Happy Sensitive Community

The community is no more…

Hi there and thanks for visiting this page!

For several years, I ran an online community.

I learned a TON about community building and what the clients who come to me need most.

As you can imagine, running an online group for people who get overstimulated quickly, are often more introverted, want help with very personal struggles and can be very shy about reaching out to new people can be… well, complicated.

I really believed in bringing HSPs together online because I know that talking to other people who face similar conundrums is supportive and healing, BUT, as it turns out, making the community into an actual community turned out to not really work long-term.

The HSPs attracted to my work are usually looking for a (not too lengthy) transformation, after which they move on (which is great and kind of the point!). However, when most people only hang around for a few months and then (happily) leave, this is not a good recipe for building a stable community. A community where people feel comfortable speaking up and really getting to know each other that is (which is what I was aiming for).

Any online community also has its fair share of silent observers, as did mine. Some were tech-shy. Some just liked to read. Others had little time.

Throughout the years, I was faced with trying to integrate HSPs who’d stay a few months at most… or trying to get people who didn’t want to speak to please say something, anything, to get their community possibilities ball rolling. I tried lots of strategies for making this easier for members (and for me). I tried to change things. I tried to accept things. I tried to make the best of what members tended to naturally do.

The key word here is trying. It was a trying time on the back-end.

Complex moderation issues also came up. Inevitably, one person’s expression would make another member uncomfortable.

In the end, I had to conclude that unless I was going to pour massive amounts of energy into this non-stop to get people to participate in a group-friendly way (which, I did for a while, and it worked for the community, just not for me) I’d have to let this beautiful dream go.

R.I.P. Happy Sensitive Community

I’m still here to help you build community.

Yet, what I’ve learned is: the way I help you best (that is a win-win for both of us), is by teaching you how to understand your sensitivity and develop it as a talent. When you do that, you get WAY more comfortable in your own skin, are happy to talk to others about sensitivity (really!) and will end up building the meaningful circle of friendship that you need in your own life.

Because as I discovered, that’s what everyone really wants. And rightly so.

 

 

 

 

 

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