Psychology Department at The Chicago School for Professional Psychology. She earned her PhD in Human Development, her M.A. in Human and Organization systems, and her Evidence-Based Coaching Certificate from Fielding Graduate University. And she can jumprope tap dance.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted adults are an underserved population and people think they're okay. And that's not necessarily the case.
for some reason the G word is really loaded
Gifted adults do well as individual contributors in the workplace but they may have trouble socially.
When you are gifted your experience interacting with others can be like looking into a funhouse mirror! Instead of an accurate reflection, they are getting the reflection that people expect them to be a certain way and they are not. The reflection is inaccurate and gifted are being perceived as weird over and over again from childhood into adulthood and it’s hurtful.
Gifted adults oftentimes don’t recognise their own giftedness. They feel more like they are missing something.
Giftedness is not just about being smart, it is this qualitative difference. You are actually getting different, more intense information than other people are getting.
Gifted adults who tried to work with non-gifted specific therapists or psychiatrists say that they think beyond them, they think circles around them.
Giftedness is about so much more than IQ. It’s also about intensity, not being understood, about the not fitting in part. It's about overexcitabilities and never being able to shut your brain off because everything is so interesting, or having shut your brain off entirely. Or not being interested because it was so overwhelming. The label “gifted” is simply helpful in adults to identify each other.
Find the people who you fit.
Be kind to yourself and allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling.
The challenge is that there are a lot of adults who don't identify as gifted, even if they were identified as gifted as a kid. Which is one of the reasons we are more often using the term “neurodivergence” as a way of talking about this topic.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Tracy’s website www.nerdcoa.ch and LinkedIn

SENGifted.org

The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen

Living with Intensity by Susan Daniels, Michael M. Piechowski

Dabrowski's overexcitabilities: www.intergifted.com/living-with-intensity

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Cliff Wigtil has been in giftedness circles for over twenty years, and has been formally studying giftedness for well over a decade. He provides coaching services and welcome clients from a diversity of backgrounds.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you have such a profound perspective, you also need to have some kind of perspective on limitations
Highly gifted people do sometimes become eminent but it may also come at high costs. It requires great sacrifice and help, as well as being at the right place at the right time
Yes, you can succeed, but it's also okay to just be you.
People are overestimating how much intelligence contributes to the ultimate outcomes in life
What does it takes to be successful? You need intelligence, sure. But it really depends on what field you're going into, a lot of who you know, a lot of being able to overcome things that would just be devastating to almost anybody.
If you are gifted in this world, you might not not even know how much different and how much different your perspective is! How much more insightful you are, how much more you can see and how much more you can articulate for example.
What you're going through is it may not be typical, but it is normal because it's normal to you.
If you think you might need therapy. Get therapy it's okay - try to find somebody who can match you for what you're going through
Don’t over-learn from one single experience

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Cliff’s website yourlightbridge.com and Twitter @cliffwigtil

Two of Cliff’s research papers and profile on ResearchGate:

Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: A Seventy-Five Year Follow-Up

The Relationship Between Intelligence and Psychological Well-Being in Incoming College Students

Leta Stetter Hollingworth and Lewis Terman

Linda Silverman

Mensa International

InterGifted and Founding Director Jennifer Harvey Sallin

International Society for Philosophical Enquiry: thethousand.com

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Gabriela Alvares is a student majoring in Communications Media studies and minoring in Public Relations at Quinnipiac University, in Connecticut. She was born in South Africa to parents from Portugal where she calls home. She grew up as a third culture kid and has lived this global and inspirational experience which brought her to her purpose in life.

At a young age she was diagnosed with dyslexia and here starts her journey.... Unfortunately, at the time living in Tanzania, a country which had limited or no resources to support people with Learning Differences, she had to learn how to be the best dyslexic in order to succeed. She desperately wanted to be the same as every other student as well as achieve those amazing scores, so it was a realisation and awakening time where she found herself having to work twice as hard. As she transitioned from grade to grade, each year the workload increased so the challenges became tougher but never never gave up. Her good support network with great teachers at school and her family at home she was always encouraged to keep going.

Her self-esteem was her biggest struggle, she was labelled with dyslexia which had an immediate connection to all the negative prejudices possible, especially at a young age, you fear to be labeled by other kids as< "stupid" or "dumb".

She learned the skills to advocate for herself and this is when she realised her voice is her biggest strength and she wants to share her story to inspire others to develop skills and tools do thrive despite a learning difference.

Gabriela’s goal in life is to be a learning difference advocate, she wants to share her story to inspire young children and let them know that they can do anything that they set their minds too. She wants to create awareness of the topic and fighting the stigma associated with any learning difference. DYS does not mean “not able” because we are all able, sometimes it just takes different routes to get to the same place as others.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Having a learning difference means you need to learn to become your own advocate.
Getting a diagnosis for a learning difference (for example dyslexia) helps students and adults getting accommodations in school and in the workplace.
Dyslexia is a learning difference, it is not a mental health issue.
There is still a lot of misinformation and stigmatisation around the topic of dyslexia around the globe.
Gabriela’s goal is becoming an activist and raising awareness around the topic of learning differences and especially dyslexia.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Gabriela Alvares on LinkedIn

Ability Media

Focus and Learning Center on facebook

Quinnipiac University

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Isabelle Mosca, curator/creator for Life on the Bright Side and founder of the nonprofit FACES 4 Autism. She shines a light on families facing neurodiversity across the lifespan, encourages and uplifts caregivers to live their best lives with programs, events and workshops. Her programs are donation-based and open to all.

