[LISA LEWIS] The podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/slash network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast with me Lisa Lewis, a podcast for highly sensitive people. This is episode seven. To find out more about highly sensitive people, please visit my website www.amiokpodcast.com and subscribe to my free email course. Today I’m speaking with April Snow. April Snow is a licensed psychotherapist, author and consultant in California who specializes in working with highly sensitive introverts. April strongly believes that being a highly sensitive person, doesn’t have to stop you from living a fully engaged life. She is on a mission to help highly sensitive persons create a life on their own terms so they can manage overwhelm and start to thrive. To learn more about April, visit her website www.aprilsnowconsulting.com. So welcome to the podcast April. I’m so excited to have you here and have a fellow, a psychotherapist to talk to today. [APRIL SNOW] Thank you so much, Lisa, for having me on. I really appreciate it. [LISA] Yes, you’re welcome. So I wanted to start out just by welcoming the people who are listening to the podcast. This is a brand new podcast. So there may be people who already know that they’re highly sensitive or they’re discovering, trying to decide if they’re highly sensitive or there might be a parents or partners or family members wanting to learn more about how they can support their loved one, who they feel or may believe or already know that they’re highly sensitive. So I want to you April, when did you discover that you were highly sensitive? [APRIL] Yes, I discovered that I was sensitive about five or six years ago. It was in the same time period of my therapist studies. So I had a classmate who introduced me to the trait and had asked me if I had heard Dr. Elaine Erin and I hadn’t. At the time I was doing a research project on introversion trying to seek answers and learn more about why I was different. I had different emotional experiences and kind of saw things through a different lens. And that really opened my eyes learning that, oh, I’m also a highly sensitive person and an introvert. And it really took my self awareness to a deeper level. This introversion, it was pretty clear, you know, I like to spend time alone. I like to recharge, I like to be more introspective, but then being highly sensitive, I was like, “”Oh, this really explains my wide range of emotions and how my brain works and highlighted the process a lot. So yes, it was a really empowering experience and it really has driven my work as a therapist, really wanting to support other people in that discovery process because it really changed my life. [LISA] Yes. That’s wonderful. It I’m curious, did it kind of like answer questions about maybe your childhood or just like the family you grew up and, or like the messages that you received? [APRIL] Absolutely. A hundred percent. I come from a family who, it’s interesting, there’s like the super quiet ones. And then there’s the very boisterous, extroverted ones. And I always have a lot of pressure to be more social, to be more talkative, and often got labeled the quiet one or the shy one. That really felt like it was something I had to change. So this discovery, it really helped me accept myself more. I realized, oh, I don’t have to change anything about myself. I actually understand now what I need to do to nurture myself and my gifts and my temperament. So it really helped me understand why I am the way I am and also in some ways understand why other people didn’t understand me if they’re not highly sensitive. So it’s really been a very transformative experience in myself, but also yes how I fit into my family and how I see myself and my level of self-compassion and self-acceptance because before I was constantly trying to push myself to be like everybody else. And now I realize, actually, this is just how I’m wired. So it’s always a process even though I know a lot about the trade and I spend, my life is highly sensitive, my best therapist, friends. I spend a lot of time with other highly sensitive therapist. So I really am surrounded, so grateful to be surrounded with lots of HSPs in my life. But even then I still sucked out of this inner dialogue like it’s okay. Like it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to do things differently. So yes, it still continues to be a journey. [LISA] Yes. And I’m curious, before we get into the trade itself, how did you, maybe, if you want to share part of your own experience or what do you recommend to clients, how do you, or do you even share it with your loved ones or friends so they understand you better? [APRIL] Yes, this is, I think a common, two pieces do you share it and how do you share it so other people will hear it? It’s taken me a while, but I’m slowly talking about it more. It’s easy to share it with my introvert friends or my therapist friends, people that really are open-minded and want to have those deeper conversations. It’s a little bit more difficult with certain family members who maybe are not quite as empathetic or as understanding, or as doing their own work, so to speak. But I try to at least share some of my experiences. And it can be really helpful to create like a metaphor. So try to help them understand it from their perspective, like have you ever had a super busy overwhelming day? You know, I can get to that place just by having too many tasks on my schedule or having a surprise change in my day, or if I’m in a noisy environment I can get to that level of overwhelm a lot more easily, and that’s much more of a consistent experience for me. And that’s why I take time to be quiet or I need more self-care or