Therapy for Highly Sensitive People in NYC

ANXIETY + EMDR THERAPY IN NY

Your ability to feel more deeply than others has left you depleted and exhausted.

For as long as you can remember, you’ve felt the world more deeply and intensely than others around you. You’re easily affected by other people’s moods, overstimulated by noisy and crowded environments, and struggle with change. You struggle with conflict and feel easily rejected by others, often triggering hours or days of overthinking and self-criticism.

Even more subtle shifts can be triggering, like the look on someone’s face across the room, the texture of a certain sweater, a tickling sensation in your throat, or the feeling in your body after eating certain foods. You might also experience a strong reaction even the tiniest amounts of common substances like caffeine, alcohol, and most medications.

  • You feel responsible for everybody else’s emotions

  • Loud noises, rough textures, and bright lights noises make you uncomfortable

  • You get rattled or nervous when you have a lot to do in a small window of time

  • You tend to be sensitive to stimulants + medications

  • You often feel “touched out” due to too much physical touch from a significant other or child

What it feels like to be a Highly-Sensitive Person

  • You struggle with taking things personally and can easily spiral into “they hate me” if someone is short via text

  • You compare yourself to other people and always feel like you’re falling short

  • You tend to feel taken advantage of and like people walk all over you because of your niceness

  • You react strongly to criticism or rejection

  • Feel easily drained when hanging out with others

Being highly sensitive can be lonely and isolating

You might have been labeled as “too sensitive” or “dramatic”. Or maybe you were told to act strong, be more confident, worry less, or that you take everything too personally. Comments like these made it impossible to feel comfortable in your skin and ashamed for your reactions. Instead of embracing your emotions, you learned to mask and hide them in order to be liked and accepted by others.

What does therapy for Highly Sensitive People look like?

Therapy can help you understand your unique way of processing and provide skills to manage overwhelming situations. Sensitivity is a strength when fine-tuned and used correctly. You’ll learn to release the shame and trauma of “being different” and learn to feel more confident in your reactions and ability to handle overwhelming/overstimulating situations.

Some areas we’ll work on together include:

  • Cultivating self-acceptance or esteem

  • Establishing healthier boundaries

  • Learning tools for communicating your needs

  • Strategies for sensory overload and emotional overstimulation

  • Addressing any underlying trauma related to feelings of shame (learn more about how EMDR therapy can help)

There is nothing wrong with you and you don’t have to change. When we’re sensitive, it’s easy to feel taken advantage of and depleted by the emotional demands of people around us. Therapy can help you create better boundaries so that your energy is protected and in your control. We’ll work on reducing some unhelpful patters such as people-pleasing, overexplaining yourself, and over-apologizing.

Therapy can also help you be a better decision-maker. You’ll learn to trust your choices without needing to go to everyone else for advice. The end goal is a more grounded and confident version of you.

Learn to stop second-guessing yourself + feel more confident in your skin

FAQs

  • Empaths have a heightened ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Empaths are not just empathetic. They frequently absorb and internalize the emotions of those around them. They can feel the emotions of people and animals. Empaths are sensitive to non-verbal cues and energy shifts. This can make their connections with others very intense and powerful.

    On the other hand, Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP's) are a broader category. It can occur in various ways like sensory experiences, emotions and the environment. While empaths are sensitive to emotions, HSPs have a wider range of sensitivities due to their sensitive nervous systems. They are more responsive to sensory input and having a deep emotional awareness. Examples of sensory input is sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing

  • Therapy is a highly personal journey all about exploring your unique experience and how that’s shaped you. I am not a fan of putting anyone in a box or overuse of labels. These descriptions are only useful if they empower you to learn more about yourself. That being said, not everything on this page is going to apply to everyone but if there are parts that do, and that feels interesting or validating on some level, than it might be worth exploring.

  • Being an HSP is not caused by trauma, but HSPs are more impacted by trauma because they experience everything deeply. HSP is actually an evolutionary trait, found in over 100 species. Studies show those with HSP have more “mirror neurons,” and other chemical differences in their brains, that allow them to process more thoroughly. This is not just a term for people who are sensitive, it’s actually science.