Choosing effective therapeutic techniques for the gifted clients

*Vasso Androutsou1, Georgia Nika 2, Vassiliki Fotopoulou 3, Maria Kashtanova4, Anastasios Tsimakis5

1 Systemic Counselor, 2 Psychiatrist, 3 Social Worker – Systemic Counselor, 4 Schoolteacher, 5 Computer Engineer 1,2,3,4,5Hellenic Association of Parents of Gifted Children, Greece

At this poster we summarizing the most common characteristics of gifted adults –according to the self-reports of those who completed the Greek Self-Report Questionnaire for Gifted Adults, that is part of a pilot survey designed by the Greek Association of Parents of Gifted Children.
The Survey consists of 40 self-report questions emphasized on characteristics, related with cognitive/perceptional/emotional traits, creativity, motivation and values, activity, and social relations, that are often experienced by gifted yet not obviously connected to the traits of giftedness.
Giftedness is both a matter of odds and qualities, the different ways of experiencing the world: vivid, absorbing, insightful, encompassing, complex, commanding – the way of life. Although gifted people experience all of life differently and more intensely than those around them, usually they are defined by a set of standards based on the general population. They exhibit greater intensity and increased levels of emotional, imaginational, intellectual, sensual and psychomotor excitability and this is a normal pattern of their development. And it’s exactly because of these that they have a finely tuned psychological structure and an organized awareness, and thus that they experience all of life differently from the norm (Androutsou, 2015).
Thus, what is normal and just typical for the gifted person, most often is labeled pathologic and/or perceived as some kind of mental disorder in the general population (Amend & Beljan, 2009). Hence their personality -absolutely normal for them-, is taken for weird or even pathological, and gifted individuals increasingly becoming personally and emotionally vulnerable to almost all of their relationships at family, at school, in the workplace, and in the community.
Research has shown that there are five personal factors cover-all the critical personality characteristics: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion/Introversion, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness, are inhered characteristics and that is the reason they are stable and well-established over the individual’s lifetime, and generalizable across a variety of cultures.
Based on these 5 factors, our findings from our ongoing study lead us to conclude that the personality of gifted is expressed in two main bipolar dimensions: the “Rational” gifted and the “Creative” gifted. Among  an endless list of characteristics:
A “Rational” gifted person is a “linear” logical-mathematical thinker, with specific interests, down-to-earth, rigid, perfectionist, literalness-centered, self-disciplined, persevering, introverted, with great emotional maturity, with difficulties in social  communication and  imaginational projection, always  “the good, quiet, shy guy"	A “Creative” gifted person  is "chaotic", very curious, multi-tasking, imaginative and  thoughtful, unpredictable, adventuresome, neglectful,  impulsive, risky, disorganized, procrastinative, extroverted,  very talkative and very sociable,  always question rules and/or authority, "the restless, lovesome, always ready-to-go guy"
But, there also is a third category, the gifted of the mixed personality –both rational and creative at the same–, and this makes their lives a real "war field"  both with themselves and with the whole frame of the world around them. However, most people lack accurate information about the typical characteristics of gifted individuals, and are unaware that these developmental difficulties –both endogenous and exogenous– are associated with their highly complex inherent characteristics which are often mislabeled as a personality or attentional disorder, even by experts who do not receive specialized training in the identification and treatment of gifted.
When gifted seek counseling or therapy, they are often labeled and/or misdiagnosed as dysthymic, cyclothymic, borderline, narcissistic personalities, with ADHD, with autistic or Asperger syndrome, OCD, and these are just a few of the diagnostic labels mistakenly used to describe normative stages of positive disintegration(Webb et al, 2004).
This type of misdiagnosis may –and usually– have as a result, therapists select misguided counseling strategies and techniques that invalidate the gifted person and attempt to "normalize" the complex inner process of the gifted. Even more, when misdiagnosed gifted clients are prescribed medication to suppress the "symptoms of giftedness" there is the danger the wonderful inner nature of the gifted process neutralized, thus, minimizing the potential of the gifted for a life of accomplishment and fulfillment (Peterson and Moon, 2008).
Thus, the therapists who work with gifted must address the unique intrapersonal and interpersonal challenges that gifted encounter, so are able to choose effective therapeutic techniques based on the most dominant characteristics of their gifted clients.
References: - Amend E.R. and Peters D.B. (2012). Misdiagnosis, Dual Diagnosis, and missed diagnosis of gifted children and adults. SENG Conference, CE Workshop, July 13, 2012. - Ανδρούτσου Β., Τσάκωνα Ε., Μπαντέλη Ρ., Δήμου Α. (2015). Διπλή Διαφοροποίηση, Λανθασμένες Διαγνώσεις, και Εργαλεία Αξιολόγησης της Χαρισματικότητας. 3ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο ΨΕΒΕ “Ψυχολογία και Εκπαίδευση”. Ιωάννινα, 9–11 Οκτωβρίου 2015. - Peterson J.S. and Moon S.M. (2008). Counseling the Gifted, In Steven I. Pfeiffer (ed.) Handbook of Giftedness in Children. Springer, pp. 223-248. - Webb J.T., Amend E.R., Nadia E. Webb N., Goerss J., Beljan P., Olenchak F.R. (2004). Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults. Great Potential Press. 9th European Conference of the European Family Therapy Association – EFTA, Athens, 2016 September 28th - October 1st.   Αυτή η δημοσίευση χορηγείται με άδεια Creative Commons: Αναφορά Δημιουργού - Μη Εμπορική Χρήση - Παρόμοια Διανομή 4.0 Διεθνές