I need to limit my social engagements. I’m much more intentional. I just try to help them understand. It definitely helps being a therapist because I feel like I have those communication skills and those tools to make a bridge between two different experiences. But I definitely have taken it slow. And I’ve heard Dr. Aaron said before that you kind of have to test the waters to see are people really interested in hearing about it? And they may not be. So you kind of have to gauge that first, like are you interested in learning more about why I’m having this response? And then on the flip side, making sure that they understand the benefits of being in a relationship with NHSP and whether that be a spouse or even a sibling or child, people who are super empathetic and we notice details and we anticipate needs. We have such gifts that we give. And a lot of times people don’t understand that that’s a package deal. So that’s something that I try to highlight too, if they’re open to it as, “Hey, here’s all the things that I’m able to offer you because I’m a highly sensitive person.” That also comes with some, if you want to call it this, limitations or differences and see if they can start to see the full picture with me. But it’s challenging and it’s going to depend on the person and always ease, nice and slow and try to make sure that I’m keeping myself safe too. Because it can be vulnerable sharing this experience that’s not calming or wake up 20% of the population or 20 to 30%. And they’re saying now but still that’s, we have very different experiences in the world. So sometimes it can be hard to let other folks into that when that’s not their experience. They can’t see it through our lived experience or through our eyes. [LISA] For me personally, I just remember growing up and even into my adulthood hearing, “Oh, you’re too sensitive.” I heard that a lot. [APRIL] So much. I think it’s the one thing we’ve all heard. And that can be tricky too, because this word has a lot of meaning behind it, a lot of power behind it. And it’s often used as a criticism when really it’s, I hope people can start to embrace it as a gift because it’s more than just emotionally sensitive. It’s actually, I have these thoughts and I have this beautiful wide range of emotional experience, and I can notice these little details and make these great connections and yes, I hope we can reclaim that word sensitive. [LISA] Yes. I love that, reclaim the word sensitive. I’m curious, what is like the most common comment that you hear maybe with your clients or someone just reaching out to you for the first time and kind of investigating about highly sensitive and wanting to know about themselves, or like, what are some of the common comments that you hear? [APRIL] I think first, often, especially if someone’s newly discovering that there’s just a sense of relief. I thought I was alone. I thought there’s something wrong with me. And there’s just this gratitude for having language to express how they feel and what their experience has been like. So I often hear that like, oh, finally, someone put this experience into words for me, because there’s all these little, like, no, I want to call it quirks. But these different experiences that we have in everything that we do, how we suit ourselves, how we write an email, how we approach bedtime routine. Like there’s just so many little details. I think having that sense of common shared experience is usually at the forefront. And then there can be a lot of, there’s a lot of questions around managing the overwhelm because that’s something we all experience. I call that the Achilles’ heel of being a highly sensitive person. It’s kind of the common difficulty of being so perceptive and so aware, especially in our modern, busy life. That’s a common experience for us. It’s just, how do I deal with this overwhelm? And then also acceptance. I feel like there’s a lot of, there can be a lot of grief and learning that you’re highly sensitive if it’s been a struggle because it’s like, well, oh, this is how I am. So it can be a process to realize, yes, this is the hard part, but when you start to learn about yourself, you can transform that and then start to be with the gifts more. So I’d say, I think there’s two ways people will come to me. Either they’re in this place of discovery and self-awareness, and they’re seeking to learn more about themselves or they’re kind of in a darker place with it and they’re really struggling and maybe they don’t have HSP community, or they didn’t even know that they were highly sensitive and didn’t quite understand why they were feeling so overwhelmed all the time versus the difference. So yes, I’d be curious to hear too. I know you work with HSPs. What are you seeing? [LISA] What usually is clear for me is people say, and this, even for myself, people don’t understand me. So there must be something wrong with me. You’re so intense. Your emotions are intense and people can’t handle it or I’m too sensitive. I’m too serious. And it always comes back to the question I hear is am I okay? Will I be okay? [APRIL] Yes. I think there’s a seeking of solace. You know, I like that question, am I okay? You know, is there anything I need to change, because there is an experience of being different or on the outside, or I hear people say like, oh, I’m lazy or I’m behind, there’s this, because we are kind of on a different timeline and having this different layer of experiences. Yes, they just want to know that, “Yes, this is okay. There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing you need to change. It’s just a matter of understanding yourself more.” And that’s why I like to say like live on our own terms as HSPs because we think