Isabelle and her husband just celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. Her motivation to begin the journey culminated from the autism diagnosis of her son in 2001. He and his twin sister both experience learning challenges, so developing a path of support was key to her family, as well as and many others. As a result of community encouragement, she has created programs and education used worldwide to forward awareness and acceptance for twenty years.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Neurodivergent people tend to “mask” themselves. They do not feel comfortable to be their true authentic selves and they learn to hide parts of themselves and to put on a “mask” for society.
Learning differences can make you see the world differently
Writing a to-do list can be a blessing. It functions as a dumping lists for your full and heavy brain and you can get it all out of your mind and onto paper. And there is always a tomorrow fro your to do list
People with ADHD need especially time to quiet their minds. Going for walks, doing yoga, meditation or mindfulness can help you do that.
We should take breaks and disconnect from our electronic devices. The world is so busy with stimulation, we need to turn it off from time to time.
Sleep is important and a very great tool for people with busy minds. It can also be helpful to find answers! Ask yourself a question you would like to answer before going to bed and let your subconscious mind do the work during the night.
All family members of a neurodivergent family need to be seen and taken care of. For example siblings and caregivers
Self-care is important for everyone! We all need self-care <3

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

FACES 4 Autism: website faces4autsim.org |Instagram @faces.4.autism|Email: imosca@faces4autism.org

Podcast Life on the Bright Side| Instagram: @ourlifeonthebrightside

Dr Temple Grandin

The Bullet Journal Method

More on Autism and testing from Wikipedia (please do your own further web-search on Autism specific websites): DSM IV and V and PDD-NOS

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Kanan Tekchandani is a Relationship Whisperer and an actually autistic specialist coach for exceptional individuals, their partners and families.

After years of working with highly intelligent exceptionally wonderful individuals to declutter their homes, Kanan realised her true purpose lay in helping them to clear the misunderstandings that were cluttering their ability to experience connection, peace and happiness in their most important relationships

Kanan’s ability to translate different people’s experiences of the world means that they get to experience harmony in their relationships and joyful optimism for the future.

People she loves working with may suspect or have a diagnosis of Aspergers, Autism, ADHD, be highly knowledgeable, highly intelligent, high achievers, high potentials, highly sensitive, highly creative, out of the box thinkers, gifted or complex individuals!

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

A lot of people with ADHD and Autism are disempowered and unhappy. Once you learn about who you are and tools which work for for you, you can actually thrive in many aspects of life.
Don’t relay on medical support only! Look for the support you need yourself.
Lots of bright kids do not like school because they are bored and would need to be more stimulated in their learning experinece
In a relationship it is important that both parties needs are heard and met. This is why it is important for neurodiverse people to have a relationship coach who can relate and translate.
Tidying can help you learn more about who you are and who you want to become.
You do not need to be ashamed if you need help or support. We all do and this is why there are coaches out there to guide you through this process. This can be for example a relationship coach or a tidying coach.
We are wholesome beings and we need to take care of ourselves and learn to know what our individual needs are. Mindfulness, meditation and yoga can be part of this self-care routine.
Being neurodiverse is awesome!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Kanan’s aspiecoach.com | facebook | LinkedIn

Join Kanan’s research project called 100 Soul Sisters by contacting here directly via her website

Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Liz Trujillo My Tru Design|Instagram

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Lucinda Leo is a hypnotherapist and coach based in Brighton, England. Although she always knew she was bright, Lucinda grew up believing that her intensity and quirks were totally separate and detracted from her intelligence. She became so good at camouflaging her ‘weirdness’ that she ended up in a job that leached her soul and surrounded by people who didn’t get her. It wasn’t until Lucinda went looking for ways to support her intense and sensitive children that she discovered her giftedness and began to create a life that celebrates her vibrant and intense true self. Lucinda's now passionate about helping other intense and gifted individuals discover and embrace their authentic selves.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

It helps to know if you are a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and if you are living with Overexcitabilities (OE)
Gifted people do not need to be Highly Sensitive People or living with Overexcitiablities and Intensities, but there are a lot of overlaps and it would be recommended to also look into the topic of giftedness.
Hypnotherapy can help you unlearn bad habits. Gifted adults who usually have great imagination tend to respond very well to hypnotherapy.
With hypnotherapy you can redirect neurological pathways to unlearn unfavourable behaviours.
Our conciseness is not necessarily made up from only one part, but might have various different parts
Therapeutic paradox: The more you are afraid of something, the more you might be attracting this outcome
Embracing your different inner parts can lead to increased wellbeing as gifted adults learn to embracing all their complex facets of their full self.
Giraffes are vulnerable when they are babies. But then they grow up to be strong and tall and can put a lion in its place!
Giftedness has nothing to do with superiority, it is a difference in learning and thinking style.
Gifted people tend not to think linear, the are skip thinkers and meta thinkers.
Self-understanding is a big important piece to a joyful life
You have permission to be the full you! Try out all the things and be quirky and use spreadsheets as much as you like!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Giraffe Life for hypnotherapy & coaching

Laugh Love Learn blog about life in an intense family

Lucinda Leo’s YouTube Channel about intensity

Paula Prober Your Rainforest Mind

Elaine N. Aron’s book The Highly Sensitive Person

Marshal B. Rosenberg Non Violent Communication

Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

InterGifted

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Ben Koch am an entrepreneur, educator, coach, healer, and mindfulness expert with 20 years of meditation experience. As co-founder and CEO of an education company based in Dallas, he has sought for ways to merge his role in the educational revolution with his passion for self-development, healing modalities, and practices that help one find and align with their deeper life purpose (IKIGAI).

