35. The difference between an IQ test and a qualitative gifted/2e assessment! With Jennifer Harvey Sallin

Nov 8

As a psychologist, trainer, assessor, writer and advocate, Jennifer Harvey Sallin is dedicated to raising awareness about adult giftedness and twice-/multi-exceptionality (2e/me) and meaningfully supporting gifted/2e/me people in their personal and social development. She has specialized in supporting gifted adults for the last decade, and in 2015, she created InterGifted to allow gifted people to socially engage in meaningful ways and to personally develop in community. She is based in Switzerland and supports gifted people throughout the world. Learn more about why Jen started InterGifted here.

Jen has developed a model of giftedness that is particularly useful for gifted adults in their giftedness (re)discovery, integration and personal and professional development. This model is holistic, starting with intellectual giftedness as a base, and factoring in other areas of intelligence as well as other concurrent neurodivergences and intersectionalities to create a full picture of each person's giftedness profile. She uses this model in providing qualitative assessments to gifted adults, as well as in training professional therapists, coaches and other helping professionals to better support their gifted clients.

Jen wants to help gifted and 2e/me people understand how their unique minds work, so that they can have joyful and self-compassionate access to their own intellectual process, and so that they can live and contribute generatively in our changing world. She's worked her own way through this process as well - you can read a bit about her personal gifted journey here and for a more complete bio, visit her personal page at Rediscovering Yourself.

To read more from Jen, visit InterGifted's blog and her own Rediscovering Yourself blog. In addition to her work on giftedness, together with Karin Eglinton, Jen has created an initiative for reconnecting with the Earth during this time of global & ecological crisis: I Heart Earth.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

An IQ test measures something but it does not test for the full range of giftedness.
There is no consensus to the answer of the question of what intelligence is.
Gifted people usually are more intense than non gifted people. However, there is a distinction between complexity (giftedness) and intensity (overexcitabilities).
Understanding your own giftedness profile and potential twice-exceptionalities helps you understand yourself better and helps supports you in your self developmental journey.
Trauma can cause a developmental issues such as shutting down certain parts of your intelligence and playing up for example emotional intelligence in a role as a caretaker.
Gifted people have gifted needs and if they don’t get met, life doesn’t feel fulfilled.
If you are interested in a qualitative assessment you need to be in a mental state where you are able to work on yourself in the realm of self-development.
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