Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast
The Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast offers insight into the world of the Highly Sensitive Person, and helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to feel more empowered and resilient without denying their authentic gifts.
Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast
Exploring your Inner World using Internal Family Systems
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In this episode, I speak with Emma Donovan who is an alternative therapist and inner work educator and guide. We explore the inner world of the Highly sensitive person and Emma gives us an insight into the importance of working with and integrating the many parts of ourselves using the method of Internal Family Systems.
We bring in the concept of Self and the transpersonal domain, 'the awareness and remembering that we are connected to something great than our individual selves.' We also touch upon our experiences of 'high sensation seeking' as highly sensitive people and the often contrasting nature of those of us who are highly sensitive but also seek out adventure, travel and the desire to create a lifestyle that is often fueled by change, challenge and creativity.
About Emma...
Emma Donovan, MA, LPC, is the founder of Alternative Therapy STL, where she helps people in their 20s and 30s along their journey of healing, growth, and transformation. She is also the founder of The Inner Work Hub, where her mission is to help you discover, love, heal, integrate, and self-actualize every part of who you are through inner work education and guidance.
IFS is a large part of her work in the world. She is level 3 trained in IFS and is passionate about sharing it with the world through guided meditations, her online courses, and individual sessions. She also donates money to plant 1 tree for every course or session she does.
Stay in touch with Emma...
Instagram: @innerworkgirl
Online course: www.theinnerworkhub.com
Alternative therapy for people in MO and IL: www.alternativetherapystl.com
Insight Timer meditations: https://insighttimer.com/coach-emma
Youtube Meditations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9LGmPGT7Y7tiRq3FdFUjA
More about your host, Jules De Vitto...
Jules De Vitto is an ASE Advanced Facilitator & Transpersonal Coach who is experienced at helping Highly Sensitive People overcome anxiety, stress and burnout.
Jules is Highly Sensitive herself and is also passionate about helping Highly Sensitive People to step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life. She lived in Asia for eleven years before moving to London and integrates Eastern practices and modern-day mindfulness into her work.
She has a degree in Psychology, an MA in Education and an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness and Spirituality. She’s a Meditation teacher on Insight Timer and a published author through Changemaker Books and John Hunt Publishers. She wrote Resilience: Navigating Loss in a Time of Crisis to help people through the Covid-19 Pandemic available here.
You can stay connected with Jules through her...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highly.sensitive.humans/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/highlysensitivehumans
Join the 8-week course, 'Step into your Authentic Power as a Highly Sensitive Person' starts October 4th 2021, and is limited to 20 people! Join now!
About the Host: Jules De Vitto is a transpersonal coach, trainer and experienced educator for Highly Sensitive People. She helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to navigate emotional overwhelm, step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life. She is a published author and wrote one of a series of books on Resilience, Navigating Loss in a time of Crisis. Her research has also been published in the Transpersonal Coaching Psychology Journal and Journal of Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology.
You can stay connected with Jules through...
Instagram
Linkedin
The Highly Sensitive Human Academy™ - join our 3-month professional training: coaching Highly Sensitive People
Welcome, I'm your host, Jules DeVito, and you're listening to the Highly Sensitive Human Podcast. The show that offers an insight into the world of the highly sensitive person and helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to feel more empowered and resilient without denying their authentic gifts. So Emma is the founder of Alternative Therapy STL, where she helps people in their 20s and 30s along their journey of healing, growth, and transformation. She is also the founder of the Inner Work Hub, where her mission is to help people discover, love, heal, integrate, and self-actualize every part of who they are through inner work education and guidance. So IFS, Internal Family System, is a large part of her work in the world. She's a level three trained IFS practitioner and is passionate about sharing it with the world through guided meditations, her online courses, and individual sessions. And she also donates money to plant one tree for every course or session she does, which I think is an amazing initiative. So I'm really excited to speak with Emma today about internal family systems and also how it relates to highly sensitive people and how it can be supportive of those of us who are highly sensitive. So welcome Emma and thank you for being on the podcast today. It's so great to have you. And I'm really excited about us talking, like I said, about the connection with IFS and highly sensitive people.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I am so happy to be here, and I'm excited to have this conversation with you about it.
