…It is actually a beautiful and powerful trait! However, it can be challenging in a world that often values being thick-skinned, extroverted and fast-paced.

Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is a term used to describe individuals with heightened emotional and sensory sensitivity. This describes those of us who often feel things deeply and notice subtleties in tone, atmosphere, and relationships that others might miss. Sensitivity is frequently connected to creativity, empathy, intuition, and a rich inner life. It’s also often related to introversion, and it’s a trait that about 15% to 20% of people share.

I’m a highly sensitive person myself, and this is a population I feel deeply connected to. I know how easily sensitivity can turn into self-doubt in a culture that doesn’t always understand it. Many highly sensitive people grow up receiving messages that they should be less affected, more outgoing, or less emotional. Over time, this can lead to feeling “too much,” or like something about you needs to be fixed.

At the same time, sensitivity is often at the heart of what makes you perceptive, thoughtful, creative, and deeply attuned to others. Rather than something to overcome, it can become a source of meaning and strength. The work in therapy often involves learning to feel more at home in your sensitivity, rather than pushing it away.

Together, we might explore how sensitivity shows up in your life, how it connects to anxiety or self-criticism, and how to find steadiness within your natural depth. This can include learning to recognize overstimulation, developing boundaries, softening the inner critic, and reconnecting with the parts of yourself that feel most alive and authentic.

You don’t need to become less sensitive.
The work is often about learning how to live more comfortably within your sensitivity, and allowing it to become a grounded and meaningful way of being in the world.