there is a need to create a slightly different lifestyle and for us to be able to thrive and look more inward for that guidance rather than outside of ourselves, it’s hard to do that. We take our cues from our environments. [LISA] So it leads to my next question. How do you know if you’re highly sensitive? [APRIL] That’s a great question. So there’s four core characteristics of the trait, which most of us share, although there’s going to be slight differences. So if you’re like, well I need some of these, but not all of these please, don’t be discouraged. The most common or foundation part of the trade is codec processing. So this is your brain is wired to pause and think before we act to move slow, to really reflect, to take things in. So this might mean needing more time for transitions, needing more time in social situations, needing more time between tasks. So HSPs tend to need more time in the mornings to get out of bed or more time to wind down at night. So that’s kind of the core part of the trait. And the brain is wired just a little bit differently. And then because of that, because we’re taking some return and what we needed to move a little bit more slowly we often get overwhelmed easily. So overstimulation can be a pretty common experience. And then another part of that is just emotional capacity. So HSPs have a lot of range of emotions, like high highs, low lows, really feeling emotions in really deep, complex ways. It can be really powerful and tend to be really connected to art or music or nature, spirituality or animals. It could be a really, really vivid experience for us being in the world. And then another part of that is we’re more wired for empathy so we have more active mirror neurons in our brains. So if you tend to be kind of spongy, you take in other people’s emotions, you feel other people’s emotions and you can really put yourself in their shoes, you might be an HSP. And then the last part of that is being sensitive to subtleties in our environment. So you might notice when someone gets a haircut or when they’re upset, even though they’re not saying that. We really pick up a lot of subtle details in our environments, including sensory information. So classic HSP things like, oh, we don’t like tags, we like to cut our tags out of our clothing or we want soft textures or we want soft lighting in our house or we want to be in quiet environments. So yes, so all those four characteristics, you can put it into an acronym does the OES. So that’s the core of the trait. And there’s a self test, at hsperson.com/tests. That’s another way you can go and do a little bit of exploration around it to see if, how you answer the questions on the test, a little bit about it. [LISA] And then, emotions can feel like a rollercoaster ride, going up and down. What do you recommend? What is the best way to kind of even out that emotional rollercoaster? So maybe it feels like the ride is not so intensive, more of a, it can even kill. [APRIL] Yes. For me, and what I help my clients is it just having regular consistent practice around being with our emotions because they can quickly start to pile up and we become overwhelmed and then they start to spill out. So that can look a lot of different ways, but for me, I journal every single morning. So I do my yoga, a little bit of meditation and I journal and that really helps me kind of go inward, decompress, regulate myself and then I can just process anything that I’m holding on to. There’s lots of other ways to do that too. You can create art through exercise or movement or going to therapy, dance. There’s just being in nature, being with your pets. There’s a lot of different ways to be with your experiences but I think it’s so important to have a regular practice around that. So you can start to release and be with the emotions and then start to make connections like, “Oh, when I’m with this person, I notice I get overstimulated or start to feel like my boundaries are being crossed.” That triggers another emotion because the HSP brain is wired to make connections. So you might find as an HSP, and this is kind of part of that emotional rollercoaster is things tend to feel like they’re bigger than the moment. So you might be like, “Why am I so upset about this one thing? I feel like I’m overreacting.” And it might be because it reminds you of something else. So our brains are wired to, this is kind of why it exists from, I feel from my standpoint is we put together things and we remember, and then we look for ways that we can keep ourselves safe essentially. So it’s like, “Oh, this person acts like this. I know I need to step away and I need to do something differently next time. When I see this animal out there on the plane, I know that, that animal is not safe and need to alert everyone else.” So we just re remember a lot and we put things together. So we’re always looking through the old files whenever something happens. That can be a lot. So if this coworker reminds you of an ex and then every time you see that coworker all these memories get flooded, it’s a lot to deal with. But sometimes if we’re not taking time to sit with that, we might not make the connection, but we’re just constantly dealing with the emotions and not know why. So I think it can be really important to self-reflect on a regular basis. For me I like to just let the words kind of pour out onto the page, you know, when I feel it, what am I needing, what does that remind me of? That memory comes up, why is that? Just kind of open-ended questioning? And that really helps me kind of stay clear and sooth my emotions. And then of course, there’s lots of tools that you can use to regulate. But for me, that’s kind of at the core. [LISA] That’s