SPEAKER_00So the first question I want to ask you is obviously this podcast is about highly sensitive people. So do you consider yourself to be highly sensitive? And if so, in what ways do you feel like these traits show up in your life or how do you relate to it in terms of the work that you do?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I definitely consider myself to be a highly sensitive person. Um, ever since I was a little kid, I was extremely creative and imaginative and sensitive, and those are traits that have stayed with me ever since I was a little kid, and they've started to show up really strongly and profoundly in the work that I do. Um, some of the things that I relate to in terms of being a highly sensitive person are I have a lot of compassion and sensitivity to the pain of other people and the pain in the world. I've always been a deep thinker and a spiritual seeker as well. I love alone time. I can spend hours and hours alone in my own imagination or with my own projects, and I really feel recharged by that. And I've always had a rich inner world, um, which actually has led me to my chosen career.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Thank you for sharing. And I can definitely relate to many of those traits in terms of the compassion and the creativity and having that rich inner world. And I'm sure a lot of the people listening will be able to relate to those qualities as well. I definitely think those are what define high sensitivity. So, would you be able to share a bit more about the work that you do in relation to your therapy and your coaching practice, and in particular the IFS, and maybe explaining what IFS is because we haven't uh defined it yet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sure. Um, so right now I have two separate practices. I have a therapy practice, it's called alternative therapy STL, where I'm an alternative therapist, and I mostly work with millennials in that practice. And I recently also started a passion project, a side project called the Inner Work Hub, where I offer inner work education and guidance. IFS is something that comes through in both of those practices that I have, and I would love to talk a little bit about what that is and what that means. So IFS is a method that helps you get to know, love, and heal every single part of yourself. How it is is it allows space for multiple different parts of the mind and of our emotions to exist and kind of work together in a harmonious and symbiotic sort of ecosystem. So instead of seeing us as having kind of a one-track mind, it allows space for us to have multiple different kinds of parts of us. So one of the ways that I typically tend to introduce this to people who are new to it is by talking about the movie Inside Out. It's a Pixar film. I think it was released about five years ago. And some of you listening might know exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you that don't, it's a kid's movie and it follows a little girl. I think she's about 10 or 11 years old, and she moves from, I think, Minnesota or somewhere cold, where she's on the hockey team. She's got a lot of friends, and then her family moves her down to San Francisco. And all of a sudden, there's no hockey. She has to make new friends. Um, and she's having a hard time, kind of for the first time in her life. So it follows her journey kind of through that move and through what she's going through in life, but it also follows the journey of her inner world as well. So there's all these different little colored people inside of her head that represent her sadness, her joy, her fear, her anger, etc. And, you know, when she's healthy and doing well, these parts are working in harmony. And each emotion gets space when there's time for that emotion to get space. But when she starts going through a hard time, things go really toxicurvy inside of her head, and the different parts of her kind of stop working well together. Um, and one of the major themes in there is learning that there needs to be space inside of us for every part of us. There's nothing inherently wrong with sadness, there's nothing inherently wrong with anger or any other thing that exists inside of us. We need all of those, and that's kind of what makes us who we are. So IFS is a method that helps people work in that way, kind of honoring that complexity. Um, and a lot of times when people come to me, they feel like their inner world is not really operating as a functional ecosystem. Um, they might be coming to me in my therapy practice, for example, because they feel really anxious, or they might be coming to me because they feel depressed, um, or because they, you know, want to be kind of reclusive. They don't want to go out for various reasons, maybe because they have social anxiety or something like that. So when people come to me, I don't necessarily see that thing that they're coming to me with, whether it's depression, anxiety, et cetera, as something to be eradicated, because we can't get rid of any part of us. We're always going to have all of our parts. We need complexity inside of us to make us who we are. But what I actually look at is what function is that part serving in that person's system? What is it trying to do for that person? Um, because a really different thing about the IFS method is it sees parts that are suffering or that are causing symptoms not as the problem itself that needs to be eradicated, but rather like a symptom to a deeper issue. So the part that's being anxious, for example, is probably trying to protect another part. You know, maybe that anxious part gets socially anxious because it's got another part that was rejected a lot in grade school or middle school by that person's peers. So as long as that inner child part is not healed and still feels rejected and kind of less than or like an outsider, that anxiety is going to keep doing its job to be anxious because it feels like it