Therapy for Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP)
Many of the clients I get to work with identify as Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs). If you’re reading this, it’s likely you may also share this aspect of identity and are curious about how therapy is specifically geared towards supporting you as an HSP. In this blog post, I’ll share a little about what I’ve noticed brings HSPs to therapy and what working together can look like.
Feeling misaligned in your experience as an HSP
As someone who also identifies as highly sensitive, I imagine you’re familiar with the challenges of finding balance in multiple aspects of life. Trying to fit everything and everyone in while still finding energy for yourself feels impossible. This constant overextending results in frustration and burnout, making it hard to connect meaningfully with others in the ways you long for and are gifted at cultivating. You feel shame for being overstimulated in settings where others seem fine and overwhelmed by work tasks that colleagues easily handle.
As a deep feeler and thinker, you find yourself overthinking and worrying about being a burden, often people-pleasing, in hopes of preventing that. These fears aren’t new; maybe they have become constant companions from growing up hearing things like, “Just get over it” and “Stop being so sensitive.” Finding yourself stuck in these cycles has brought resentment and feeling at odds with yourself.
When you’re emotionally exhausted in these ways, it’s hard to embrace your strengths, such as your:
Highly empathetic and conscientious nature, which allows you to connect meaningfully
Vivid imagination, creativity, and appreciation for beauty in the world around you
Wide breadth of emotions and subsequent ability to feel highly attuned to yourself
Perceptiveness and appreciation for subtle details, picking up on things others may not
You’re ready to re-write your narrative around your sensitivities, learning to work with and embrace them rather than pushing them away. You can shift away from self-judgements and into self-compassion and step into a life in which sensitivity starts to feel like a strength again.
Photo by Janosch Diggelmann on Unsplash
What therapy can look like for HSPs:
It’s powerful to believe “I can take up space” and implement life changes that reflect this. Therapy specifically geared towards supporting your unique needs as an HSP is an invitation to self-compassion. It acknowledges and honors your uniqueness and your story. This work combines depth and practicality. You will gain insight into how the narrative around your sensitivity came to be and why you often find friction, creating space to bridge the gap toward balance. With this in mind, you can feel empowered to discover and implement tools that honor your sensitivities and make sense in your daily life.
Common reasons HSPs seek therapy:
Struggles with overstimulation lead to difficulty regulating somatically (body) and emotionally, creating overwhelm and feeling limited
Perfectionism and internal criticism lead to low self-confidence and self-esteem
Frequent overthinking and ruminating make it difficult to make decisions and navigate transitions effectively.
A high capacity for empathy can make it hard to balance your needs and others, resulting in struggles with setting boundaries, people-pleasing, difficulty with vulnerability, and expressing your needs.
Our Approach to Therapy with HSPs: At Therapy on Fig, we operate from a framework rooted in curiosity and strive to provide trauma-informed care with a tailored approach to you. Some of our therapists also identify as HSPs, so we bring professional expertise and personal understanding into our work.
A few ways we may specifically support your journey as an HSP in therapy are through Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). We understand how early attachment wounds, traumatic experiences, and greater systemic messaging contribute to harmful beliefs around sensitivity.
Using IFS: In response to the above, protective parts of us arise out of necessity to keep us safe and connected, often resulting in a rejection and/or dismissal of our needs as HSPs. Using IFS, we work to heal those burdened beliefs so that these parts of us don’t have to show up in such extreme ways, allowing you to better navigate your sensitivity. This modality incorporates somatic work and mindfulness, equipping you with emotional regulation practices to prevent overwhelm and frustration.
Using CBT: Together, we cultivate mindfulness by identifying patterns of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that specific triggers bring up. We also identify what unhelpful core beliefs show up around sensitivity and work towards challenging them. This allows you to feel more in control of your experience and provides practical skills so you can step back from spiraling and feel better anchored so you’re not getting carried away in overthinking.
Using EMDR: We work together to identify upsetting experiences that have created your “template” for negative patterns beliefs about yourself, and your sensitivity. We reprocess these past experiences so that they are no longer triggering. This process helps foster positive beliefs, emotional regulation skills, and confidence to handle future stressful experiences. Because HSPs may be more impacted by relational traumas such as bullying or unmet needs, reprocessing work around these experiences can be especially helpful.
Choosing therapy that addresses your sensitivities and unique story can support you in greater fulfillment, confidence, and self-understanding. You don’t have to feel stuck in a lifestyle that feels out of alignment and exhausting. I hope you feel seen and take that courageous next step of reaching out to start your healing journey– you’ve already taken a step by being here!