The categories below answer some common questions about High Sensitivity and Sensitive Thrive. If you have further questions that aren't answered on my website, please send them to me.
When you hover over a question, the text will become darker. To see the answer, click on the question or its box.
When you hover over a question, the text will become darker. To see the answer, click on the question or its box.
How do I know if I am / someone else is Highly Sensitive?
First, consider whether you/they have all of these four characteristics of High Sensitivity:
- Depth of processing - considering things deeply; taking time to make new decisions; being reflective
- Emotionality - feeling things deeply/intensely; being affected by others' emotions as well as your own; you cry/laugh/feel the beauty of a movie like it's really happening, for example.
- Being sensitive to subtle stimuli - picking up on things that aren't so obvious to most people; noticing people's expressions/body language; 5 senses more open to input, so you hear, feel (touch), see, smell and taste subtleties or many more levels of difference than others; you don't need much of a push to notice something.
- Being easily (I prefer 'quickly') overstimulated - due to all the above, your ideal space of stimulation fills up more quickly than non-sensitive persons, with the result that you become overstimulated seemingly more easily and quickly than most others. * This is a really obvious aspect of High Sensitivity, one that others notice easiest - but it's only one part. If someone has this and not the other characteristics, it's not enough to determine High Sensitivity.
People with autism are also easily overstimulated by external input. Are autism and High Sensitivity related?
No. The research consistently shows that ASD and High Sensitivity are unrelated things. The way people's brains and nervous systems work in each are very different. There are several disorders/conditions in which overstimulation is common, but it's not a defining characteristic on its own (High Sensitivity is not a disorder, but shares this characteristic with some). The reasons which lead to being easily overwhelmed by stimuli are different for autism and HS. If you want to learn more about this topic, there are several articles at hsperson.com/faq. For example, hsperson.com/faq/hs-or-asd. I've also written an article for Linked In about misconceptions, which includes this one.
High Sensitivity and Introversion - are they the same?
Short answer: no. High Sensitivity, or Responsiveness, is a genetic temperament. Introversion is a personality trait.
Long answer: Introversion and extroversion are the best known of the 5 personality trait pairs in Jungian psychology (a framework developed by psychologist Carl Jung). They describe the main focus of a person's thoughts - inner or outer. Introversion describes a more inward focus, while extroversion describes a more outward focus. (Note that this has nothing to do with friendliness or interest in others.)
Sensitivity or Responsiveness - in psychology parlance, 'Sensory Processing Sensitivity' - is a temperament. This means the way in which a person's nervous system is designed to respond their environment. It involves the brain and the rest of the body. As I've described on this website, it's about awareness and processing of information: Highly Sensitive people take in much more information from their environment than non-Sensitive people. They then process it more deeply.
Highly Sensitive, or Responsive, people can have either more extroversion or introversion in their personality. It's been found that, on average, 70% of Responsive people are more introverted, and 30% are more extroverted.
Why is this important?
(a) Responsive extroverted people need 'downtime' in the way that all Responsive people do, because they are taking in the greater amount of information that this temperament brings, and processing that greater amount deeply. Their need for time and space to do this is based on their temperament, not their personality.
(b) Responsive introverted people have different needs, and abilities, to Un-responsive introverted people. They are adversely affected by, because they are more aware of and sensitive to, bright lighting, noise, time pressure, etc. They connect information differently, have innate predispositions for empathy, conscientiousness, insight, careful decision making, and the rest of the benefits I've discussed on this site.
One of the reasons these two things are confused is because the introversion-extroversion concept has become more widely known in recent years, and introversion has become more accepted as a neutral, or even positive, trait, rather than something negative. But in this process, introversion has been somewhat misunderstood - probably because, while it's more obvious, and more widely distributed than the Responsive temperament, Responsiveness/High Sensitivity is much less well known. It's becoming better known all the time, but the two have been conflated.
For more reading on this, see Introversion, Extroversion, and the Highly Sensitive Person,
and this interesting opinion piece by Scott Kaufmann about misconceptions surrounding introversion: Will the Real Introverts Please Stand Up?