needs to in order to protect that inner child part. Um, so when people come to me, I kind of look at their system as a whole, how everything is operating, and look at the places in which that person has been wounded and help them kind of tap into their creative, curious, calm, and compassionate core self that everybody has to meet that part that has pain to be able to heal it. And what that does, it's it's almost like if you've ever gone to like an acupuncturist or a massage therapist and they get that one point in your body that might even not be anywhere near to where you have the pain, um, but they get that one point in your body and they put a needle in it or they they put pressure on it, and then your whole back will relax or like your whole body will relax because they found that one place where the pain or where the problem is that's causing problems in the rest of your system. So um it's almost like acupuncture for your mind. That's kind of what IFS is and what it does.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just feel so excited hearing you talk about it because it's also something I resonate with so much that this model of the psyche, let's say, and there were a few things that you said in terms of, you know, we can't get rid of any of these parts. And I think that statement in itself can be so powerful for people just to understand that if they are experiencing anxiety or grief or anger, it's not something that we want to reject and get rid of, but actually something we want to hold space for. Um, so I'm I'm just wondering how from your perspective, how might this relate to people who identify as being highly sensitive? Like what might they be able to take from this approach to their healing and and perhaps also accepting their traits of sensitivity?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a really good question. So earlier on, you asked me what traits I resonate with of highly sensitive people, and some of the things that I mentioned are compassion and having a rich inner world and being a spiritual seeker. And I know that those are traits that a lot of people who are highly sensitive also identify with. And I actually feel like it's my own sensitivity and those traits that have allowed me to use this model of IFS to help myself. Um and it's also enabled me to be able to help other people. And in fact, a lot of people who are highly sensitive seek me out. Um, and it might be because I say I work with highly sensitive people. Um, but even more than that, I think highly sensitive people read what I write about what I do, and something in them wakes up and is like, oh my gosh, like that's what I want and that's what I need. Because as highly sensitive people, we are very in tune with our inner world. We're very aware of our emotions, of our changing emotional states, because sometimes, you know, it can change and shift a lot. We feel things more deeply than other people. And a lot of highly sensitive people I find are already even subconsciously aware that they have a lot of different parts of them. And so when they find a method like this, they can kind of step into it and be like, oh my gosh, like this is giving language to my experience. You know, it's it's allowing space for me to be, you know, really joyful and full of wonder and awe when I'm out in nature or connecting with an animal or another person. And it also gives language to my experience when I get really deeply moved or sad about something, you know. So it's really helpful for highly sensitive people in that it gives a framework for understanding the complex and ever-changing inner world inside of us. And another trait that highly sensitive people have is a lot of compassion. We tend to have a lot of compassion and also curiosity. And those things are very inherent in how we work with our inner systems and within this model, because we have in the in the IFS system, we have inside of us things that are called parts. So that would be like a part that feels excited, a part that feels anxious, a part that feels melancholic sometimes, for example. And then we have core self, which is not really a part. And this is where it kind of gets transpersonal and spiritual because core self is something that exists within all of us, and it's kind of what connects us to the divine and everything around us. And we never lose access to that, even if we get really wounded or go through a lot of really hard things in our life or have parts of us that are acting extreme. Um, and what that core self has inside of it is a lot of curiosity and compassion. And so, you know, highly sensitive people, I feel like are really um good at tapping into that. And so it's kind of like using your inherent core self and your inherent strengths to meet the parts of you that are struggling. And when you make that connection, that's where real magic happens, I think, because the parts of us that have been most wounded, that's what they need and that's what they want. So it kind of takes qualities that highly sensitive people already have, and like connecting it, like those different parts of them in a very specific way that allows a lot of healing and growth to happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. And again, I really love that part of IFS, that idea that we have a core self. And you mentioned the transpersonal, and the transpersonal is a big part of the work I do, this awareness and remembering that we're connected to something greater than our individual selves. And I feel like this model does a great job of helping people to remember that yeah, innate connection that we have to something more than yeah, these wounded parts of ourselves. Um, so we've mentioned you've spoken about some of the traits in terms of the curiosity, the compassion, the creativity. Um, and I'm wondering if as a highly sensitive person you've had any struggles or what you would say one of your biggest struggles has been. Um, and perhaps how you work with that struggle.