The scapegoat role is not assigned by accident. It is often imposed on the innately sensitive and hyper-empathic child because they often are the ‘whistleblower’ who sees through and points out the facade. As the family members ‘discharge’ their resentment, the child becomes the carrier of all the angst and suppressed negativity in the family.

Some research found that ongoing negative feedback towards the young person’s intuitive perception is the most damaging (Park et al., 1992). If the parents explicitly or implicitly reject the child’s idiosyncrasies, the child will internalize the shame of rejection and experience themselves as being profoundly bad (toxic shame), and their natural g

However, if you experienced a chronic early threat, you may struggle to fully develop your sense of these energetic boundaries. As a result, you may become extremely sensitive to your surroundings. Sometimes, you can appear to be psychic and are able to energetically attune to others and the environment. Other times, you can feel swamped or invaded

Self-help and esoteric literature uses the term ‘empath’ to describe people who are sensitive to the emotions and energy of other people, animals and the environment. Although there is not one unified definition of an empath, they are usually described as individuals who have the ability to physically feel the energy field of others and their surro

Though history cannot be changed, you can rewrite the story that you tell yourself. You are in no way ‘bad’ or ‘too much’. You are a sensitive, intuitive, gifted individual who might have been deprived of the right kind of nourishment during childhood. Your high level of awareness and acuity to subtleties is both rare and incredibly precious. If yo

Childhood wounding does not always take a physical form. Our society typically recognizes the horror of physical child neglect, but not the emotional pain that comes from inadequate or deficient parenting. Psychological damage can happen in all sorts of subtle and invisible ways, from a caregiver’s lack of awareness, subtle put-downs, neglect, and

As an empath, you possess a natural gift for making instant connections with the emotions of others – and this all happens automatically and unconsciously. If you fail to realize this – and to distinguish your feelings from those of others – you can become overwhelmed with undue stress and pain from those around you. Mental symptoms like mood swing

Last but not least, the gifted have an intense moral commitment to bettering the world. They want to address the injustice they see and are frustrated with inequality in humanity.

When you turn away from feeling bad emotions, you turn away from feeling good emotions too. You may become an observer of life, watching it go by without being ‘in’ it. Some people may even experience memory loss, as they do not remember much of their life – even looking at old pictures of themselves can seem surreal. Life’s pain may seem dampened,