wonderful. Thank you for those recommendations. And I quite often, especially with like new clients come in and they’re just crying, just crying and letting it out. And they’re, “Gosh, I don’t feel like it’s going to be able to, if I’m ever going to be able to stop crying.” And then they also appreciate just having the space to cry, without having anyone to judge them about it. And then it’s like, oh my goodness. I can cry and it’s so relieving and I feel so much better. [APRIL] Yes. It’s okay to feel and have your emotions. And I think a lot of us HSPs, we’ve had to keep our oceans small or contained because other people either don’t have the capacity to hold them, to understand and they are telling us to stop crying or you’re overreacting, or that’s not a big deal because if you’re not an HSP, it isn’t a big deal. Or you don’t notice. You’re not picking up our little details or you’re not feeling the emotions at the same level, same depth. So yes, a non-HSP won’t quite understand. So then we’re trying to relate to our emotions through the lens of someone who is not having our experience. So yes, just coming into that therapy where, you’re sitting with a good friend or you’re just sitting by yourself with your journal and just crying, letting it move through can be so powerful. Like finally, I just get to be myself. I get to let my emotions move. And I can relate to that feeling of will I ever stop? Because I remember I had that experience my early twenties when I was just starting to come back to my emotions and reconnect, reclaim them. And yes, there’s a lot of crying at the beginning. There’s a lot of pints of processing to do. [LISA] Yes. And that is very helpful to hear that, that will eventually not be as emotional and the tears will get less and less. [APRIL] Yes, it really will. And I think after you’ve had that kind of releasing, years of releasing that you get to be with the present day emotions more often and you don’t spend as much time holding on to them. [LISA] So it’s more about the first tiers, if we want to call it, the first tears are more about the past and then after that’s released, it’s more about the present day tears? [APRIL] Yes, I think — [LISA] Do they have like a different flavor? [APRIL] That’s a good question. Yes, thinking about it, I think the first kind of coming back in touch with the emotions, there’s just kind of like a heaviness, a complexity, maybe a confusion, like what are these tears? It can be overwhelming it can be painful versus once you’ve had some time to move those through, they’re lighter. They still have emotions, but they’re much, there’s more clarity. They’re like, “Oh, I’m crying because of this and that just happened in being with my feelings in the moment.” And I think it is a different experience. Probably it’s unique to everyone, but yes, I think there is a difference [LISA] I often hear, just being able as a highly sensitive person, just being able to kind of read a room, if you walk into a room and know what’s happened or just sensing how another person is feeling. And also not, it’s almost like your skin is very prickly and just picks up on different emotions and feelings from not only yourself, but other people. And then there could be if you’re not aware of that, it can be a blending of the two and then feel like you’re taking on everybody else’s stuff. And you can feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders. [APRIL] Yes, absolutely. I hear this a lot from, and I just because I had this experience too, which is sometimes you don’t know where the emotion is coming from. And it may not be yours. Like you’re saying, you can walk into a room and just maybe start to pick up whatever’s in the room, but may not be aware of it. So someone is anxious or someone is upset. You know, you might just start reading that, but not quite being able to just learn the source. There is a blending, there’s a heaviness, and that’s why a lot of HSPs can feel really exhausted after spending time at a party or in a public space. There is a lot to take in. Whether you’re aware of it or not, your brain, there’s similar reading, all these little cues. And then you need to process it, trying to make sense of it. That’s why it’s super important for HSPs to have downtime every single day, whether that’s journaling, going for a walk, just sitting quietly. Sometimes your brain just gets to work, it gets to take a bath. You know, we don’t get a lot of space these days where we just get to think. But it’s really important to take that time so you can start to discern and release, potentially practice some new energetic boundaries when you’re in spaces or create limits on how much time you spend in those types of spaces. [LISA] Hmm. How do you recommend creating like an energetic boundary? I work a lot with that. I work, I do energy work. So I work a lot with that. [APRIL] Oh, you probably know more than me. I mean, I just kind of keep it simple for me, kind of setting just the visual boundary around myself, sitting at attention. I like to envision, visualize myself in it, like in an egg of white light, taking a moment to ground before, feeling my feet on the ground. And I’ve noticed kind of stay in touch with my breath, my own body helps. So I might rub my hands together. I might take a sip of water, break eye contact regularly, even pivoting away from somewhere from talking to this slightly. So not sitting directly across from them helps a lot. But I remember in grad school, we had to practice that like practice, just really leaning in and kind of really giving your attention over to someone. And then, let’s practice sitting back a little. What’s the difference? What if you stay in contact with yourself? And that made