Allow me to re-introduce myself... Therapist and coach for sensitive women

Hello, hi, hope you are having a wonderful week Beloved.

I hope your heart and mind are well and being tended to, especially on the hard days.

My brain and heart have felt like they're about to explode recently because I've come into a new relationship with a beautiful word that has been right in front of me all of my life, but it feels like it has changed everything for me.

For years, I have struggled to articulate who I love to work with as a therapist and coach, as nothing ever seemed to fit. I don't like to talk about how I specialise in working with symptoms, like "women with anxiety or depression" because that feels so soulless and doesn't put the human at the heart of it at all.

I never had the right word but I always knew I loved to work with women with big feelings, lots of thoughts and wonderful deep questions about themselves. I love working with women who have a rich and dynamic Inner World and who are interested in themselves.

And then, perhaps it was my 3-week COVID isolation in January this year, but the word, the perfect word to describe the women I loved to support came to me, after years and years of being a counsellor...

What's the word? Sensitivity.

Sensitive. I love sensitive women.

It felt like my brain fell to the floor while my heart looked up at me and simply said 'Yep'.

It's been like a beautiful, understated unfolding and a lightning bolt line in the sand, all at the same time.

It feels silly to have missed this word for so many years, because I've been sensitive all my life, and girl, have I known it!

I think what happened is that I haven't been owning it because of internalised shame. I mean, I definitely know I am, I can't hide it. I wear my heart on my sleeve, I think and feel and question everything.

But I've rebuffed using it as a label or title because we all know how the world responds to sensitive women.

'You're too much.'

'You're over-thinking it.'

'It's time to let it go.'

...and so I've never wanted to lead with the label for myself and there is also a huge hesitation in labelling my work as specialising in supporting sensitive women, because maybe you too will think "eww" and run a million miles away from me...or perhaps yourself?

Then I realised what that was: Fear of rejection for 'outing myself' as being sensitive' and imagining thousands of groans and eye-rolls from my community because I'm turning the lens of my work onto sensitivity.

... and then anger kicked in: What a bunch of internalised bullsh*t is that?

That's just me worrying about being rejected for being sensitive as has happened 100 times in my life, but you aren't just anyone.

You are thoughtful, kind and sensitive and probably haven't fluttered once at my reclaiming the word.

Perhaps you're sighing a huge sigh of relief right now that someone, finally, is coming out of the woodworks and is going to lead the way.

There's nothing wrong with being sensitive, in fact it's beautiful!

So I leaned in, rather than turned away from the realisation and the fear around it.

And from there, my brain ricocheted in cartwheels and glitter and meteoroids of memories, information, new understanding, wisdom and deep connectedness with myself, and with you too.

It's hard to explain but it's like my whole mind, memory and self-understanding re-arranged and re-calibrated itself.

If you throw a rock into a still puddle of water, what happens? Everything is affected, moves, and re-configures around the rock.

That's what this simple yet profound realisation did for me.

I’m so inspired that lately that I’ve been writing for hours at a time, every day since January. Yep, every single day.

In a handful of months I've:

• Shared so much already on  social media. ​

• Launched a  monthly membership  for sensitive women.

• Drafted 12-months of themes, meditations and journal prompts for the monthly membership for sensitive women.

• Sent an 18-typed page snail-mail letter to my snail-mail gang about the experiences of being a sensitive woman.  Get your copy here. ​

The information and understanding I have around this topic is flying through me, not because I’m Googling information or researching what it’s like to be sensitive (I never do that when I prepare any of my content because I have it all inside me already.)

It's flying through me because I have 36 years of my own life as a sensitive woman to draw on, as well as nearly a decade of experience working with beautifully sensitive women as a therapist, course and workshop host.

It’s like I’ve unlocked this whole new level of insight as I’m gearing my work towards working with beautifully sensitive, deep-feeling and thinking women as my focus for 2023 and beyond.

I've barely had time to think and I think that's a good thing.

There's no strategy in this, there's no time to think like that.

There's a tiny part of me says 'Is this the right decision?' but I'm not going to over-analyse it: I'm taking messy, imperfect action and following my intuition and not let fear or my Inner Critic ruin my party.

It feels like I'm on a path of falling dominos to exactly the right place, but it's not a new place at all.

It's all been right here within me, and in front of me, the whole time.

It’s not really doing anything different than I’ve done for years in my private practice, I just finally found a way to describe who I absolutely love to work with and who I am as a therapist.

I’m not working with a whole new group of women or niching into something very different because the truth is, simply by being my authentic sensitive self in my work and social media, I have naturally attracted sensitive women organically.

So hello, for the record: I’m your Captain Sensitive and I’m reclaiming the word sensitive!

I say it loud and proud! I am sensationally sensitive.

It’s quite a strange experience to try to articulate in words what your whole life has been as a sensitive woman, and yet I am re-learning so much about myself as I lean in towards it.

Some of it was touching, and some of it was quite confronting.

More on that soon.

So, do you see yourself as a sensitive woman too?

I'd love to hear about your experiences and what it's been like for you.

Can't wait to hear from you,

Gabriella

Captain Sensitive.

Psst... Don't forget to join The Secret Society for Sensationally Sensitive women- an online monthly meeting where we explore our journeys as sensitive women, share our experiences, journal and meditate together with prompts and meditations I've created just to support sensitive women to thrive and embrace themselves. Join the membership  here .