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Yeah, so as I said, I've been sensitive since I was a little kid. Um and when I was little, I can remember in grade school specifically feeling really different from a lot of the people around me, you know, different from my peers and my classes, and different even from my friends. Um and, you know, I didn't really have much self-awareness at that time because I was little. Um, but I knew there was something different about me. And something that I've been working with a lot lately, and it's a burden that I had that I wasn't even aware I had it, and how deep it was until just recently is this burden I was carrying around of, oh, there must be something wrong with me. You know, if if I'm different from the people around me, then there's gotta be something wrong with me. Um, and as I said, I wasn't even fully aware of that until just recently. But, you know, and in the IFS process, we talk about this idea of burdens, and that's kind of what parts of us that have been wounded tend to carry around. And those burdens are not the essence of the parts of us, you know. So, for example, if my sensitive part of me had a burden that, like, oh, there's something wrong with me, then that sensitivity gets like weighed down, you know, and it gets kind of crippled and inhibited, and it's not able to kind of fully express itself and feel comfortable and at home in the world. Um, and I kind of discovered that a lot of parts of me had this burden of there's something wrong with me. So I that's something I've been working through a lot um over the past month or two, and it's incredible the shifts that have happened for me with that. And you know, as I said, working with IFS, it it really is acupunctural because you get to something that's really deep and that's causing a lot of issues in your system as a whole, and then things start to change that actually might have seemed completely unrelated to that. And so some benefits that I've noticed after working through that are feeling actually a lot calmer and less like I have to work so hard, um, just more self-loving and more confident and trusting of myself. And that's kind of a gift that IFS has been able to give me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. Thank you. And that sounds really powerful. And I'm wondering is there a specific tool or resource that you could recommend to people in terms of how can someone who hasn't experienced IFS before go about starting to use or implement these tools in their life?
SPEAKER_02Um, well, I have several that I've actually made myself. I am a meditation teacher on YouTube and Insight Timer. So somebody who's curious and interested to begin this path could definitely check out my channels and I can give you the links, jewels, and you can put them in the show notes, I guess, for those. Um, because I IFS is a very experiential journey. And so when I was talking before about inside out, you know, it's not just conceptual that we're dealing with different parts of ourselves, it's actually a very felt experience. And so when I'm working with clients, I'll often actually have them close their eyes and go into a meditative state, and then I lead them through a journey where they're actually either feeling or visualizing these different parts of them. So IFS meditations are a very, very good starting place. Um, journaling can be really helpful as well. And there's specific journaling questions that will really help you tap into different parts of yourself. Um and it's different than just thinking about yourself, right? Like it's one thing to ask, why am I like this? Why do I do that? Why do I react that way? And then your brain can just come up with some answers because our brains like to answer unanswered questions or and are going to come up with whatever they want to in order to answer that question. But with IFS, you actually target and contact the part of you that you're working with and you ask it very specific questions, and inevitably what happens is it will tell you the part itself will tell you, which is different than just like thinking about it and introspecting for ages. Um, so anyway, so my meditations can be really helpful. I also actually, through the inner work hub, which is my um recent passion project, I've recently released a course called Inner Work 101. And if you really want to get immersed in this, I recommend checking out Inner Work 101 because it combines video teaching with um like visuals and also um guided experiential journeys and journaling and all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of like the full package, it's a really immersive experience. So I can give you the link for that as well if you'd like to check that out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. Thank you. And I'll definitely put the links to these resources in the show notes so people can check them out. And yeah, I love what you said about it being a very embodied experiential practice. You know, it's not something you can just think your way through, but you really need to experience it. Um, and I definitely relate to that as well. I've you know, used, I've been working with my own parts for a while, and I find that, you know, the guided meditations or the act of even drawing out these parts has been really, really helpful for me. So um I definitely resonate with what you're saying. And interestingly, in in the highly sensitive hub, my membership area, we're going to be talking next month about the self and about parts as well. So it'd be great. Um perhaps we can we can link up our resources somehow. So I'm just wondering, do you have a favorite book or quote or something you'd like to share for our listeners today?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I have a little quote by Elizabeth Gilbert that I think really goes along with the things that I'm talking about with you all today.
