256: Managing Overstimulation for Highly Sensitive Parents

Today’s important topic is near and dear to my heart. We are discussing what it’s like to be a highly sensitive parent, and if you’ve listened for very long, you know that I am a highly sensitive parent. We can’t shy away from this topic, because it affects many parents, and it puts a different spin on the challenges that are part of the journey to parenthood. Join me to learn more! Amy Lajiness, LCSW, PMH-C, is a psychotherapist and parenting coach with nearly a decade of experience in working in the field of mental health and wellness. She is passionate about teaching highly sensitive, empathic, and overwhelmed moms how to harness their strengths and manage challenges to thrive in parenthood. Amy provides therapy for women and parents in California and offers resources, courses, and video coaching for highly sensitive parents around the world. Amy helps us understand what it’s like to be a highly sensitive parent, along with the ways sensory overload and multiple competing expectations cause parents more stress. Amy shares practical ways to reduce sensory overload and overstimulation and ways to create realistic expectations for yourself as a parent. Being a highly sensitive parent comes with many gifts, and these gifts can be leveraged in positive ways to support yourself and your children.  Show Highlights: How Amy realized in her 20s that she experiences the world in different ways–and that was magnified as she became a parent How Amy’s mission became to support parents who don’t fit into a set “box” of postpartum depression or anxiety but find parenting difficult because of their sensitivity The basics of what it means to be an HSP (highly sensitive person) parent: feeling guilt, having a hard time keeping up with parenthood demands, feeling rage/irritability/desire to escape, and losing touch with who they are outside of parenthood How the acronym DOES can be used for the scientific explanation of being an HSP: Depth of processing, Overstimulated easily, Empathy, and Sensitivity to subtle stimuli Why it is important to realize that the signs of an HSP in parenthood can be gifts in certain ways Why highly sensitive parents have to give themselves permission to take a break and take care of themselves–before they hit the WALL How highly sensitive parents deal with stress, overload, and multiple expectations Why highly sensitive parents need to look with introspection and understanding at what they CAN and CAN’T do Practical tips for HSP parents for reducing sensory overload (beyond therapy), like taking micro-breaks, finding balance, setting timers, establishing boundaries, etc.  Why we need to dismantle the myth that “good parents” want to be with their kids 24/7 and never need breaks Why the main gifts of HSPs are attunement, empathy, and mindfulness, along with experiencing beautiful things with our children and connecting with them physically and emotionally   Resources: Connect with Amy: Website, Instagram, Facebook Visit Amy’s website, find what you’re looking for, and apply coupon code “MOMANDMIND” for 20% off any purchase through all of 2023! Books mentioned in this episode: The Highly Sensitive Child, The Highly Sensitive Person, and The Highly Sensitive Parent (all by Dr. Elaine Aron) Visit www.postpartum.net for resources! I’d love to hear from you! Visit www.postpartum.net/professionals/certificate-trainings/ for information on the grief course.   Visit my website, www.wellmindperinatal.com, for more information, resources, and courses you can take today!