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted adults usually have gifted kids
The label “gifted” doesn’t matter as much, it’s the characteristics and the unique needs which are important
A lot of gifted kids slip through the cracks of being identified in childhood
Gifted children and adults feel and process differently
Indicators of being gifted (but not exclusively):
- Feeling a little bit out of whack with mainstream thinking
- Not feeling comfortable in traditional scripted conversations
- Feeling like you have to hold back your authentic self in fear to provoke or how out of place it might feel
- Fear of your thoughts, intuitions and deep emotional sensitivities
- Giftedness in one word: Intensity! Emotional, intellectual and/or spiritual intensity
There is a cultural meme that giftedness equals academic achievement
Traditional IQ tests measure 2 types of intelligences: verbal and quantitative intelligence
Ambivert is the term used to describe someone who is sometimes introverted, sometimes extroverted depending on the situation
Gifted kids, as well as gifted adults, need intellectual / idea peers because of their asynchronous development
Asynchronicity is a sign of giftedness
Gifted knows gifted: There is a sense of acceptance, of acknowledgment and a feeling of belonging and “being home” as we can mirror each other
Profoundly gifted kids have extremely unique needs
The importance for gifted people is to find and live a life of purpose!
IKIGAI means “reason for being”
Finding your IKIGAI takes inner work and is a lifelong process
Create a purpose statement and list your why, what and how
Meditation and mindfulness is a powerful tool for the gifted
Gifted people can see the wrongs, the hypocrisy in the world, the injustices and can get overwhelmed by it
The psychological, neurological and physiological benefit of mindfulness practise has been documented by scientific research
It is important for gifted adult to have self compassion and self empathy

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

NuMinds: website, facebook Podcast

Ben's Links and personal website

Book Living with Intensity by Susan Daniels and Michael M. Piechowski

Book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Book on IKIGAI

Book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Erin Keeley has an inspiring life story of tenacity that began with studying climate change in Antarctica for her Master’s in Engineering and then took a sudden turn when her brother, also an engineer, took his own life in 2002. Instead of going on to complete her PhD, she decided to dedicate her life to understanding how our culture contributes to individual pain and suffering. She has since dedicated her life to human services that make cultural differences and create more life satisfaction for individuals.

Erin is a certified Authentic Relationship Coach and is trained in multiple methods of Executive Coaching and Organizational Health Consulting.

She is a public speaker for women’s leadership, yoga and interpersonal growth. Erin’s superpower is her keen ability to see blind-spots in organizations, teams and individuals. Once a blind-spot (an unconscious pattern that is sabotaging a goal) is identified, she creates the psychological safety for teams to fearlessly face their problems head-on and make powerful changes that stick. When Erin is on your team, look out! She doesn’t settle: She will make sure you meet your goals.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

There is a genetic component in neurodivergence
Some gifted facebook groups are mostly affluent white Christians
Unconscious biases and cultural stereotypes feed into who gets identified and accepted gifted and who not
If students knew about their giftedness, they might pick harder schools and/or a different degree
Gifted humans care about the planet and climate change issues deeply
Gifted people like to be (unconsciously) surrounded by other gifted people
Depressions and mental health issues are important topics in the gifted population as they are typically emotional sensitive
As a gifted person you usually learn on the job and on the go
Gifted people can burn out by the bureaucracy
Gifted people usually need to do multiple things, like intellectual and embodiment
Gifted stay at home mums need intellectual stimulation
People stay at a job when they feel close to the people at work! Relationships are very important and it’s importance is underestimated by companies.
Authentic relationships are key
Overexcitabilities are for example expressed by not liking tags on clothes
2e (Twice Exceptional) children and adults need special support
Parents learn about their own neurodivergence usually through their own kids
There are a lot of gifted women who literally think there is something wrong with them
People do not want to say they are gifted in public because it sounds elitist
Women with high empathy levels project it onto narcissistic people who do not have this heightened sense of empathy. This leaves them vulnerable to psychological abuse such as gaslighting

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Erin Keeley’s webistes: giftedwomensummit.com | interpersonalinstitute.com | erinkeeley.com

Erin Keeley on linkedIn

Instagram @giftedwomensummit | @erincolleenkeeley

Myers-Briggs Types

Book:

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Nadya Abo-Shaeer was identified as a gifted child but choose not to embrace nor identify with this label. As a gifted teenager and collage student she immersed herself into studying as much and diverse as she possibly could. She is leading a typical life of a multipotential gifted neurodiverse person but only realised that so much of who she is and her own story is tied to this identity. Now she is starting to embrace her intensity and her bubbly personality and living her life to her full potential. Letting go of false expectations from society and embracing herself the way she is: an amazing and gifted person.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted humans feel very strongly about inequality such as race and gender issues
Interdisciplinary studies are very appealing to the multipotential gifted humans who just need to know multiple subjects in depth
being gifted and thirsting for knowledge can also be overwhelming at times
It is in the gifted nature to care deeply and we might here the phrase “don’t take things so seriously” a lot
Gifted people deeply process emotions
Being gifted is a way of being and there are other people like you out there
As a gifted person you probably hear people call you “too intense, too much” or they tell you “you care too much”
When someone tells you you are gifted, your first reaction is probably “Thank you, but no thank you. I am going to opt out of this.”
Gifted people don’t like loud noises, bright lights or open offices
Gifted attunement -> find the right space for “where” you can be this specific part of yourself
Gifted people do not feel better or superior to other people, they rather feel not enough!
Giftedness can sometimes feel more like a disability or a weakness
Gifted parents know that it gets easier once your (gifted) children get older. You are not alone and knowing about your own giftedness and having the vocabulary helps and empowers you.
As a gifted person you might need more support because you are navigating things in a way with takes more energy and complexity
The key is to harnessing your intensity (as Aurora Remember shows us)

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Aurora Remember’s podcast and community