SPEAKER_02Here it goes. Love the one in you who is sad, love the one in you who is scared, love the one in you who is angry, love the one in you who is lonely, love the one in you who hates herself. Love all the ones who you are, and then you will know how to love the world. Elizabeth Gilbert.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and again, there's something so powerful about just hearing those words and remembering that it it is okay to love all parts of ourselves and not want to reject or push those parts away. And I think that's such a collective shared. Experience I find with all of the people I work with or the people who come to my workshops as well as a common shared theme of us really learning to love ourselves and embrace all parts of ourselves. And it relates back to what you said earlier. You know, you were talking about this sense of realizing that you used to believe there must be something wrong with you, um, that sense of not belonging. And I also relate to that. I think it's a constant journey of um trying to find that acceptance and compassion for ourselves as well. So we've spoken before about highly sensitive people. Um, as I mentioned at the beginning, obviously, we're good friends, and we have spoken about this idea of being highly sensitive and we've related to it in each other. And one of the things we'd spoken about a while ago was high sensation seeking. And I remember you asking me if I resonated with that. Um, so in terms of being highly sensitive and being a high sensation seeker, and I am still trying to figure out whether that is something I relate to because I've definitely traveled a lot and I've definitely sought out um quite a different life and a sense of needing a lot of change, needing adventure, wanting to be challenged and stimulated. So I'm just wondering what is your perspective on this? And is that something you relate to?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, being high sensation seeking, it is, you know, a lot of what you just said, novelty seeking, extremely curious, looking for new experiences, being adventurous, um, trying new things, uh doing things that might scare us, um, stuff like that. So people who are high sensation seeking only and not highly sensitive people, these might be the kind of people we think of as like adrenaline junkies. They're the ones that, you know, want to go skydiving, they're the ones that, you know, want to rent motorcycles or buy a motorcycle, get a motorcycle license. You know, they're the kind of people who want to go bouldering outdoors. Um, but people who are highly sensitive can also have that trait. And a lot of highly sensitive people who also have that trait, that trait is not quite so intense as it would be for somebody who's high sensation seeking only. Um, and a lot of people might say, like, how is it even possible to have those two traits inside of one person? Um, and I think it's it's only maybe 20 or 30% of people who identify as HSPs are also high sensation seeking. So it's kind of rare to have the two of them in one person. And in fact, um, when I first started learning about high sensitivity, I resonated so strongly with it. I was like, oh my gosh, I totally identify with this. You know, but depending on the friends you talk to of mine, they might be like, oh yeah, she's totally highly sensitive. Or they might say, like, no, she's not. You know, Emma's really adventurous. She's been to 30 countries, she started multiple businesses, like she's fearless, like, you know, so I have these two different sides of me. And actually, I had a hard time reconciling those two sides of me for a while, you know, because I felt like I identified more strongly with one side or the other, depending on where I was at in life. And I felt like there was only space inside of me for one, you know, and I used to kind of try to define myself based on like how I felt. Um, so what IFS has actually done for me is it has allowed me to create space for all the different complex parts of me. You know, I have parts of me that are extremely introspective, um, you know, parts of me that are like hermits, you know, um, but also parts of me that are very novelty-seeking and adventurous. I have other parts that are extremely driven. Um, so it's completely okay to have all of that in the same person. And I I read about high sensation seeking, highly sensitive people. It's almost like trying to live with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake. And it can be kind of like jarring for the person who has both of these traits because one side of us is like trying to make us go, like, go, go, go, do new things, try new things, take risks. And then the other side is like, wait, slow down. It's too much. I'm overwhelmed. Um, and so I actually struggled for a while with these two sides of me because I felt like I was kind of being like pulled in two different directions. Um, but what IFS, which is also called parts work, has been able to do for me is, you know, harmonize those two different sides of me. So they're actually working together. Um, you know, and in one way that comes through, I recently went to Costa Rica and my high sensation-seeking part would want me to maybe like go to a new waterfall or like go hike around a volcano, but then the highly sensitive part of me wanted me to like take my journal and you know, stop on a bench for an hour or two and just like sit and just be or or reflect. Um, how that comes through in my career is the high sensation-seeking parts of me have enabled me to be like really driven, take risks, um, try new things, like not be afraid to fail. And that has actually enabled the highly sensitive part of me to come through better because that highly sensitive part of me alone is not very, she's not really a go-getter. She's like to like be on her own and like read poetry and just like introspect. And