Gifted Wounds, Gifted Healing
Giftedness itself isn’t traumatizing, but the environments we grow up and live in often are. Because giftedness comes with unique developmental needs, sensitivities and social differences, it also carries particular vulnerabilities – especially in environments that misunderstand, minimize or exploit those differences. The resulting trauma can fracture our relationship with our gifted self, leaving us disconnected from our creativity, meaning and sense of existential belonging. In this article, Jennifer Harvey Sallin explores the nature of gifted trauma and what it means to heal it, by learning to create the conditions where it can be safely reclaimed. This article is an adapted version of the introduction to InterGifted’s recently published book ‘How I Healed My Gifted Trauma’, a collaborative exploration of how gifted people around the world are finding their way back to wholeness.