Book Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg

Book Living with Intensity by Susan Daniels, Michael M. Piechowski

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Femke Hovinga knows which challenges hyper giftedness can entail. Despite a hefty portion of potential, she underperformed for years and developed fear of failure. Femke obtained her diploma by hanging and strangling, after which she followed courses in journalism and business administration. Challenges became opportunities. She trained as a talent coach and from there she specialised in 145+ IQ. At Talentissimo she guides children, parents and schools. She also gives lectures. In addition, Femke is engaged in developing an IQ test for gifted children with SCALIQ. She also works with gifted adults at InterIQ, a recruitment and coaching company for gifted talent.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted children might be underachieving in school
Gifted children experience asynchronicity
Gifted children struggle to deal with challenges & failures and sometimes need to learn how to study
In Dutch the 145+ IQ group is called “Hyper Gifted”
1:1000 is in the category of 145+, a very small group and difficult to find research data on this group
145+ are more sensitive and they do not have a lot of developmental peers
People need to mirror with other people in order to develop ourselves and to learn what is normal. People in the 145+ category do not have a lot of people to mirror with.
There are big T traumas and little T traumas. If you are so different from the normal population you probably have a lot of those little T experiences.
145+ humans need to be seen! And in order to be seen they must be recognised
Traditional IQ test are not made for gifted children
Autistic children have lower IQ scores on traditional IQ tests than non-autistic children. With the new IQ test from SCALIQ this does not seems to bethe case anymore
No time preassure on the SCALIQ IQ test and detect the full potential of dyslexic, dyscalculia or color blind children
The SCALIQ IQ test is like testing the motor of a car to it’s full potential, not just how fast the car is going on the road (traditional IQ testing)
Gifted people can have CVs which make them look a bit crazy
The NAGC estimates that 25 % of children who fall into the gifted range do not finish their education!
In the Netherlands it's estimates that 33 % of gifted people do not work in a place where they can show their potential
If we want to solve the big issues of today’s world, such as climate change, Covid-19, world peace, we need to include the brightest talents of our societies
Companies sometimes see giftedness as a disability
Be that person you needed as a kid!
If you are struggling, please know that there are people like you. Please reach out because finding your peers is important for being happy and finding fulfilment

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Talentissimo website | facebook

InterIQ

SCALIQ 145+ IQ tests

Book In The Know

Book

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Sophia Elliott is the founder and podcast host of Our Gifted Kids. She has had a career full of turns and new learnings but found her passion and calling advocation for gifted children and their education. She is a supporter and curator of information for parents of gifted children. She is the mother of three gifted kids and shares her journey and lets other parents of gifted children know that they are not alone. Her podcast and community is just getting started!

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

There is a need for gifted information and podcasts
It’s hard to find all the people connected working in the field of giftedness such as teachers, parents, experts, academics, psychologists
Parenting gifted children is not as easy as the term makes it seem. It’s actually quite challenging.
Your child is usually all you know so it is sometimes hard to recognise giftedness
Most parents of gifted children have to advocate and fight for their children to get the educational environment they need
The higher op on the gifted scale the more specialised education is required because of the asynchronicity
Gifted people can be amazingly flexible generalists which we don’t seem to value as much as specialists
We want to teach our gifted kids to know themselves but how can we do that if we don’t know ourselves?
We need to give children the vocabulary. They already know that they are different. They need to know why and how and therefore, need the vocabulary
We need to have a conversation of what it means for kids & adults to be gifted because the experience of the world is different
Gifted kids are not “easier” or lucky and will not “breeze” through school
Knowing your giftedness will change the way you see yourself and your experience of the world. It will make sense for the better.
Gifted children and adults need to learn how to fail at things! If you don’t want to fail as adults it makes it harder to take risks
You as a parent of a gifted kid has the permission to be THAT parent to have the conversation with schools about your kids need. You have permission to stand up for your child and advocate for it.
It’s not a reward! It is a gifted child’s right to learn at a pace and stage that they need to learn at!
Ask the schools if they have gifted students and what they do for them to learn more about the school’s understanding of gifted education
As a parent you need to be brave and not be afraid to ask the questions and keep looking until you find the right support and school. But it is hard
Sometimes school miss use the term gifted as high achievers. This is not the same.
Kids are a gift but not all kids are gifted!
Familiarise yourself with the education system for teachers. In Australia only the Master’s program for teachers covers the topic of gifted education. Teachers do not learn about giftedness in undergrad.
The taboo is so strong and it is NOT ok! This sends the wrong message to the gifted kids telling them THEY are not ok!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Our Gifted Kids website | facebook & facebook group

Listen to the Podcast

Paula Prober Your Rainforest Mind

Jennifer Harvey Sallin InterGifted

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Julie Skolnick is the Founder of With Understanding Comes Calm, LLC, through which she guides parents of gifted and distractible children, mentors 2e adults, trains teachers on how to understand and address 2e strengths and struggles.

Julie serves as Secretary to the Maryland Superintendent’s Gifted and Talented Advisory Council,is an advisor for “The G Word” film. She is the SENG Maryland liaison, a SENG Model Parent Group (SMPG) trained facilitator and on the Simultaneous Supports committee for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). Julie is also an invited member of the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum Professional Membership Committee.

Julie is also the mother of three twice exceptional children.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Giftedness is much more than the intelligence part, it is essentially heightened awareness
2e (Twice Exceptional) means gifted + a learning disability / difference
2e kids need to know about their neurology to understand who they are and to thrive in social settings
Only when you understand yourself, you can understand various situations
Gifted people do best when they are with gifted people
2e does not cancel itself out: The strength may mask the challenge and the challenge might mask the strength
With understanding comes calm!
Being 2e is not a shortcoming, look at it as a Superpower
Executive Functioning difficulties are challenges for example with processing speed, working memory, organisational skills
ADHD & giftedness can look similar in therms of executive functioning
Overexcitability can be in one or more of the following areas: intellectual, emotional, imagination, sensual, (sensory) and psychomotor
Gifted people have bigger antennas so there is more data the gifted brain has to crunch through
Perfectionism, Imposter Syndrome and Gifted Underachievers are all part of the gifted profile
Start from your strength! Use a strength based approach. Do what you love, not focusing on what is hard for you. If you don’t start with what you love, you will never get to do it! You got to focus on your strength first!
You do not have to watch the News! Protect your sensitive self. These are crazy times and you are allowed to protect yourself from the negative News. Instead, do something kind for someone else and do something kind for yourself.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

With Understanding Comes Calm | Instagram | facebook

2e resources

Let’s Talk 2e | Conference for Educators | Teachers Lounge on facebook

Newsletter

Schedule a free 20 minute consultation

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Pascal Mäser is an Associate Professor at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Basel. In addition of being a brilliant scientist and a great guitar player, he is also a very good chess player! With the recent success of the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”, chess sales have skyrocketed in the last few weeks. I used this opportunity to invite Pascal onto the show and ask him all my burning questions I had about chess!