she loves that. Um, but she also loves to come through in the way that I work and the way that I relate to people. And that part of me wouldn't really get the chance to do that if I didn't have this other side of me that like laid the groundwork for the high sensation or for the highly sensitive, excuse me, part of me to actually come through. Um, so I now see those two parts of me not as like polar opposites, but like two very different fraternal twins that are actually good friends. Um, so that's that's how I kind of conceptualize it, and that's how it comes through for me. And I'm realizing also that I forgot your original question. So I really hope that I answered it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you did, definitely. And I have this image of those two parts of you like walking hand in hand and supporting each other. And I love what you said about them not being in conflict or being polarized, but actually knowing that those two or those different qualities can exist within you at the same time. And I also do relate to that as well, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Um, and it reminds me of this myth as well, that a lot of people think that all highly sensitive people are introverted. Um, and I definitely believe I'm introverted, but then at the same time, I have the these parts of me that yeah, want to go out into the world and connect and do a podcast and you know be extroverted. So I think it's really important to um yeah, highlight that those qualities can exist within one person and it's it's really important. So yeah, I think thank you for answering that. It provides a lot of clarity in terms of what it means to be HSP and high sensation seeking at the same time. So, yeah, and another question that I um wanted to ask earlier, but I skipped over. I'm just wondering what it is that in inspires you or drives you to do the work that you do.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if you've heard of this word, jewels, but have you heard of the Japanese word ikki guy?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I have.
SPEAKER_02So it's where your passion meets the needs of the world and what you're good at and what you can be paid for. And from a young age, I was so serious about finding that. More so than a lot of my friends. My friends would be like, oh, I'm gonna be a pharmacist, you know, because my dad was one, or I'm gonna be a teacher because, you know, I like kids. And they kind of chose their career without a second thought. But for me, I didn't find it easily, and I was very serious about finding that. Um, so kind of what inspires me and drives me to do the work that I do. I guess following my curiosity has been a big part of that, you know, following the breadcrumbs. And I remember when I was in college and I was struggling to find a major in a career, I um took this exploring majors in careers class, and we had to look at this thing called the occupational outlook handbook. And like, you know, there was this whole list of careers, like these are the things you could do. You could be a teacher, or you could be a therapist, or you could be this or you could be that. And the job that I've actually created for myself like doesn't exist in there. And I remember looking at it and I was like, well, you know, I I would like to be a therapist, but I'd also like to teach, and I love to write, and I I love to do this and that. And so I've created my own job based on my strengths. And what drives me is finding the place where what I'm most good at and the strengths that I have actually meet something that I think the world desperately needs. Um, so it's been a journey for me to step more and more into who I am and to embrace all parts of me and then say, okay, how are these gonna come through? How are these gonna come through? And then trusting that the people that need my help are going to come to me. Um and I'm happy to say that that has really happened. Um, so some of the things that come through for me, I've recently been looking into Carolyn Miss's archetypes, archetype cards. Um, and her idea is that we all have eight primary archetypes. And some of the ones that I know that I have that I'll list off the top of my head, one of them is a hermit, one of them is a spiritual seeker, um, one of them is a healer, another one that I have is a mentor, and then another one I actually combined, it's a combination between an alchemist and an artist. So that invites to like take information that already exists and like change it and transmute it and make it into something new. Um, and so I am so happy to say that all of that gets to come through for me and the work that I do, and it feels so good. I am so satisfied with my life and I feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel really in alignment and that's just wonderful. And I I love being able to take all of that and sit down with the clients that I sit down with in my therapy practice or my my passion project, the inner work hub, I do inner work education and guidance on there and just, you know, offer what I have to offer, you know, from these various different parts of me. Um and you know, the the wider kind of thing that drives me is I believe that, you know, it took a lot of work for me to become the person that I am and to become as self-aware as I am and and figure out what my strengths are. And as I said, that feels so good for me. And so, you know, one of my wider aims with my clients is kind of to help facilitate that process for them so their inner systems become more harmonious and they feel more aligned with who they are and comfortable in their own skin and what they have to offer. And when that happens and there are more people in the world like that, people start to plug into where they're meant to fit. You know, they plug into like the careers or the relationships or the communities that