Vision

Giftedness, also described as high intelligence and creativity, is a potential for extraordinary development. Sometimes we speak of a high developmental potential and heightened awareness. From a psychological viewpoint, giftedness can be considered as a collective term for perceptual, cognitive, emotional, motivational and social characteristics. Here, we can think of openness to experience and sense-making, high capacity for concentration, keen observation and argumentative reasoning, lively imagination, multidimensional thinking, aesthetic consciousness, strong inner motivations and autonomy, finely tuned and agile bodily intelligence, intense curiosity, sometimes also moral sensitivity, emotional intensity, feelings of being different and value-drivenness. This way of being, relating and acting in the world may influence the meaning of life experiences intensely.

Central to our understanding of giftedness is the capacity to make elaborate, uncommon associations and draw connections quickly and efficiently, as well as the value-driven creation in interaction with, embedded in the environment. The cognitive and emotional processes of gifted individuals vary in manner and degree of complexity and intensity. In other words, gifted people differ from each other through the variety and specificity of environments in which they flourish. In relative well-being, a gifted person usually feels drawn to complex problems and environments. Challenges that offer them a chance to involve different aspects of the self, engage the whole person and transform the self through the learning process.

Intelligence is finely meshed and ingeniously embodied. Also, it is continuously in the process of becoming through interaction with the environment. Therefore, we also, in a way, strive to view things from a “gifted” perspective. With an observant, engaged and competent outlook, we recognize the potential and how this potential can manifest itself through its perceived and assessed behavior as anything but gifted on the surface. Additionally, on the individual level, there might be developmental processes in progress, which may not be noticed at a first glance, but can be or become evident on the experiential level of the gifted person. Also, we are taking into account that the manifestation of giftedness is not one-sided, nor is it desirable to define it in such way from a philosophical and creative, generative standpoint. Our experience is that an objective, attentive and competent outlook and approach will aid gifted development. Such an approach is made possible by, amongst others, knowledge and values of humanistic developmental psychology, understanding of creative processes and from a position of receptive self-awareness. Ideally, we are mindful of and approach each other through open-ended intelligence. This way we supply each other with unpredictable developmental possibilities.

Emotional Wellbeing

Gifted individuals are, first and foremost, human beings. The complexity of a human being in development should not to be reduced to a word or even a descriptive label. Also, every human being experiences life challenges and events. Some people experience chronically frustrated needs and live in ongoing insecurity over the fulfillment of primary needs in near future. This can have an intensely negative effect on self-esteem and the actualization of potential. Along these lines, it is also important to keep in mind that we are capable of learning from (inner) conflict through an enriching and at times challenging psychological growth dynamic. Giftedness can also manifest in value-driven adaptability, i.e. the level of resilience and creativity one demonstrates, when dealing with difficult situations and life experiences. In general, we believe that human beings are impressively ‘live wired’: they survive and flourish through new experiences.

In this regard, we think that emotional well-being should be at the center of our approach towards giftedness, because this psychological aspect is a significant, mediating factor in experiencing and expressing giftedness in a really healthy, but also dynamic manner. We conceptualize emotional well-being as a dynamically balanced fulfillment of security needs (physiological integrity, attachment and connection needs, and self-esteem) and growth needs (exploration, perceiving an affectionate connection to a greater whole and a sense of purpose). The experience of well-being – our emotional life and how the life process flows through us – is an important, inner compass for each individual and we strive to aid the wise process of becoming clearly aware of this compass. One’s quality of thinking and sense making can also have a big influence on well-being and creative growth. For this reason, we pay special attention to diverse thought processes and examine their value during our training and coaching sessions.

We strive to have a holistic, complete understanding of human beings in which different needs are fulfilled integrally and in interaction with the complex environment. The potential of giftedness will be experienced as enjoyable and healthy and recognized as a valuable achievement in interaction with the appropriate resources of the environment. In some cases, there are no appropriate resources available and gifted development is not supported. For example, because gifted people have certain characteristics and needs that might differ from the norm. In this context, the gifted person will not experience flow and will perhaps be unhappy, experience low level of trust and self-esteem and seemingly lack motivation. The giftedness of an individual can become visible at the contact boundary with the environment. Therefore, it is important to understand what is happening (throughout the years) in this interconnection and how this influences the expression, understanding and development of giftedness. In the end, in our comings and goings we, as human beings, reflect the possibilities that the environment offers us.  Related to this, we think it is wise to remember that creativity is also always a co-creation, a new synthesis of existing ideas and often also direct co-operation. The creativity of each individual is dependent on the resources offered by the environment.

Learning, creating and psychological growth are emerging processes that go hand in hand with exploration, multi-faceted manifestations of intelligence, play, at times intense growth dynamics and developmental tension. Our study and coaching has the knowledgeable understanding of intense growth needs and the psychological characteristics of a developmental transition, which can be problematized sometimes. We also make use of complexity studies to understand changes and developmental transitions. Furthermore, we pay attention to other specifics, such as learning style preferences (for example: top down, lateral, caring and visual) and exceptional giftedness. When we do not have the necessary wisdom and knowledge to support a conflict experience and a desired development path, we will refer to or involve other professionals. In general, we experience trust in the individual’s autonomy and the importance of human relationships as the foundation from which we interact and guide. We think, in line with what was previously mentioned, that educational and psychological mentors can spur on the development of gifted individuals, when they incorporate the rich resources of (self)knowledge, awareness, competence and the art of living in their approach. We offer philosophy, psychology and art and that makes our offerings fittingly intense, playful and insightful.

Finally, as a reminder: outside of any kind of labelling, desirable development or model, we experience Life as a special, mesmerizing, endless movement, immensely encompassing and impressively subtle. Observant awareness of such perpetual motion has a stunning effect in itself, and our logo, which alludes toward the lemniscate and its expressive colors, depicts this endless movement.