HSP Therapy
You’re not “too sensitive.”
You’re exquisitely perceptive.
Therapy for Women and HSPs in Wisconsin and Massachusetts
What do you mean when you say Highly Sensitive Person?
People that have a rich inner life, who deeply appreciate nature and music, who have the gift of lots of empathy. It might mean that you also have a hard time shaking off criticism. Your depth of empathy means you experience a high level of pain. You may feel like a sponge for the emotions of the people around you. Keenly sensing other people’s needs can leave you feeling obligated to take care of them. Being Highly Sensitive is a trait people are born with (about 20% of the population is Highly Sensitive).
Am I a Highly Sensitive Person? And does that matter?
A good way to explore this is to take a brief questionnaire that Dr. Elaine Aron created from her extensive work and research on the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) that you can find here on her website. You might identify with some or most of the characteristics, and to varying degrees. Generally, Highly Sensitive people are very reflective and need more space for processing. You might also have a lower tolerance for noise, scents, and lots of activity. HSPs tend to be very in tune with other people’s needs, and often live a deeply spiritual life. If you are Highly Sensitive, it means you have different needs than people who are not Highly Sensitive.
How does being Highly Sensitive affect my depression?
It’s likely that the emotional pain of feeling helpless and alone is amplified if you are Highly Sensitive. HSPs tend to feel both joy and pain more intensely than people who are not Highly Sensitive. The things that make you feel depressed seem insignificant compared to other people’s experiences and reactions. With HSP depression, this can worsen the part of depression that makes you feel like there is something wrong with you. Even without depression, being Highly Sensitive has a weight to it: a wonderful weight when you are feeling joy, reveling in nature; a beautiful weight (that may also feel obligatory) when offering empathy to the world and those around you; a crushing weight when feeling pain.
The messages people send you (“Get over it,” “Don’t let that bother you so much,” “It’s really not a big deal”) end up invalidating your very real experience. You already beat yourself up, so when you can’t be “on” all the time, like it seems everyone around you is able to do, it makes it harder not to feed the voice of self-hatred. Further, the fact that it takes you longer to make decisions than most people (which on a good day means that the decisions you make are well-researched and sound), can become debilitating when your stress level rises too much.
Can working with an HSP therapist help?
Being a Highly Sensitive Person has contributed to your success already. Therapy will pay attention to these successes when looking at how you are also suffering. You don’t need therapy because you are an HSP, but the therapy you need is different from what people who are not Highly Sensitive might need. It’s important that your therapist can validate your experience, give you plenty of time for reflection, and recognize how being Highly Sensitive benefits you.
If you felt invalidated or not understood by a therapist in the past, they may not have understood high sensitivity, and this may have reinforced the feeling that something is wrong with you. There is nothing wrong with you. Being understood is the basis of getting good therapy. You might feel too “broken” for therapy, or your last therapist may have given you some worksheets and a reading list but wasn’t understanding you. (Worksheets and reading lists are great, you just need something else from your therapist.)
In fact HSP’s may benefit more from therapy than non-HSP’s. Research shows that although negative experiences affect you more deeply than others, you also get a greater positive impact from beneficial experiences. This includes supportive environments throughout childhood and beyond.
If you’re Highly Sensitive, HSP Therapy is important.
When women I work with tell me they have had therapy before, often they say they didn’t feel understood by their therapist. It’s hard to engage in the process of therapy if you don’t feel understood.
That’s why I created a practice for psychotherapy in Madison, WI. My job is to understand you, whether it is therapy for HSPs, therapy for anxiety, or depression therapy (or all three, which is very common).
Want another opportunity to feel understood?
Depression and the Highly Sensitive Person
Listen to my conversation with Dr. Lourdes Viado on the Women In-Depth podcast. We discuss the characteristics specific to the HSP brain and their impact on HSPs, the importance of seeking out an HSP-informed therapist when you are a HSP, and hope for Highly Sensitive women struggling with depression.
Click on the play button on the podcast on the left to listen.
5 Tips on How to thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person
Not ready to start therapy? Keep learning about Highly Sensitive People in these blog posts:
What is a Highly Sensitive Person?
How do I know if I’m Highly Sensitive?
Five Benefits of Being Highly Sensitive
Five Things that Highly Sensitive People Need
Five Tips on How to Thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person
Why High Sensitivity Matters: An HSP Therapist Weighs In
Highly Sensitive People and Depression: Where is the Hope?
Sensory Processing Sensitivity: An HSP Therapist gives some context