You can find all sorts of resources for yourself – we HSPs are, after all, master researchers! The resources listed below are suggested as a ‘starter for 10’ and have come from my own research.
Please note, I am not recommending or vouching for anyone or anything listed here, and do not know anyone mentioned personally. Many of the websites I’ve included offer a range of support across the categories listed.
There are lots of self-tests and quizzes you can do if you want to find out if you might be an HSP. For example, you’ll find ones on the websites listed below for Elaine Aron, Julie Bjelland and Granneman & Solo’s Highly Sensitive Refuge.
Aron also has self-tests for the highly sensitive child and for high sensation-seeking HSPs.
Elaine Aron (who originally coined the term ‘highly sensitive person’: www.hsperson.com
Julie Bjelland: sensitive empowerment: www.juliebjelland.com
Susan Cain: (about introverts rather than HSPs): www.susancain.net
Tracy Cooper: high sensory intelligence: www.drtracycooper.org
Ildiko Davis – is a counsellor (who I don’t know and am not therefore recommending) but her website includes lots of useful information for HSPs: www.idcounselling.co.uk/highly-sensitive-person-hsp/
Douglas Eby: www.talentdevelop.com/category/high-sensitivity/
Tom Falkenstein: The European Centre for High Sensitivity: www.hsp-eu.com
Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo: Highly Sensitive Refuge: www.highlysensitiverefuge.com
Daisy Gumin – young person’s view on being HSP: www.quietrev.com/author/daisy-gumin/
Judith Orloff: high end of high sensitivity (empaths): www.drjudithorloff.com
Ted Zeff: www.highlysensitive.org
Too many to mention but here is a link to some of them.
Many of the websites listed above have their own communities or provide links to others.
You could also have a look at HSPconnect. And Julie Bjelland has an “HSPs in Business Group” on her site.
The life-changing one for me: “5 Gifts of Being Highly Sensitive and 5 Curses: an interview with Douglas Eby”(BeliefNet, March 2010)
My own article in Happiful magazine, see pages 74 – 77 (published in December 2020, and originally an article – now unattributed since my retirement – in The Counselling Directory, 23 September 2020)
The ‘missing personality type’: could you be a Highly Sensitive Person? | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian (Rhik Samadder, 2 April 2023)
“Are you anxious, introverted or just a ‘highly sensitive person’?” (David Robson, The Guardian, 4 April 2022)
“They could be the visionaries of our world: do ‘overemotional’ people hold the key to happiness?” (Emine Saner, 15 November 2021)
“Introversion, Extroversion and the Highly Sensitive Person: What does it mean to be an extroverted highly sensitive person?” (Jacquelyn Strickland, Psychology Today, 13 May 2018)
An internet search will also throw up endless ‘bite-sized’ articles about various aspects of being an HSP. If you like punchy titles followed by numbered lists (of signs and how-to…), you’ll be in heaven!
Elaine Aron – The Highly Sensitive Person; The Highly Sensitive Person Workbook; The Highly Sensitive Child; The Highly Sensitive Parent; The Highly Sensitive Person in Love; Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person; The Undervalued Self
Esther Bergsma – The Brain of the Highly Sensitive Person: Why You Shouldn’t Judge a Fish by its Ability to Climb a Tree
Julie Bjelland – The Empowered Highly Sensitive Person: How to Harness Your Sensitivity Into Strength in a Chaotic World
Susan Cain (about introverts rather than HSPs)– Quiet; Bittersweet
Amanda Cassil – The Empowered Highly Sensitive Person: A Workbook to Harness Your Strengths in Every Part of Your Life
Mel Collins – The Handbook for Highly Sensitive People: How to Transform Feeling Overwhelmed and Frazzled to Empowered and Fulfilled
Tracy Cooper – Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career; Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person
Barrie Davenport – Finely Tuned: How to Thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person or Empath
Judy Dyer – The Highly Sensitive: How to stop overload, anxiety, negative energy
Tom Falkenstein – The Highly Sensitive Man: How Mastering Natural Instincts, Ethics and Empathy Can Enrich Men’s Lives and the Lives of Those Who Love Them
Jenn Granneman & Andre Solo – Sensitive
Barrie Jaeger – Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person
Dave Markowitz – Self-Care for the Self-Aware: A Guide for Highly Sensitive People, Empaths, Intuitives and Healers
Kelly O’Laughlin – A Highly Sensitive Person’s Life
Judith Orloff – The Empath’s Survival Guide; Thriving as an Empath; Affirmations for Empaths; and (cards) The Empath’s Empowerment Deck
Ilse Sand – Highly Sensitive People in an Insensitive World
Ted Zeff – The Strong Sensitive Boy; The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide: Essential Skills for Living Well in an Over-Stimulating World
There has been a lot of research done into being highly sensitive and also into how it compares to other types of sensitivity.
In the research and scientific fields, being highly sensitive is referred to as Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS).
Elaine Aron is herself a researcher. Her website has a section on research which details her own work (and with collaborators) as well as research done by others.
You could also have a look at Michael Pluess and his sensitivity research.
What’s on offer changes all the time, so keep an eye on the websites listed in this page.
Email:
sally@this-being-highly-sensitive.info
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