This week I’m excited to bring you a conversation about supporting the unique needs of gifted and 2e learners during Covid. My guest is Heather Boorman, a licensed clinical social worker, speaker, author, and advocate who, through her experience as a therapist and as a mother, is particularly passionate about working with “kids on the fringes” and their families, who live with the joys and challenges of atypical developmental needs. Heather hosts The Fringy Bit podcast and is the author of The Gifted Kids Workbook: Mindfulness Skills to Help Kids Reduce Stress, Balance Emotions, and Build Confidence. 

Though we’ve talked a lot on the podcast about supporting all kinds of kids through this long, ongoing pandemic, I wanted to have an episode focused specifically on gifted and 2e kids. Heather brings so many amazing insights to this conversation, providing a framework to understand how the uncertainty and changes during this last year might affect these unique kids, and gives her best strategies for addressing both their needs and your needs as a parent. 

 

About Heather: Heather Boorman is the founding director of Boorman Counseling in Western Wisconsin. She specializes as a trauma therapist and is a nationally recognized provider, speaker, and advocate for neurodiverse children and adults. Additionally, Heather is the author of The Gifted Kids Workbook and writes and podcasts at The Fringy Bit, to provide REAL support to parents who love a differently wired child. 

 

THINGS YOU’LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE:

• What is has been like to work as a child therapist during the Covid-19 pandemic

• How the framework of existential threat helps us to understand the particular struggles of 2e and gifted kids right now

• How regulating ourselves as parents and caregivers is the best way to help support our kids

• Heather’s go-to strategies for supporting 2e and gifted kids

• How to avoid “jumping into the bathwater” of our child’s anxiety

• Why Heather created The Gifted Kids Workbook and how kids and parents can use it to help gifted and 2e kids during the pandemic (and beyond)

• What is Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration and how can it help parents right now

• Heather’s top two pieces of advice for parents

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED: 

• Boorman Counseling

• The Fringy Bit

• The Gifted Kids Workbook: Mindfulness Skills to Help Kids Reduce Stress, Balance Emotions, and Build Confidence by Heather Boorman

• Kristin Neff 

• Author and Self-Compassion Researcher Dr. Kristin Neff’s on the Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (Tilt podcast episode)

• Dabrowski’s Theory and Existential Depression in Gifted Children and Adults

 

THANKS SO MUCH FOR LISTENING! Do you have an idea for an upcoming episode? We’d LOVE to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in our Suggestion Box! And if you have any other feedback or thoughts you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment below or send us a note directly through our Connect form. If you liked this episode and know of others who would find value in the information, please use the social media share buttons below to help spread the word. Lastly, if you are so willing, I encourage you to leave an honest review for the TiLT Parenting Podcast over on iTunes. Reviews are very important for helping podcasts find their audiences, and we would love your support in helping us find ours! To subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss a single episode, you can do so on iTunes here and SoundCloud here.