I've also shared about this confusion on my social media accounts: www.facebook.com/sensitivethrive, and www.linkedin.com/company/sensitive-thrive.
There's still some confusion within Scott's view, just because the various personality traits described by Carl Jung didn't take temperament into account, and therefore include some of its aspects in their descriptions. So when he talks about openness to experience being also intellectual (yes!), I see in this an aspect of High Sensitivity, not introversion.
Long answer: Introversion and extroversion are the best known of the 5 personality trait pairs in Jungian psychology (a framework developed by psychologist Carl Jung). They describe the main focus of a person's thoughts - inner or outer. Introversion describes a more inward focus, while extroversion describes a more outward focus. (Note that this has nothing to do with friendliness or interest in others.)
Sensitivity or Responsiveness - in psychology parlance, 'Sensory Processing Sensitivity' - is a temperament. This means the way in which a person's nervous system is designed to respond their environment. It involves the brain and the rest of the body. As I've described on this website, it's about awareness and processing of information: Highly Sensitive people take in much more information from their environment than non-Sensitive people. They then process it more deeply.
Highly Sensitive, or Responsive, people can have either more extroversion or introversion in their personality. It's been found that, on average, 70% of Responsive people are more introverted, and 30% are more extroverted.
Why is this important?
(a) Responsive extroverted people need 'downtime' in the way that all Responsive people do, because they are taking in the greater amount of information that this temperament brings, and processing that greater amount deeply. Their need for time and space to do this is based on their temperament, not their personality.
(b) Responsive introverted people have different needs, and abilities, to Un-responsive introverted people. They are adversely affected by, because they are more aware of and sensitive to, bright lighting, noise, time pressure, etc. They connect information differently, have innate predispositions for empathy, conscientiousness, insight, careful decision making, and the rest of the benefits I've discussed on this site.
One of the reasons these two things are confused is because the introversion-extroversion concept has become more widely known in recent years, and introversion has become more accepted as a neutral, or even positive, trait, rather than something negative. But in this process, introversion has been somewhat misunderstood - probably because, while it's more obvious, and more widely distributed than the Responsive temperament, Responsiveness/High Sensitivity is much less well known. It's becoming better known all the time, but the two have been conflated.
For more reading on this, see Introversion, Extroversion, and the Highly Sensitive Person,
and this interesting opinion piece by Scott Kaufmann about misconceptions surrounding introversion: Will the Real Introverts Please Stand Up?
I've also shared about this confusion on my social media accounts: www.facebook.com/sensitivethrive, and www.linkedin.com/company/sensitive-thrive.
There's still some confusion within Scott's view, just because the various personality traits described by Carl Jung didn't take temperament into account, and therefore include some of its aspects in their descriptions. So when he talks about openness to experience being also intellectual (yes!), I see in this an aspect of High Sensitivity, not introversion.
How long does the consultation process take?
A full consultation will take approximately one week (overall - this doesn't mean 8 hours every day for 5 days at your workplace, or even consecutive days. We'll work that out). It depends on the organisation - their schedule and processes, as well as their size and complexity. For example, I need to observe a meeting or two, so that needs to happen on a day when meetings are scheduled. A more complex organisation will have more information to evaluate and create recommendations for; more departments to look at, etc., which means a longer process. Some of the work involved over this time period occurs in your workplace (observation, evaluations, conversations, etc.), and some at mine (preparation, analysis, choosing recommendations, etc.).
what sort of changes are you talking about - will we need to change a lot, and will it be expensive or difficult?
This is best discussed during the contracting stage, because it depends on the workplace. Overall, the changes I'm talking about are things like different lighting choices, partitioning areas for different purposes, offering private or semi-private spaces, adjusting break practices (times, duration, location), renovating meeting practices, adjusting feedback processes, offering flexibility in how work is performed, and so on. This really depends on the purpose of the organisation, its size and complexity, what's currently working and not, and the scope that leaders are prepared to take. My recommendations are an invitation to the organisation. There are different levels of action, and I'll provide a few options that you can choose from, depending on how far you want to go/ your budget/ what's physically possible.