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

To be a good chess player you do not need patience rather you need to be good at stress and crisis management.
There are different types of chess games depending on how much time is given to each player in total.
As a beginner progress can be made easily by learning a few key principals.
Maybe it does not need a special women’s chess federation but rather more encouragement for girls to start learning to play chess at a young age at the same numbers boys start playing chess.
There are a few great movies and novels written about chess (see below in the links).
There are two types of chess players: The ones who play the opponent’s chess pieces and the ones who play the opponent!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Connect with Pascal on LinkedIn

The Elo rating system

Book by Walter Tevis The Queen’s Gambit

Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit

The Guardian’s article on the success of the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”

Book by Vladimir Nabokov The Luzhin Defense

Movie The Coldest Game

Play online chess on lichess.org

Online chess and tutorials on chess24.com

Chess players mentioned: Carol Partoş Garry Kasparov Judit Polgár Magnus Carlsen Fabiano Caruana Bobby Fischer

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Marc Smolowitz is a multi-award-winning director, producer and executive producer who has been significantly involved in 50+ successful independent films wearing many hats across the film and entertainment business In 2009, Marc founded 13th Gen, a San Francisco based film company that works with a dynamic range of independent film partners globally to oversee the financing, production, post-production, marketing, sales, and distribution efforts of a vibrant portfolio of films and filmmakers. In 2016, he received one of the prestigious IFP Fellowships to attend the Cannes Film Festival’s Producers Network and Marche du Film marking him as one of the USA’s most influential independent film producers.

Currently, Marc is working on the upcoming documentary THE G WORD. Defying popular myths that assume most gifted people are wealthy, white, and will do fine on their own, THE G WORD reveals the economic, cultural, and gender diversity of our nation’s gifted and talented population at every stage of life, highlighting their educational challenges, social isolation, deep emotional sensitivities, and complex, neurodiverse brains. It puts a face to the physical threats experienced by many in our schools and society-at-large, while also revealing a large and lively community of people working hard to meet their needs while challenging the prejudice and trauma that comes with being labeled “smart” in the 21st century.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

#TheShowMustBePaused in this turbulent year, let’s take time to reflect and take a conscious break and for the global experience of this pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe.
Giftedness is also a question about diversity, inclusion and equity
Who gets to be gifted in America and Why?
It takes a lot of fearlessness to take on difficult subjects such as poverty, PTSD, LGBTQ+ & civil rights, HIV & AIDS
THE G WORD movie is the first of its kind
There is a lot of misunderstanding, stereotypes and trauma associated with the term giftedness
IQ is measured on a vertical line rather than a horizontal line
Neurodiversity is the backbone of THE G WORD movie
Words matter and words mean different things to different people
Movies are able to change hearts & minds about powerful and important issues
THE G WORD is intended to create impact through the impact enterprise which takes the movie from the screen into the communities
You need to have an open mind immersing yourself in the topic of giftedness
#TheFutureIsGifted join the conversation and use this hashtag on social media

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Impact Manifesto

6 short films around THE G WORD

Connect with Marc on LinkedIn

13th Gen: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter

Marc's IMDB page

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Born in France, Pascale moved to Norway about 25 years ago. After working a long time as a teacher, she decided that she needed a career change. She became a gestalt therapist and established her therapy practice in Arendal, the little town in Southern Norway: Arendal Psykoterapi og Utvikling (which translates as Arendal Psychotherapy and Development).

Gestalt therapy is an approach which brings the whole of our being into focus. Her focus as a therapist turned gradually toward giftedness as she realised that many of her clients were, in fact, gifted.

Her mission as a therapist is to contribute to better mental health and quality of life. Her vision of the world is one where people are more connected to themselves and to the world around them.

She wishes to give her clients the keys to self-support so that, in time, they can become their own therapist. She loves it when clients spread their wings, make their own choices and experience the freedom of being true to themselves, rather than being who they think others want them to be.

In Pascale’s view, being a therapist is a bit like being a detective: people who come to her often have lost a sense of happiness and meaning, and a certain inner peace or security, and she accompanies them on their search to find it again.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you really want something, you can do it, but you need to grow first as a person
There is a genetic component to giftedness
When you ask yourself “Am I gifted?” and simultaneously doubt it, chances are high your are indeed gifted.
Realising you are gifted helps piece the puzzle together. Your life can seem all over the place where this compoketn is the piece to link all of it together and answers a loft of questions.
Learning about ones giftedness gives a huge sense of relief and empowerment
People with high IQ seek out therapy without realising it’s all connected
Sometimes it’s easier for people to relate to high sensitivity and being highly emotional than the word giftedness
Knowing your own giftedness takes a bit of tame to make sense of it and to re-evaluate your life
what you want/need more of and what you want/need less of
it helps ignite an internal empowerment, a flame and usually gives a new sense of direction
You get strentghtened in your decisions. You weren’t wrong but you were actually right all along
Therapy can be used as a tool for self development
Being gifted doesn’t mean being better than others rather it means approaching life differently
Gifted people have special needs, for example in the work environment
Gifted people suffer from imposter syndrome, perfectionism and procrastination

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Pascale’s website arendalpsykoterapi.no

