Journey Through the Rainforest Mind—Understanding Giftedness	Like the tropical rain forest, gifted individuals are often intense, highly sensitive, complex, creative, colorful and misunderstood. In this presentation, Paula explains the challenges exceptionally bright children and adults face such as perfectionism, high expectations, loneliness, sensitivities, existential depression, multipotentiality, schooling and guilt/responsibility for saving the world. Using examples from her counseling practice, she provides suggestions, strategies, and resources for parents.
Understanding Your Gifted Child	Perfectionism, isolation, uneven development and intense sensitivity are just a few of the issues affecting the mental health of gifted children. At this workshop, Paula presents specific strategies parents can use to provide support and guidance for their youngsters. Individual consultation is available.
The Burden of a Great Potential- Counseling the Gifted Client	This workshop is designed for professionals who work with youth, adults, and families, including counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and educators. Intellectually and creatively gifted individuals have particular counseling needs that are often overlooked and misunderstood. Traits associated with giftedness like acute sensitivity, intensity, complexity, multi-tasking, and divergent thinking can be misdiagnosed by therapists as anxiety disorder, OCD, bipolar disorder, or ADHD. Gifted clients who are articulate and high functioning can mask serious depression and low self-esteem. When gifted clients come to therapy, they are usually unaware of how their advanced development affects the presenting problem. A therapist who can recognize the characteristics that often accompany giftedness can explain these traits and their effects to the client and this explanation, in itself, can have a profound impact on the outcome of treatment. The workshop provides participants with a greater understanding of giftedness, suggested ways to serve these clients more effectively, and resources for further study. Counseling for both children and adults is addressed. Participants will learn to: - Identify gifted clients - Understand specific traits associated with giftedness - More accurately assess the therapeutic needs of gifted clients - Understand how giftedness affects the individual's perceptions of self, behavior, emotions, and thinking - Adjust treatment based on client's particular gifted traits - Explain to client the impact of advanced development on his/her mental health - Reframe for client how intensities and vulnerabilities of giftedness are strengths - Facilitate groups for the gifted
Ten Tips for Women Who Want to Change the World	Learn simple techniques for self discovery that will give you the energy and wisdom necessary to create positive change on the planet. Methods are based on Jungian theory and a sense of humor! "Paula is funny and right on." - Sarah Hendrickson, M.D.