132: Tools for the Highly Sensitive Person with Allison Lefkowitz, LMFT
Women In-Depth: Conversations about the Inner Lives of WomenShow Notes
Join me in a laughter-filled conversation with Allison Lefkowitz, author of "The Highly Sensitive Person's Toolkit: Everyday Strategies for Thriving in an Overstimulating World," and one of the best resources for highly sensitive individuals. Allison is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in New York City who specializes in working with highly sensitive people (HSPs).
Topics discussed in this episode: What it means to be Highly Sensitive (8:18) Areas where Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) struggle (9:30) How to differentiate an empath versus an HSP (10:16) Self-Advocacy and Self Parenting: the first of the nine Core Skills for HSPs (13:26) The Self-Advocacy and Self Parenting Skill Set (14:51) The *5 Different Sensitive Styles (23:19) What has surprised Allison the most in her work with HSPs (30:02)
Resources: Allison's website: http://almft.com/ Allison's email: [email protected] The Highly Sensitive Person's Toolkit: http://almft.com/highly-sensitive-persons-toolkit-book/ *Resource for the 5 different sensitive styles: Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults, edited by Susan Daniels and Michael Piechowski
More from Women In-Depth: Conversations about the Inner Lives of Women
"The areas that we struggle with the most, where we feel maybe we're the hardest on ourselves, or the most stuck… these are actually potentials for really building a strong foundation with your recovery." [20:47]
"[Dissociation] can happen with anything that is overwhelming or intense and I think it is important, especially to those who are highly sensitive, to be aware of because it's not just perceived danger or a lot of anxiety or stress. It can be something very positive that you actually want." [9:20]
"The body never lies and that is the truth."
"A large part of the work of The Mind-Body Stress Reset is coming to understand how important those sensations that run through your body are - coming to value them. I think we are a culture that overvalues our thinking-self and undervalues our feeling-self." [51:10]
This episode of Women In-Depth features Dr. Tracy Packiam Alloway, an award-winning psychologist who has conducted extensive research on memory and the brain. In this conversation Dr. Alloway discusses her recent book "Think Like a Girl: 10 Unique Strengths of a Woman's Brain and How to Make Them Work for You."