Send her an email at kontakt@arendalpsykoterapi.com

Find Pascale on Instagram @arendalpsykoterapiogutvikling

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Two weeks ago Laurence learned about the English term “giftedness” by listening to this podcast. After hearing a few of the guests describe their experiences she stared doing her own google research about this topic. She could relate to the stories and the checklists. A week ago she reached out to a gifted specialist in Munich for her own evaluation. Four days ago she had her appointment and the confirmation that she is indeed an intellectually gifted adult. She is currently processing this information and reflecting on the past as well as planning for her future. Her story is a beautiful and typical example of how someone learns about their own giftedness in their adult life. During these first few days she experienced the typical emotional rollercoaster. It is amazing that Laurence is willing to share and allow us a glimpse into these few vulnerable days.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

You can have a high IQ and be lazy student
Despite the stereotype, you can be a gifted blond woman
Some people are made to feel guilty for what others don’t have. For example being a fast learner can evoke jealousy in others.
What you decide to do with your giftedness is your own personal choice.
Not knowing about your own giftedness while growing up and being a young adult might be a good thing, as it takes away the pressure and the expectations (from other but also yourself)

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Andrea Schwiebert’s website and book

Praxis für Hochbegabte München website

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

After years of feeling “too much,” Aurora Remember Holtzmann finally realised that intensity, is the source of her greatest power. Now instead of beating herself up about not measuring up to her own self-imposed standards, she is on a mission to help gifted and outside-the-box thinkers befriend their brains and use their fire without getting burned through her Embracing Intensity Podcast and community, coaching, and strengths-based educational assessment.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you really want something, you can do it, but you need to grow first as a person
Gifted children and adults can fall into the category of “underachievers”
Gifted children with ADHD are sometimes able to compensate their ADHD with their giftedness, which can lead to chronic pain, exhaustion or burnout
Children and adults who have two challenges, for example gifted and autism or ADHD are called “2e” or “twice exceptional”
ADHD is not a lack of attention it is rather a lack of attention regulation
People with executive functioning challenges have difficulties finishing tasks which might seem very easy and basic to others
Giftedness does not make you automatically intense and intensity does not make you automatically gifted but if you combine the two, it has its unique issues
Usually people are not over-diagnosed but rather: people who have ADHD and giftedness might be under-diagnosed due to their ability to compensate for their ADHD
Gifted people do not seem to have more mental issues over time. Therefore, people seeking for answers and help who are gifted might be the ones who do have twice or tripple exceptionalities.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Her podcast, blog and so much more can be found on her website: auroraremember.com

You can find a free copy of her workbook, Harnessing the Power of Your Intensity! A Self-Regulation Workbook For Gifted, Creative And Twice-Exceptional thinkers at www.auroraremember.com/harness-your-power

Embracing Intensity Community: embracingintensity.com

Her YouTube Channel

René Brooks black girl lost keys

Aurora’s Youtube video on René Brooks: Thrice-Exceptional: Gifted, ADHD and Black

Jade Ribera blog on overexcitabilities

James Webb’s book Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Asperger's, Depression, and Other Disorders

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Daniel Bruce Levin tested in the genius level in first grade which makes him an intellectually gifted adult. His biography reads like he lived five lives instead of only one. Here is a short bio of what he did so far:

He walked away from an opportunity to run a billion dollar business, to hitchhike around the world to find happiness and inner peace. He studied in a seminary five years and left one day before becoming a Rabbi and he has lived as a Monk in a monastery for 10 years. As Director of Business Development, he grew Hay House from $3,000,000 a year in sales to $100,000,000 a year in revenue.

He is rare blend of businessman and mystic who sees what others do not see. It has been this one quality more than any other that has thrown him into some of the most exclusive boardrooms to help companies innovate new ways of finding solutions when the old ways stop working.

He is the author of The Mosaic, a life changing fable that invites people to listen to those others do not hear and to see the situations in their life differently.

We talked about his experience in school and how his giftedness has had an influence on his life and the decisions he made and how he sees the world from different angles.

Through out his life he strived for simplicity, a way to describe the complex world in more simple ways. “Simple” is not to be mistaken with “easy” but in a more condensed and pure form with the messy information in a neat format.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you really want something, you can do it. But you need to grow first as a person.
There are different sides to how you can experience the world. Change your perspective and you see a whole new version of the world.
Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. Enjoy the middle part! This is where the magic lies.
Start listening. Not just with your ears but with your mind.
Listen not only to to what humans say, listen to what your business is telling you, listen to your body, listen nature and your whole environment.
Simplicity is not the same as easy. Only when you say something in a simple way you have truly understood a complex subject.
Having a brain which is different from the norm can make you feel isolated and lonely. Keep searching and connecting to people who understand you.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:DanielBruceLevin.com

TheMosaicOnline.Com

TheMosaicPodcast.com

The Mosaic Online Conversations

Where to buy his book: The Mosaic Online Shop or on Amazon

Want to join the Club: The Mosaicbook Club

His YouTube Channel

His email: zenseidanny@me.com

See the picture of the socialite / old hag in this article on Thrive Global

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Saskia De Feijter is a conscious knitter, entrepreneur, podcaster and mom of two. Yes, she is definitely a multipotentialite and maybe also a gifted adult? She is currently on her journey of discovering giftedness as a topic and as an explanation for herself. I invited her onto this show to share with us her story and her struggles to accept the fact that she might be indeed an unidentified adult. She shares her story of how she grew up not fitting in but always knowing exactly who she was and where she wanted to go next. She is only 45 years old but has already had multiple careers in various different industries. But what all her endeavours had in common was her enormous creativity and drive and her passion for the arts.

Confronted with the question if she ever considered being a gifted adult, she is now on her very personal, but also very typical, journey of discovery. She shares her most vulnerable thoughts around this topic and what it would mean for her and hear life looking back but also going forward.

