05/01/2023

Serving the Highly Sensitive Person: Considerations for Career Service Providers

By Hannah Fuller

Constituting an estimated 15-20% of the population, highly sensitive people (HSPs) are defined as individuals with heightened sensitivity to environmental stimuli (Aron, 1996/2016). It may be common to assume that highly sensitive simply refers to a high level of emotionality (i.e., someone who is always feeling). However, the term—coined in the 1990’s by psychologist and researcher Dr. Elaine Aron—has a far more technical definition. Sometimes referred to as Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) in scientific and research settings (Malinakova et al., 2021), HSPs are highly sensitive to their environment, registering subtle physical and emotional cues and sensory stimuli such as smells, sounds, sensations, and light (Aron, 1996/2016). In any given moment, an HSP is processing extensive internal and external cues and as a result, they tend to reach their threshold for overstimulation sooner than others. In short, HSPs’ heightened sensory sensitivity can be attributed to their processing of subtle information cues that others may not even register. The outward manifestation is often someone who appears highly intuitive, sensing, empathic, and, as natural consequence, more easily overstimulated by their environment.

In an American cultural setting where sensitivity is often perceived as a weakness, it is easy to overlook the many advantages of being highly sensitive. HSPs tend to have deep empathy, diplomacy, strong listening skills, intuition, creativity, thoughtfulness, attention to detail, and reflective capabilities (Aron, 1996/2016). This makes them particularly skilled at roles in helping, artistic, philosophical, spiritual, and academic professions—though these strengths lend themselves to many settings.

How Career Services Can Aid Highly Sensitive Clients

Though awareness of HSPs has grown in recent decades, career professionals may not be familiar with the term. And even those well versed on this population may be unsure of how to incorporate their understanding into career advising. However, given the unique professional needs of many HSPs, career services play a critical role in helping them thrive in professional spaces. The following three considerations offer a starting point for career services providers when working with HSPs.

1. Don’t Stop at the Label: Seek Understanding

When someone shares that they are an HSP, career service providers first need to learn what that means for that individual. To qualify to be an HSP based on Dr. Aron’s definition, 14 or more of the 27 criteria listed on Aron’s questionnaire must be met, resulting in a diversity of symptom configurations grouped under one umbrella label (Aron, 1996). Career service providers can help clients explore the way that sensitivity uniquely manifests in their life, identifying specific strategies and solutions to address challenges and amplify strengths. The label of HSP isn’t the answer- it is the starting point to gaining more information about how a person operates and what they need to be happy in their professional life.

2. Intuition May Lead to Overwhelm When Exploring Careers

As Dr. Aron notes, HSPs are often guided—to their great benefit—by their intuition, juggling many perspectives and possibilities all while sensing the way forward (1996/2016). However, this strength may backfire in the job search process. HSPs can feel overwhelmed by different internal voices and perspectives (as well as subtle cues from external sources such as family and friends), each offering a different possibility, vocational calling, or vision. This may manifest as a client pulled in many directions: they want to serve others but worry they should be prioritizing their artistic passions; they dream of a family-focused life while simultaneously wondering if a better focus would be their spirituality. As a result, highly intuitive HSPs may start feeling overwhelmed with all the thoughts swirling around in their head when searching for a vocation. To help HSPs avoid the swirl of thoughts and feelings, and better understand the realities of different career paths, career service providers can encourage clients to balance their intuition and hunches with fact-finding and information gathering. Sessions might focus on supporting HSPs in their decision-making process by helping them narrow their list of options (i.e., identifying 2-3 realistic possibilities that best align with their values), weigh advantages/disadvantages (i.e., using a pro/con list), and try things on for size (i.e., job shadowing, informational interviews). Facts create a map of information from which intuition can provide compass-like guidance. To get to one’s career destination, individuals need both a map and a compass.

3. Avoid Reinforcing Stigma by Circumscribing Where HSPs Should Work

For HSPs who struggle in certain work environments, it can be easy to internalize this as a sign of being ill-suited for the job. The unfortunate outcome is that many HSPs leave the very spaces that need them the most. (I would argue that business settings are sorely in need of empathic, diplomatic, and thoughtful leaders). When HSPs are discouraged from certain fields, the diversity of those spaces is limited and stigmas are reinforced. It is unhelpful, unethical, and inaccurate for the career service provider to hand an HSP a list of jobs to avoid and not offer additional support. The goal is not to avoid certain jobs, it is to approach those spaces in ways that are congruent with the client’s needs and the requirements of the role. Learning about being an HSP can help clients identify techniques to manage overarousal in particularly stressful environments. For example, as Melody Wilding LMSW suggests, a highly sensitive employee could designate time alone in their office before a stressful business meeting to meditate or could utilize noise-cancelling headphones throughout the day (Wilding, 2023). Admittedly, some professions may seem more favorable for HSPs than others (i.e., clergy, therapist, librarian). But all people could be miserable in any job if the environment is not right (consider an HSP therapist who works in a loud, chaotic facility with insensitive supervisors). It is better to focus on ideal environments, not broad categories of conducive jobs.

Doing the Work

Career service professionals serve an important function in helping HSPs navigate their professional life. They can support HSP clients by:

• Seeking to understand each person’s unique experience to ensure that subsequent interventions are based on reality, not assumptions or misinformation
• Offering decision-making frameworks in which HSP intuition can flourish instead of flounder
• Empowering clients to harness their strengths, refine coping strategies, and advocate for their needs in professional spaces

Though these considerations offer a starting point, more research and exploration are needed to further understand how to best support HSPs in their career development.

References

Aron, E. N. (1996). Are you highly sensitive? https://hsperson.com/test/highly-sensitive-test/

Aron, E. N. (2016). The highly sensitive person: How to thrive when the world overwhelms you. Harmony. (Original work published 1996)

Malinakova, K., Novak, L., Trnka, R., & Tavel, P. (2021). Sensory Processing Sensitivity Questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation and associations with experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(24), 12962. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182412962

Wilding, M. (2023, February 20). Why being a highly sensitive person could be your greatest professional asset. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90851501/why-being-a-highly-sensitive-person-could-be-your-greatest-professional-asset

Hannah Fuller, MA, Mental Health Counselor Associate, CSP, is a counselor and HSP residing in Seattle, Washington. She may be reached at hannahfuller59@gmail.com.