Coaching, Consulting & Mentoring
If you are interested in coaching, consulting or mentoring for your unique needs, I can support you in one or more of the following areas:
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​​​you're a gifted, intense and/or highly creative adolescent or young adult struggling with issues such as perfectionism, anxiety, burnout, and/or relating to peers or 'authority' figures​​
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you're a gifted adolescent or young adult overwhelmed with the current social and ecological injustices and crises in our world
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you're a parent experiencing challenges at home and/or at school with a child or teen who is intense, sensitive, and misunderstood
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you're an adult wondering if you and/or your child might be gifted or twice-exceptional, and want to better understand and support your unique experience
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My coaching is done online via Zoom; I work with people all over the world. You are welcome to contact me to schedule an introductory session to explore how we might work together.
Gifted Coaching & Mentoring for Teens and Adults
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Are you intense, complex, creative, curious, highly sensitive, and idealistic?
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Have you struggled to fit in or felt like you are too much for others, but have never been able to understand why?
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Do you often feel overwhelmed by your own intense thoughts, feelings, and reactions to things?
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Have you recently discovered your child is gifted or twice-exceptional and wonder if you might be, too?
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If these are true for you (or if you're currently pondering the many possibilities of how these may or may not apply to you), you might explore what it means to have a gifted or neurodivergent mind.
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Giftedness is very misunderstood. Most people, including many professionals, understand giftedness as a high IQ score coupled with outstanding achievement in a certain domain. While giftedness does look like that in many cases, it is actually much more complex and often appears as a very different set of characteristics. Twice-exceptionality (2e) such as autism or learning differences add other complexities that are also misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
Gifted-specific support + coaching can help.
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I help you understand the unique workings of your mind and your experiences as a gifted, 2e and/or highly creative person. A large part of my coaching is geared towards helping you learn how to support your intensity and honor your needs in ways that lead to greater agency, self-compassion, and possibilities for personal growth.
Parent Coaching + Consults
The right understanding at the right time can change everything.
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Having a coach who understands the psychology of intensity and giftedness/twice-exceptionality, as well as the unique needs, challenges, and opportunities that come with it makes a world of difference. Many of my clients have been unable to find support via traditional approaches. Intensity and giftedness/2e are often misdiagnosed as attention and behavior problems and/or parenting shortcomings. In many cases, giftedness is overlooked altogether. Without understanding the full picture, intensity can express itself in increasingly negative ways.
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We work together to understand the unique makeup and needs of your child's mind and how to support this complexity in ways that nurture his/her/their expression.
Your child is bright, creative, sensitive, perceptive, and persistent. You marvel at these wonderful qualities, and at the same time, are perplexed and overwhelmed by their intensity and how it gets misunderstood and expressed in negative ways.
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You likely feel an overwhelming mix of fear, guilt, anger, and confusion, wondering if you're doing something wrong and why other parents don't seem to have these challenges. Teachers, family members, and maybe even health professionals, may be telling you that there's "something wrong" and doling out advice and/or consequences that only make things worse.
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And you're exhausted.
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Here's what I know for sure: There's nothing wrong with your child. And there's nothing wrong with you as a parent.
You have a child who is "wired" differently and once you understand and learn how to support this type of neurodiversity in new ways, you, your child, and your family can thrive.
UNSURE ABOUT WHETHER YOU AND/OR YOUR CHILD IS GIFTED?
While I don't conduct formal quantitative assessments (e.g., IQ testing), as a trained neuropsychologist and gifted coach I can work with you to better understand your giftedness and intensity from a holistic perspective as well as understand your options for assessment and support.
Gifted Coaching & Mentoring for Eco-Anxiety and -Grief
As gifted adolescents & adults awaken to and grapple with the realities of climate collapse, many are feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiety, grief, anger and powerlessness, or in some cases burnout due to "going to war" efforts to advocate for a sustainable earth.
As a facilitator-in-training for Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects, Kelly can support you in drawing on mindfulness, deep ecology and embodiment practices in ways that are specific to your unique needs and situation, enabling you to use your gifts in meaningful, sustainable ways.