I am so happy she trusted me to share her story and thoughts and giving us a glimpse in how it feels to be in the middle of a giftedness-discovery journey.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you really want something, you can do it. But you need to grow first as a person.
Trust your heart and brain.
Knitting is really good for your brain! It is almost therapeutic, especially when your brain is always on overdrive.
Sometimes we need to go smaller and slower in order to grow bigger in business but also in life!
The journey of discovering your own giftedness is emotional. It might also be scary and you could experience shame. You are not alone.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Visit Saskia’s website: ja-wol.com

Follow her on Instagram: @jawolrotterdam

Listen to her podcast: A Smaller Life with Saskia De Feijter

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Paula Prober is a psychotherapist, consultant, blogger, and author in private practice in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Over the 35+ years she has worked with the gifted, Paula has been a teacher and presenter at universities, webinars, and conferences. She consults internationally with gifted adults and parents of gifted children. Her first book, Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth, is an in-depth look at giftedness including case studies, strategies for greater self-understanding and growth, and numerous resources. Her new book, Journey Into Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide For Gifted Adults And Teens, Book Lovers, Overthinkers, Geeks, Sensitives, Brainiacs, Intuitives, Procrastinators, and Perfectionists is a compilation of her most popular blog posts and includes specific strategies to guide readers back to authenticity, purpose, love, and to finally deciding what colour to paint the living room.

In this episode I talk with Paula about the Rainforest Mind, what it means to be gifted and how hard it is for people to accept that they are indeed gifted. She also answered all my questions.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Gifted people not necessarily do well in school. School does not necessarily meet the needs of the gifted children.
Even if you are smart, you might need guidance and you can be depressed and suffer from anxiety.
If you don’t fit in anywhere, are sensitive and creative you might have a Rainforest Mind
If you have a hard time believing you are gifted, you probably are.
You don’t need to have a college degree or high achievements to be a gifted person.
People are like ecosystems. The rainforest is the most complex of them all. Often misunderstood and being cut down!
If you answer many of the quiz questions on Paula’s website with yes, you have a Rainforest Mind!
You don’t need an evaluation, you don’t necessarily need therapy or coaching (unless you want to), read the books and embrace your new found explanation.
Even if you have an official evaluation, gifted adults have a difficult time accepting that they are gifted. Giftedness is a spectrum. If you need to tell yourself you are BG (barely gifted) in order to accept it, this is fine.
Some gifted people are mulitpotentials and they don’t want to focus on one thing, one field or one profession.
Gifted people love to learn but want to learn at their own speed and their interest of the moment.
Having a non linear learning and working style is gifted trait. Working simultaneously on 10 projects, reading 10 books at the same time without finishing some or all is a gifted trait, not an ADHD trait.
Gifted people don’t need to finish everything. It could look flaky from the outside but the gifted person already got everything out of it and is ready to move on.
It can be very lonely to be a gifted person. Once you accept you are gifted and understand yourself, look for other people who share the same interests and values. Don’t give up finding other people like you!
Gifted people have the urge to do good in the world. To help fight climate change or injustice. Sign up to volunteer and find likeminded people. Find your authentic voice, because the planet needs you!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Visit Paula’s blog and website: rainforestmind.com

Quiz questions: Rainforest Mind Quiz

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Craig is an amazing person! He spent most of his life in the navy and travelled the world. But only when he retired from the military and worked in corporate America, he realised he was different. It turns out Craig is on the Autism spectrum with Aspergers and this is the reason why reading facial expressions and other communication cues do not come naturally to him. But he realised that communication and interactions between people is so important that he started learning and applying the science of human interactions and communication. Today he is in the process of launching his own business of helping young people and people with Aspergers to learn how to communicate better. In today’s time this is even more important as we start loosing the in person connection due the increasing use of social media and social distancing. We can all learn from Craig and his message of having a face to face conversation with people around you and start to truly listen and engaging.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Everyone can learn to communicate better. It is a skill and like any other, can be taught and learned.
Every person deserves to be able to communicate well.
Be kind to everyone, especially to the people who are not your favourites!
When you improve your communication skills, your relationships and hence your quality of life will improve, too.
Society wants to conform us to a system. If you don’t conform, you are ostracised.
You can be friends with someone without agreeing on everything.
The most important thing when communicating is to be able to read the other person’s emotion and being empathic. It is important to understand the meaning and the context something was said in, not just the words.
Knowledge isn’t the same as understanding.
The more connected we become, the less personal our interactions become.
Put your phones down and have a conversation with the people you are with.
Our mind is set up to keep you safe not to make you happy. We often make decisions based on fear.
Journaling helps you to communicate with yourself. Listening to yourself is confronting.
Discovering and overcoming your own limiting believes is key. You are the only one standing in your own way.
Be careful how you speak to yourself! Speak to yourself only like you speak with other people.
Everyone wants to be seen, it is our human need.
Be aware of what you say and how you say it. Make it fun! Smile when you pick up the phone!
There is only one race: the human race!
Your ability to do good is greater than you realise. Together we can make a real big impact!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Contact Craig via email at hello@escapingsocialawkwardness.com

Cathy Heller and her Podcast Don't keep your day job

The Science of People

Zig Ziglar

Seth Godin

Mel Robbins

Book: The third door

Book: The big leap

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

I had the pleasure to speak to Jennifer Harvey Sallin. She is the founding director of InterGifted, an oasis for gifted adults in the neuronorm desert. She shares her incredible story of being an identified gifted child who grew up in an enriched classroom environment but who was never told that giftedness and all its attributes will be part of her identity for the rest of her life. Only once she suffered through gifted related struggles in her mid-twenties, she started exploring what it means to be a gifted adult. She founded InterGifted out of necessity to provide attuned service and support for people like her. She shares with us how InterGifted started out and what it has become over the last five years. This month marks the 5 years anniversary of her amazing platform and community and I am wishing her and her team all the best for what is yet to come!

