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Do you have a keen imagination, rich inner life, and vivid dreams? Are time alone each day and deeply intimate relationships both as essential as air? Do others call you too shy or overly sensitive? Do you sometimes wonder if you can thrive? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be a highly sensitive person or HSP—twenty percent of us are. It is a valuable trait.

Many great artists and thinkers are HSP— generally highly conscientious and intuitive. There are also drawbacks: An HSP is easily overstimulated and more affected by troubled past and present stressors. A finely tuned nervous system and highly reactive brain are both trademarks of HSPs who thrive best in “good” environments. Brain reactivity means HSPs process deeply, have strong emotional responses and become easily overwhelmed in a world that is not designed for their sensitive brains and hearts. Strongly impacted by their environment and the people in it, HSPs are very susceptible to and impacted by positive interventions. We will explore the highly sensitive person’s tremendous capacity for thriving.

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Alane Freund, LMFT, has three decades of experience in mental health including her work as a consultant, speaker, and psychotherapist for highly sensitive people. An International Consultant on High Sensitivity (ICHS), Ms. Freund has developed and implemented programs for highly sensitive people, children, families, and the clinicians who serve them. She holds master’s degree in both clinical psychology and school counseling and is the parent of a highly sensitive young adult. Ms. Freund’s Talk at Google, Understanding the Highly Sensitive Person, is widely viewed, and she hosts the twice-monthly “Are You Highly Sensitive LIVE” Q&A webinars. She leads groups and retreats, including Sensitivity Circles for parents, professionals, HSPs in relationships, Sensitive & Anxious Teens, and Wise Women & Wonder Workshops and retreats include HSP University Weekends, and the HSPs & Horses™ both online and in person. Alane Freund can be reached for consultation or speaking through her website, alanefreund.com, or via her YouTube channel: Alane Freund LMFT.

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Alane’s website: https://www.alanefreund.com

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This episode is sponsored by our upcoming Day on Burnout Online Conference, taking place on February 27th, 2022.

Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, affecting 57% of the UK population. If it’s not managed properly, it can lead to feelings of detachment, cynicism, and ineffectiveness - many of the symptoms associated with clinical depression. Recent years have seen sharp increases in those experiencing it, with one survey reporting a 9% increase in 2021, compared with pre-Covid numbers in 2019.

So for this event, we’ve brought together three world-leading experts who will share with you:

— Science-based strategies for working with burnout and compassion fatigue (Françoise Mathieu)

— Dopamine: the secret mechanism underlying almost all addictive behaviour, and how to get it to work for you, rather than against you (Dr Anna Lembke)

— The Productivity Trap: why we have to stop, and how a healthy amount of ‘doing nothing’ can lead to heightened levels of creativity, wellbeing, and a more fulfilling existence (Professor Josh Cohen)

By attending live, you can interact with the speakers in the Q&A sessions, connect with like-minded participants during the conference, get CPD certification and lifetime access to the recordings from the sessions.

As a listener of this podcast, you can get a discount on your ticket, if you go to http://bit.ly/burnout-twu, and use the discount code: POD when registering.