Join me on Patreon!

IMG_20190925_130512438This page started several years ago as a means of reaching the HSP community in a more direct way than through books or other premade media; not surprising given that I am an HSP as well with a deep need for connection and meaning.  The mission of this page has always been to help people by raising awareness and consciousness around Sensory Processing Sensitivity and, in doing so, help people to thrive and live their most decisive and full lives.  In that regard, there have been some compromises made to fit the format and expected length of posts.  It’s always been a juggling act between providing too much content and risking turning people off or providing too little to be of any real use.  I’ve opted to keep posts fairly brief, while introducing and elaborating on a topic enough to stimulate meaningful thinking in support of my page mission, but I have always felt that I want to go more in-depth on many topics.

The time has come now to take advantage of new platforms and new models.  With a new model, I will be able to provide more in-depth content that will be of even greater utility in helping people come to know themselves better, develop strategies for living in the world as, both, a highly sensitive person and a sensitive sensation seeker, and to provide insights on topics that touch the lives of people beyond superficial description of the trait.  Here, for one, I am envisioning moving to higher level discussions of spirituality and how we can direct our creativity toward greater self-actualization, over time.

This new platform is called Patreon and is based on the rather old idea of patrons providing support to enable the creator to invest his time into the things we all care about.  I especially like the patron idea in that it is crowdfunded and, thus, spread out over many people.  This enables the effort to be a true grassroots initiative, rather than one for the elites.  People already support causes they believe in across an incredible variety of topics, from the very serious to the not so serious.

This new page at Patreon will be called, very simply, Dr. Tracy Cooper and will continue the same mission as this blog: to help people by raising awareness and consciousness around Sensory Processing Sensitivity and, in doing so, help people to thrive and live their most decisive and full lives.  The difference will be that content will go into greater depth and breadth, videos will be posted about twice a week, and there will be direct access to a question and answer session each month with me at the higher tier levels.  There are various incentives at each level of subscription, but all are simply meant to be gestures of thanks for ongoing support.

The new Patreon adventure will launch this coming Tuesday, Oct. 1st.  This blog will continue to exist in its current format, with brief articles and some helpful analysis but, if you would like more in-depth content I invite you to consider helping me create a new HSP learning community that is open, warm, and inviting, as well as informative, practical, and educational.

I’ve never been much of a “joiner,” instead preferring to work on my own and enjoy maximum autonomy to pursue what is of most interest to me and that which I feel will be of most use to my audience.  Ironically, I ask you to now “join” me in creating a beautiful new HSP community at Patreon that will be co-created with your support and advice on topics you would like to hear about the most.  When I entertained the idea of a Patreon page, I felt a little resistance at the idea of “performing” for an audience and the way I’ve been able to embrace it is thinking of it as creating a new learning community; community building has always appealed to me and this new venture may lead us down some interesting possibilities.

I’m willing and ready to see where it takes us, are you?  Join me

https://www.patreon.com/drtracycooper

Upcoming Sensitivity Summit

I’m thrilled to share this FREE online event, beginning Sept. 16th,  where I, and 25+ other phenomenal experts, senssummittshare new understanding and insight about the trait (including the gifts and challenges) of high sensitivity.

www.thesensitivitysummit.com

 

drtracycooper.com

Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career

Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person

Autopsychotherapy for HSPs?

Are we capable of autopsychotherapy? Of course we are; who knows us better than ourselves? Kazimierz Dabrowski, a Polish psychologist/psychiatrist created his theory of Positive Distintegration as a way of explaining human growth and development through inner processes that often resemble disintegrative processes, but which are actually quite necessary to bring about the dissolution of lower levels of development in favor of higher levels of personality development.

We know that highly sensitive people are often intense people who experience strong, quick emotions and spend much time in reflection and contemplation. Dabrowski believed that some people have higher levels of developmental potential than others and, thus, are geared for what may be accelerated personality development. This concept has been used extensively by the gifted community, who have long noted that most gifted people tend to be highly sensitive and exhibit many of what Dabrowski termed “Overexcitabilities” or OEs.

OEs should be quite familiar to HSPs as overstimulation to certain, highly individualized stimuli, ie., sensory stimulation, intellectual stimulation, creative stimulation, emotional stimulation, and physical stimulation. Note that not all HSPs are gifted, far from it. Many HSPs are quite intelligent, creative, multitalented in many ways but giftedness is a bit different. The important point to consider is that Dabrowski’s theory of Positive Disintegration is for everyone and can help us to better understand what we might do with our inner milieu of anxieties, depression, and neuroses. To Dabrowski, these were not necessarily a sign of mental illness; rather, they were a sign that a person may be undergoing disintegrative processes that might result in higher levels of personality development over time. He was very careful to articulate that there are, indeed, instances of true mental illness that are organic in nature but most of what we think of as mental “health” is actually culturally-derived and does not reflect true human nature, which to him is more turbulent and disintegrative as a natural state of being.

Can you perform therapy on yourself? Sure, and do so with the aim of creating yourself rather than eliminating a problem.

For more on Dabrowski, feel free to browse a website maintained for his theory:

http://www.positivedisintegration.com/

drtracycooper.com

Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career

Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person (ch. 7 of this book is entirely about positive disintegration as it applies to HSS/HSPs)

 

Thrive Audio book

Following up on the release of my audio book for Thrill, I am now happy to announce Thrive Audiobook Coverthat Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career is available as an audio book!

I have a limited number of free codes for the audio book if you are in the US or UK. If you like the book, kindly consider leaving a review on Amazon. Message me here if you’d like a free code for Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career.

drtracycooper.com

Positive Disintegration

In chapter 7 of Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person, I cover how the theory of Positive Disintegration applies to HSS/HSPs. In this podcast, therapist Cindy Barnes articulates a view of the worth of PD as it applies to HSPs. The comments start at about 1:21.

For more on Positive Disintegration, please see chapter 7 of Thrill.

drtracycooper.com

Thrill Audiobook

You’ve waited for it; now it’s available, at long last! Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Cover for audio bookHighly Sensitive Person is now available as an audiobook on Audible and soon on ITunes.

Narrated by the very talented Stuart McNish, Thrill comes to life in ways reading a book silently misses. If you enjoyed reading Thrill, you’ll love hearing it as well.

Please share!

Thrill audiobook!

Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person is now available as an audio book, read by the very talented Stuart McNish.  You can find Thrill on Audible, Itunes, and Amazon.

Cover for audio book

Audible

Amazon

drtracycooper.com

Thrill Seeking

Here is an interview I just did for Iowa Public Radio on Sensation Seeking! It was great to inform the conversation around sensation seeking because the trait is simultaneously a great gift, if managed well, and a great curse, if allowed to run wild. Being a highly sensitive person, at the same time, provides many of us who are HSS/HSPs the cautionary pause we need to assess whether we should do whatever it is we are contemplating doing. The two traits combined are a dynamic duo of creativity, deep thinking, deep feeling, and moxy that can also be a great gift or great curse, depending on how they are balanced and managed. Thanks to the producer, Rick Brewer, for seeking me and providing the platform!

PLEASE share this one widely! Thank you!

drtracycooper.com

Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person

 

https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/thrill-seeking-why-do-we-do-it

Audiobooks for Thrill and Thrive!

I’m pleased to report that production is complete on the audiobook versions of Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person and Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career! Both should be available within a week or so through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes!

 

drtracycooper,com