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If there are gifted children, there are also gifted adults.
There are 6 basic areas of intelligence: intellectual, emotional, creative, sensual, physical and existential. (www.intergifted.com/what-is-giftedness)
Giftedness is a spectrum from mildly to profoundly gifted: (intergifted.com/high-exceptional-profound)
You don’t need to do an IQ test to know if you are gifted. The evaluation is done in a verbal assessment based on your experiences. No need to be scared of the “test”!
If you find out you are gifted, please learn and understand what this means for you. Otherwise you bring gifted baggage into your relationships with friends and family but also with co-workers and other social interactions.
We live in a complex world and we need all hands on deck! Do your research about giftedness now so that you can show up as your authentic self and with all your potential!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

www.InterGifted.com

Jennifer’s Gifted Trauma Podcast: www.intergifted.com/conversations-gifted-trauma

Jennifer on the Embracing Intensity Podcast: https://www.auroraremember.com/episode-00/10-the-experience-of-giftedness-with-jennifer-harvey-sallin

Jennifer shares her story why she started InterGifted: www.intergifted.com/growing-gifted-community

www.rediscovering-yourself.com

Dabrowski's overexcitabilities: www.intergifted.com/living-with-intensity

Difference between overexcitabilites and giftedness (also linked in the above article): (drdevon.com/giftedness-and-overexcitabilities-part-8-of-myth-busters-alternative-therapies-for-2e-learners)

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

In this episode I had the pleasure to talk to Dr. Marie-Lise Schläppy. She is a Marine Biologist and also an expert in gifted education. She shares with us her story and her hypothesis that we better not call it what it is: gifted! A lot of unidentified gifted adults are put off by the term “gifted” due to stigma. In order to capture their attention and to start a conversation it might be better we use synonyms to describe giftedness such as “intensity” “complexity” and “sensitivity”. We also talked about the need for gifted adults to be identified as this information is important for increase in well-being. Giftedness affects all aspects of someone’s life. Knowing you are gifted helps manage expectations and will help you see yourself in a more positive light.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If there are gifted children, there are also gifted adults.
A lot of gifted adults did not get identified in childhood.
The older you are when you find out you are gifted, the harder it is to accept it.
Finding out one is gifted can be a very emotional process.
Being identified as gifted has the potential to change someone’s life!
Knowing one is gifted helps heal the past and increases well-being.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Dr Marie-Lise Schläppy on LinkedIn

Dr Marie-Lise Schläppy on Youtube - Theory of positive disintegration

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron

Être Adulte À Haut Potentiel: Paroles Et Témoignages by Stéphanie Bénard

Enjoying the Gift of Being Uncommon: Extra Intelligent, Intense, and Effective by Willem Kuipers

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

After talking to my friend Nicole in the last episode, I went on a quest to find out more about the topic of unidentified gifted adults and about myself. I share my personal story on how I learned that I was indeed gifted, too. This was an unexpected and emotional discovery. Realizing that this is a “thing” and that 2 % of the population fall into this category made me rethink the content of my podcast. I would like to deticate this show to the topic of gifted adults. But would love to include related topics and topics of interest to gifted adults. So let’s call it a “lifestyle podcast for gifted adults”. This is a biweekly (hopefully soon weekly) show dedicated to embrace giftedness and all it’s complexity! The show will air on Mondays to give you a boost into the week, to lift you up and to motivate you to keep working on yourself, your career, your relationships and your happiness.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

If I can be gifted, you might be, too! Don’t write it off so quickly.
Dyslexia and not being able to learn things by heart might be a sign of giftedness!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website Unleash Monday

Instagram: @unleash.monday

Book (in German): Kluge Köpfe, krumme Wege?: Wie Hochbegabte den passenden Berufsweg finden by Andrea Schwiebert

Book (in German): Kassandras Schleier: Das Drama der hochbegabten Frau by Wolfgang Schmidbauer

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

If there are gifted children, there are by default gifted adults. But a lot of them do not know. They are the so called “unidentified gifted adults”. Nicole shares her story how she, by pure chance, learned at age 36 that she is intellectually gifted. Her IQ is over 130 points and this brings it’s own sets of challenges. You might think of gifted adults as geniuses and math whizz but most gifted adults are none of those! Instead of having it easy at school, at work and in relationships, they face distinct road blocks. Nicole gives us a glimpse into what it was like growing up not knowing about her giftedness. She also shares her unique, but common, challenges and how her “diagnosis” changed her life.

This episode was supposed to be the first of a series of empowered young women. But the conversation took an unexpected turn and it is now the first episode of a podcast targeted for (unidentified) gifted adults.

Unleash Monday on Instagram: @unleash.monday

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Book: Adultes Surdoués: Cadeau ou Fardeau? by Valérie Foussier

www.mensa.org

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

View Details

Do you suffer from imposter syndrome? Have you been called „too much“, „too intense“ „too sensitive“? Do you just hate inequality? Do you have difficulties finding your career path because you are a multi potential person who has a 1000 ideas and 500 projects... all at the same time? Do you have a weird evolved sense of humour? Do you suffer from dyslexia but are fast at grasping new concepts? Do you have a hard time fitting in and sometime feel like a minority of one?

Well you are not alone! This is why I am here. I felt the urge and need to have a place to collect all the interesting stories, concepts and ideas which inspired me over the last couple of years. But more importantly, I stumbled across a very interesting and surprising finding! It’s not a secret. But I can‘t name it, because THAT word might scare you off!

If you relate remotely to anything I just mentioned then this show is for you! I would love for you to give it a listen. It might help you realise that what you‘ve always thought what is „wrong“ with you, is actually what is right with you!

So together we will make your Mondays awesome and help you tackle the week, the month, the year and your life!

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UnleashMonday)

Gifted Unleashed: Recent Episodes

Nadja Cereghetti