Autistic? ADHD? Highly sensitive? Gifted? If you've spent years trying to work out which one actually describes you, there's a good reason it's been hard to pin down: these traits genuinely overlap. And for a lot of people, getting an official answer isn't simple either, between long assessment waitlists, the cost of private testing, and diagnostic systems that often overlook people who are coping well on the surface. In this blog post I share two diagrams I use often with clients to map this overlap out, and what it can look like to start working with your parts even without a formal diagnosis.

Giftedness is more than a high IQ, and for many gifted adults, the very parts that were praised the most are now getting in the way. This post looks at what giftedness actually involves, why intellectual and analytical parts can become overprotective, and how IFS therapy can help you work with all of it.