Eggshell Therapy was launched by founder Imi Lo to support neurodivergent, gifted adults, encouraging them to embrace their intellectual excitability, emotional sensitivity, and intense curiosity as incredibly valuable blessings. This article will look at what it means to be neurodivergent, exploring the link between neurodivergence, giftedness, and emotional and intellectual intensity.
Every individual’s brain operates differently. For the average person, brain processing, functions, and behavior are expected to fall within range of developmental milestones dictated by society.
However, some people’s brains operates slightly outside of these parameters. Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that describes people whose mental functions vary from the norm. The term can include cognitive conditions, such as autism, or other neurological or developmental conditions, such as ADHD.
The term “neurodivergence” is attributed to sociologist and autism self-advocate Judy Singer, who rose to prominence in the 1990s. Singer challenged conventional ideas about what is considered cognitively normal and abnormal, basing much of her analysis on her personal experiences as a child, when she was teased due to her differences.
Judy Singer’s work follows the common theme that every human brain is unique, with each individual having their own needs and abilities. She defines neurodiversity as a state of nature to be respected, an argument for conserving and facilitating human diversity, and an analytical tool for examining social issues.
Singer proffered that neurodiversity provides a valuable learning opportunity, enabling society to learn more about people whose brain functions in what is considered an atypical way. Neurodiversity challenges people to look outside of the box in terms of how they present information, embracing diversity rather than categorizing these differences as problematic.
The concept of neurodiversity hinges on the premise that people experience and interact with the world in different ways without there being a single “right” way of thinking and behaving. One fundamental of neurodiversity is that differences are to be valued rather than regarded as deficits.
Laura Boxley PhD, director of Clinical Neuropsychology Training at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, suggests that neurodiversity is the principal that people experience and interact with the world in many different ways, some of which may not be typical, but that neurodiversity is based on the framework that “different” is quite distinct from “deficient.”
Neurodivergent individuals typically experience differences in terms of learning styles, communication styles, behaviors, sensory processing, and overall mental function. They may struggle with soft skills such as social interactions, emotional intelligence, and the ability to work in a group cohesively. Physical behaviors sometimes associated with neurodivergence include self-soothing actions, such as irregular hand movements or rocking, standing too close, or speaking too loudly.
Mental health conditions that fall within the neurodivergent category include dyslexia, autism, ADHD, Down’s syndrome, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. As Dr Pankhuree Vandana of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, points out, each of these conditions lead to a person processing and communicating information in a unique way.
Created as a space for people with issues surrounding giftedness, emotional intensity, high sensitivity, and other neurodivergent traits, Eggshell Therapy was established by Imi Low to support neurodivergent people in their journey from healing to thriving. The Eggshell Therapy website provides a wealth of resources, including a podcast featuring interviews with numerous experts in the field.
Unlike traditional life coaching or therapy, Eggshell Therapy focuses on helping people make sense of their feelings ant the experience of living with intensity, encouraging intense personalities to own their sensitivity, live authentically, and release their suppressed creative potential. Drawing synthesis from Eastern philosophies and Western psychology, the Eggshell Therapy website offers a non-pathologizing, holistic means of helping users to appreciate their intensity as a natural human expression, enabling them to present themselves as they really are and naturally move towards liberation and self-fulfillment.