a big difference for me realizing like, oh yes, I do have some control here. I can make subtle adjustments without needing to ever even tell the other person. I can be tracking my own internal experience just to save some energy and anchoring for myself. [LISA] Yes. I love how you just explained setting the energetic boundary. And I do something very similar to that too. I always love hearing how other people do it too, because we hear other people, then we kind of create our own way that works best for us. [APRIL] Exactly. That’s it. There’s not one right way. It’s find what works for you even if you like, when I’m doing therapy, a lot of the times I’ll just let my intuition take over and will just do whatever I feel called to do with the client. And you can do the same thing with our boundaries, our energetic, fires, whatever visual works for you or practice works for you and it’s good to experiment and then yes, make it your own. [LISA] Yes. And what are some of the gifts of a highly sensitive person? [APRIL] This is a good topic. There are lots, just some of the, I say some of the things I could say off the top of my head. Having that depth of processing means we’re super perceptive, we’re super intuitive, we’re really creative and innovative. So we make really good employees. I think a lot of HSPs don’t think that they’re cut out for work or that they’re going to be appreciated or really can have something to offer but if we give ourselves a little bit of space, our minds come up with a lot of creative ideas and we can anticipate need. And we kind of see what or where the problems might come through or what we might need to do in the future. So we can really see the big picture if we slow down to kind of take everything in. And in relationships, we’re super empathetic, we anticipate needs, we’re very caring and loyal, very conscientious. So we tend to be really thoughtful partners and family members, coworkers. We’re thinking about the impact of someone before we act. So that’s another area where we come off really strongly when we can take care of ourselves and we’re regulated. Oh, and then just another super power I think is just how we experience the world. Because we have such depth of emotion and we can sense into so much and have incredible spiritual experiences, connections with art and music and animal, we really get to have a very colorful experience. And all these, we get to see all this nuance and depth and we really are impacted by it. So I feel like everything can be a spiritual experience or a very impactful experience. We have that capacity, which other people may not have. So there’s a lot of realms for us that we have a lot of gifts, but we don’t always get to see those with the overwhelm and the leading at the forefront. [LISA] Yes. And I love how you named it, the super power. I like to use that word too, and how important it is. And people love to be around other people that have those intense, like really intense emotions. And it’s like, wow, I had no idea we can live life like that. [APRIL] People can live vicariously through us. Yes, it’s exciting. It’s inspiring. So yes, if we can really let ourselves step into that and not feel pressured just to blend in, I think that can be really powerful. So let our gifts come through. [LISA] And then some of us were nurtured in our family of origin growing up and maybe those sensitive traits were cultivated and accepted. And then for others, maybe they worked in an unhealthy environment and maybe those gifts were never, or have not been nurtured the same way. What do you recommend, either for someone that hasn’t been in like such a great situation growing up and think they’re sensitive and like, wow, how would I even tap into, how would I even know, how would I even tap into my creativity or empathy? [APRIL] I want to, for anyone out there who maybe is rediscovering, maybe, well, if you’re always a sensitive person because we’re born with the trait, but if you’re reconnecting with it and you’re starting to honor it for the first time, I just want to say that there’s hope. As HSPs we have, part of our trait is called differential susceptibility, where we soak up the good, like a sponge. And this is proven by research. So I’m not just making this up. So if we have any little bit of support or an inspiring experience or a person that we feel comfortable with, we’re going to really flourish. So we just want to give people hope that if you’re just starting to embrace your sensitivity, you can go far with this. And the how to do it, I think it’s really important to first start to read about the trait. So it really starts to learn about yourself as a highly sensitive person. That way you can really normalize your experience and know that there’s nothing wrong with you and then you can start to identify, oh yes, this is happening because was a trait. And I want to nourish that here. I’m going to take some extra time right there, and really just spending time with yourself, journaling, reading, doing things that you feel called to do things that nourish you. It’s going to be unique to each person. What fills you up, pend more time in that. Because your sensitivity is there, it’s just a matter of connecting with it. And then it can also be really helpful to find another HSP in your life. So it could be someone you already know who maybe you suspect is highly sensitive and you say, “Hey, I just found out about this thing. Maybe it’d be fun if we took the self tests together online, or what, if we read this book together.” There’s also a documentary, Sensitive, the movie. You might watch it together over Zoom or in person, if that’s possible for you right now and have a dialogue with it. You know, there’s