The confused look on my friend's face when I told her I felt sad that childhood was coming to a close, the volleyball coach who insisted I "yell louder" to my teammates, the relative who told me I needed thicker skin.... each of these early experiences helped build the case that I was somehow strange and wrong.
By the time I was in high school, I felt certain that my deep feelings and thoughts proved my defectiveness. I made a conscious decision to tuck all that sensitive stuff away and save myself from the embarrassment of being seen.
I first heard the term Highly Sensitive Person in college and read the seminal book on the topic. For the first time, someone both named my experience and said there was nothing wrong with me.
Time stood still.
For the first time, I could consider that the way I experienced the world might carry intelligence rather than evidence of my defectiveness.
With support, I began removing years of internal censorship and reclaiming parts of myself I had disowned. I learned how different life could feel when I stopped organizing so much of myself around who I thought I had to be.
Over time, recognizing my own neurodivergence widened the picture further.
My own understanding of this work has kept evolving, too.
I've been on my own journey of awakening and reclamation - taking off more of the masks of who I learned I had to be, and really getting to know my spirit, my soul, my heart, and the ways I'm wired.
I came up through the social science world of psychology, where spirituality and intuitive knowing could be respected, but were often held at arm's length. My clinical training gave me a deep foundation in trauma, relationships, the nervous system, and the complexity of being human.
And over time, part of reclaiming myself has meant letting my intuitive abilities take up more room, too.
What I bring now feels like a potent combination of head, heart, somatics, and intuition.
I tend to notice what is happening underneath the obvious: patterns, relational dynamics, what the body may be communicating, and subtle threads that can be difficult to name when you're inside of them.
I've learned that my gifts are best expressed when I get to walk deeply alongside someone at a personal threshold - when something in their life or identity is ready to change, even if they can't fully see the way forward yet.
I don't experience any of this as a finished journey.
I'm still learning what it means to know myself fully, to trust parts of me I once kept contained, and to live with more peace, vitality, and clarity.
I think our next revelation is often within reach. We may simply need another person beside us, someone who can help us see what is hard to see from inside our own lives and walk with us while the path becomes clearer.
It's a privilege to do this sacred work.
Brooke
A few places to continue, depending on where you are.
Sensitivity, neurodivergence, and the places they overlap, without forcing yourself into a single label.
Coming Home to Yourself: Recalibration for Sensitives.
Coaching, mentorship, and private intensives.
Learn more →