they're meant to be in. And for me, with my high sensitivity, as I said, I'm compassionate and I feel very deeply plugged into the pain of the world and to the problems within the world. And right now there are so many. I mean, we've come so far as a human race, but there are still a lot of problems that we need to look at, you know, like climate change, like global hunger. Um, and I think that when people are more plugged into themselves, which is something that I hope to facilitate through my classes and through my therapy sessions, they plug more into their own pain and they heal their pain, which then plugs them into the pain of the world and then makes them kind of naturally want to meet that with the same compassion that they've met themselves. So I hope that makes sense. It's not necessarily something I even talk about much in my therapy sessions with my clients, but I think it's kind of a natural process that happens. Um, so I guess you know what drives me is helping people plug into themselves and become more connected to the world around them and to be a positive force for good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. Thank you for sharing. And there was something you said which really resonated with me, and it was a sense of us not necessarily having well, not necessarily having one career path or knowing what that path is straight away. I often feel like we're expected to know what we want to do or know what our gifts are and our strengths are, and I think what you described was this um evolving process of figuring out what we're good at and how that plays out in our lives and knowing that we can bring it all together and that we can have this dynamic way of working and way of being in the world. Um, and I also relate to that in the fact that, yeah, it's taken me time to bring all of those, all of my passions together and know that I can do them all at the same time. Um, and that's that feels really powerful. So I really appreciate you sharing that. And um, we're coming really close to the end now. So I'm just wondering if there's anything else you'd like to share about this topic, anything you feel like we haven't mentioned that you're keen to share. Honestly, not that I can think of right now. I feel pretty complete. Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining today. And like I said, I will share all of the links in the show notes, but is there anywhere in particular you want to direct listeners to go where they can check out your work immediately?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um so as a therapist, I work in the United States and my licenses are in the states of Missouri and Illinois, and I'm guessing that a very small percentage of listeners will actually live there.
SPEAKER_00Um you don't know, actually. I'm just sorry I'm interrupting, but a lot of the listeners are based in the US, so you never know. Yeah, well, I'm licensed in um two states out of the 50.
SPEAKER_02So if you happen to be living in those states and happen to be seeking a therapist, then you're free to reach out to me at alternative therapystl.com. Um, but the offerings that I have through the inner work hub are actually meant for people all around the world. Um that presence is inner work education and guidance. Um, so through there, I help people discover, love, heal, integrate, and self-actualize every part of who they are, mostly through online courses, and I offer individual sessions as well. So that's kind of using IFS concepts as a tool for personal and spiritual growth and transformation. So it's not quite so much focusing on like mental health issues, it's more focusing on um just how we can grow, how we can more fully step into ourselves and own every part of us. Um, so that is more kind of along the coaching track, although I really like the terms that I've chosen. They feel like they just fit inner work education and guidance. Um, so you can find that on the innerworkhub.com. I recently released an online course called Inner Work 101, that's a mini course. Um, right now, at the time we're recording, I have that course available actually completely for free for seven days, um, which is more than enough time to complete all the material, or you can pay a small fee to retain access to that forever. And I recently heard from colleagues, they they actually were very firm with me. They were like, Emma, don't offer that much for free. Like, you know, that's not a little taste of what you're offering. That's a lot that you're offering, and you should make that paid. So I'm actively considering transitioning that course over to just be paid. So um I recommend heading over there really soon if you want to access the course for free. But once it is paid only, it really is going to be a small fee, especially considering what you get. So that's the inner work hub. And I'm also on Instagram as InnerWorkGirl. And you can look me up on Insight Timer at Madonovan or on YouTube, the Inner Work Hub. I know that's a million different places to look. So I will definitely give you the links, Jules, and then everyone can just click on those for what they're interested in.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Thank you so much. And yeah, I'll put those in the show notes so they're easy to access. And thank you again for being on the show today. It's been really great talking. Yeah, thank you so much, Jules. Thanks for joining me this week on Highly Sensitive Humans. Make sure to visit my website, highly sensitivehumans.com, where you can subscribe to my mail list for regular updates. Or join the Highly Sensitive Hub, which is a membership area and growing community for highly sensitive people. In the membership area, I share monthly bundles of resources, tools, meditations. We have a community for monthly workshops for the feature, and if I share free share, you can't get a little bit more.