also lots of online communities, meet ups. I think they’re doing a lot of this virtually now. So yes, learn about it and connect with at least another HSP. I’ve done a lot, I’ve gone to a lot of HSP events, I’ve hosted retreats, and there is a very different experience when you’re with other HSPs. So if you’ve never had the chance to experience it out there, whoever’s listening, it’s very, life-changing, just to say, “Oh, I am on the same bandwidth as another person.” We’re so used to being the one that’s different or has different needs. So it can be really, really powerful. [LISA] Yes. And I was checking out your websites, the sensitive therapist and the sensitive person website. I know you also have your huge Facebook group for highly sensitive therapists. I want to touch on that for a minute or two. How did you get that started and why don’t we get that started? [APRIL] Sure, yes, I’d love to share. So when I was first becoming a therapist I remember, I’m in the bay area. There are a lot of sensitive therapists there, but I didn’t know that at the time. So I was looking for more community. I was actively working with highly sensitive clients and really diving into that area and I just really wanted my to spend time with others since the therapists. I was on my own journey of seeking that out and a supervisor said, “Oh, what if you start a Facebook group?” I said, “Oh, that’s a good idea. That would be a great way to connect with people.” So I’ve had the group maybe for five years now and it’s just grown organically, people inviting their friends or their colleagues, their supervisees, and their clients, just spreading the word about this community. And it’s very profound because it’s a beautiful community. Everyone is so supportive and we really learn a lot from each other and it just feels like such a special space. And now we have, I think there’s almost 4,000 therapists in there from literally all over the world. And it’s just a joy to get, to see so many different layers of the HSP experience and to get to have a space where we can connect. So yes, I love it. [LISA] That is wonderful. And thank you for providing that to all of us therapists and individuals, people that identify with being highly sensitive. [APRIL] Yes. I’m just grateful that everyone shows up the way they do. I really say like I started it, but the people in the group really make it a community [LISA] And it’s such a great way to just to connect and run ideas and hear other people’s ideas about what’s working and what’s not working. [APRIL] Yes. So true. It was a great learning board. [LISA] Yes. So I would ask you one last question, it’s about highly sensitive people. What would you want them to know? [APRIL] This is a really good question. What would I want highly sensitive people to know? I think the most important thing to know is there’s nothing wrong with you, that having this trait can be a gift, that there really are a lot of strengths. Even if you can’t see it right now, they’re in there. They are there to discover, because I know it can be really hard to be an HSP sometimes. And it’s easy to feel misunderstood or alone or different. And that there are other people out there like you; just want people to really know that you’re not alone, as there are lots of people having similar experiences and that you do have a lot to offer. I think giving people hope that that is possible to really embrace the traits and find something helpful, inspiring, or wishing about it. [LISA] Oh, I love that. I was just listening and just soaking all of that. And that felt real good, just as a highly sensitive person. It’s a gift. [APRIL] It really is. And I’ve been through this, I know it’s a long journey to get there, from discovery to really embracing. And I know at the very beginning of the journey, so if listeners are, they’re saying, “Oh, I think I might be highly sensitive and what does that mean?” I’m excited for that. I am actually, because there’s a lot to discover. [LISA] How long do you think the discovery process is or the journey before you can really feel and embrace it? [APRIL] Yes, I think it probably depends, like you were saying on your family of origin and how much your sensitive nature was really embraced as a young person. So yes, I’ve seen some people, they just kind of dive right in like, “Oh, I’m ready to embrace this. I have the resources. I have the capacity to separate into this.” Other people, I’ve seen it take years, maybe a few, one, two, to maybe longer. Yes, I’d say on average, maybe one to two years to really get to a point of, oh, this is something I like about myself. Now, but then the discovery process is forever, I think, in a good way. And there’s so much to discover and so many complexities of having this trade. That’s what I find so fascinating about. And there’s always something more to learn about ourselves. So yes. [LISA] Thanks April. Thank you for the message. That’s wonderful and very helpful. [APRIL] Yes. Thank you, Lisa. This has been a lovely conversation. Thank you. [LISA] Thank you. Before we sign off, how can people get ahold of you if they’d like to work with you or get information from you? [APRIL] Whether people are sensitive people or sensitive therapists, you can find everything at the website you shared at the beginning, aprilsnowconsulting.com. You can also find me on Instagram at Sensitive Therapist or at Extensive Heart, if you’re not a therapist. I look forward to connecting with folks. [LISA] Thank you so much April. [APRIL] Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate it. [LISA] Thank you for listening today at Am I Okay? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want to professional, you should find one.