April Snow Sensitive The

April Snow, LMFT

As an Introvert and Highly Sensitive Person, I understand the struggles of balancing self-care while supporting others. I want to help you reduce overwhelm and honor your Strengths as a Sensitive Therapist so you can feel fulfilled in your work again.   

Why Being a Sensitive Therapist is Stressful on the Body

Why Being a Sensitive Therapist is Stressful on the Body

Since we spend the majority of our day being relatively still, most people assume the work of a therapist is not physically impactful. Before entering this field, I would have made the same assumption because therapists don’t have to worry about physical labor or extreme temperatures. We spend the majority of our day sitting, talking to clients or doing admin work at our desks. This appears so simple on the surface, but working as a therapist can create more physical discomfort and stress than one may expect.

Just the fact that we sit all day has health implications. As you may have heard, “sitting is the new smoking”. According to the Mayo Clinic, “an analysis of 13 studies of sitting time and activity levels found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to the risks of dying posed by obesity and smoking.”

On top of the health risks of sitting too much, Highly Sensitive Therapists (HST) are susceptible to the physical effects of overstimulation due to our more finely tuned nervous systems and perceptive brains. We notice more subtleties, feel more empathy and process everything at length, leaving us more stressed as a result. With our more active mirror neurons, HSTs may even feel whatever emotions their clients bring into session, making it more difficult to stay regulated and transition to the next session.

All this brain and nervous system activity shows up physically in our bodies as:

  • tension

  • headaches

  • fatigue

  • digestive issues

  • overstimulation

  • anxiety

  • sleep difficulties

  • and more

Soothing our nervous systems through relaxing self-care routines is an essential practice as Highly Sensitive Therapists since we tend to get more easily overstimulated than our non-HST colleagues.

Sitting all day is stressful on our physical bodies.

Empathizing all day is stressful on our emotional bodies.

In a recent poll of Highly Sensitive Therapists in my Facebook group, 60% are receiving some type of bodywork at least once per month while 79% are using supplements or herbs to manage stress levels.

These HSTs are soothing themselves with:

  • craniosacral therapy

  • chiropractic care

  • massage (hot stone, deep pressure, lymphatic, shiatsu)

  • acupuncture

  • reflexology

  • neurofeedback

  • reiki or energy work

  • shirodhara and ayurvedic treatments

  • sound bathing

  • exercise and yoga

  • time in nature

  • herbs, supplements and flower essences

To thrive as Highly Sensitive Therapists, it’s important to be intentional about incorporating movement and physical self-care practices into our routines. In the video below, I speak a little to my own experience with craniosacral work.

Do You Feel Guilty When Charging Your Clients?

Do You Feel Guilty When Charging Your Clients?

How I Became a Highly Sensitive Person Specialist

How I Became a Highly Sensitive Person Specialist