Being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is not a diagnosis—it’s a series of traits and characteristics a person may have. It means your nervous system processes everything more deeply: sensations, emotions, beauty, pain, and yes, even other people’s moods. While this sensitivity is a profound strength, it can also feel like a burden when the world doesn’t know how to meet you where you are.
As a depth-oriented therapist, I work with many HSPs who are navigating overstimulation, burnout, anxiety, complex relationships, and existential overwhelm. But here’s the good news: the therapeutic process, when tailored with care, can help you harness your sensitivity as a gift rather than a weight.
Below are several approaches I draw on when working with HSPs, each offering its own doorway into healing:
- Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): Learning to Trust Your Emotional Intuition
HSPs often experience emotions more intensely and need space to feel without being told they’re “too much.” Emotion-Focused Therapy offers a compassionate container to work with these emotions instead of shutting them down. We slow things down and learn to name, tolerate, and trust your emotional experience—not as something to fix, but as something to listen to. For HSPs who’ve internalized the message that their feelings are a problem, EFT can be a powerful reclamation of truth.
- Cognitive Therapy: Reframing Overthinking and Self-Criticism
Sensitivity often comes with a vivid inner world—and sometimes, that world can get clouded with rumination or self-doubt. Cognitive Therapy can help identify unhelpful thought loops and gently challenge the harsh internal narratives that HSPs are prone to develop, especially if they grew up in invalidating environments. We work to replace inner criticism with internal safety. It’s not about suppressing your thoughts—it’s about clarifying what’s true, kind, and useful.
- Enneagram Therapy: Understanding the Deep Structure of Your Sensitivity
The Enneagram offers insight into the deeper motivations behind your sensitivity. Are you the Type 4 who longs to feel deeply understood? The Type 6 who feels safest when prepared for every possible outcome? The Type 9 who absorbs everyone else’s emotions to keep the peace? Knowing your Enneagram type can help you understand why you react the way you do—and how to work with those patterns, not against them. For HSPs, it’s a map of self-compassion and self-awareness.
- Schema Therapy & Psychodynamic Therapy: Healing from the Past That Still Lives Inside
Many HSPs were not supported as children in the ways they needed. In Psychodynamic Therapy, we trace the emotional roots of your current struggles—exploring the unconscious patterns and early relational wounds that shaped your sensitivity. This work can be deeply validating, especially for HSPs who have felt “too emotional” or “too complicated” their whole lives. We make space for those early needs to be acknowledged and met—perhaps for the first time.
- Brainspotting: Calming the Overwhelmed Nervous System
When sensitivity turns into overwhelm, especially after trauma, the nervous system needs to unwind. Brainspotting, a therapy that comes from EMDR, is a gentle, somatic therapy that helps you access and process deep emotional pain stored in the body. It’s especially powerful for HSPs who are easily overstimulated or have difficulty verbalizing what they feel. With Brainspotting, healing happens through presence, not pressure.
- Jungian Therapy & Dreamwork: Tapping into the Wisdom of the Unconscious
HSPs often have a rich inner life—vivid dreams, emotional symbolism, deep spiritual yearnings. Jungian Therapy honours this. We explore archetypes, dreams, synchronicities, and the symbols that speak to you personally. Dream analysis can be particularly meaningful for HSPs whose unconscious offers messages in metaphor. It’s not about “analyzing” your way to clarity, but rather allowing your inner world to guide you toward it.
Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need to Be Less Sensitive. You Need the Right Kind of Support.
If you’re an HSP, your sensitivity is not a flaw—it’s a form of intelligence. A gift. But gifts need tending. Therapy can offer a space to slow down, listen inward, and build a life that honours your nervous system instead of overriding it.
In my practice, I offer integrative therapy for HSPs—meaning we tailor your healing path to you. Whether it’s through exploring dreams, unburdening trauma through Brainspotting, decoding your Enneagram type, or simply being met with warmth and understanding, this work is about helping you thrive—not despite your sensitivity, but because of it.
If this speaks to you, I invite you to reach out and book a time to meet here. You deserve therapy that sees you clearly and treats your sensitivity with the respect it deserves.
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Meet Rebecca Steele: Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist
Rebecca Steele is a Waterloo-based therapist providing trauma therapy, anxiety therapy, and counselling services virtually in Kitchener-Waterloo and across Ontario. With over a decade of experience as a counselling therapist, she offers individualized, one-on-one therapy with a style aimed towards being direct, compassionate, and attuned to the complexities of the human experience. Her work supports individuals navigating depression, trauma, grief, major life transitions, boundary challenges, low self-esteem, relationship stress, and a range of anxiety-related struggles—including generalized anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias, anxious attachment, and OCD. She aims to create a safe space where clients can confront the roots of their struggles, engage in meaningful self-exploration, and develop strategies for lasting change. If you're ready to engage in depth-oriented, transformative therapy, you can learn more about Rebecca’s online counselling services in Kitchener-Waterloo here.
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