#047 Understanding Your Rainforest Mind with Paula Prober

It is Neurodiversity Celebration Week next week and we are diving into neurodiversity and what it is like to figure out you are neurodivergent as an adult.

In the episode, we talk to the wonderful Paula Prober and seek to understand ourselves through her analogy of the Rainforest Mind; a subset of the gifted community that is especially creative.

We dive into what is a rainforest mind? What is a multipotentialite?

And why it's important to work on yourself, especially if you're a parent.

Hit play and let's get started!

Memorable Quote

"The key thing, I think, is to recognize that you have a right to take care of yourself and it's a big gift that you give your kids because you heal whatever wounding you have, you understand yourself and you're more apt to understand your kids." – Paula Prober

"One of the traits of the rainforest minded person, which is someone who is interested in everything, is they want to do everything, but it's so hard to… settle into a certain career path because they feel like they have to give up all these other ones to do this one.

So then I talk to them about - you don't have to do the same thing. Once you decide to do this one thing, you don't have to do that for the rest of your life. You can do it for a while and then go to the next thing. And the next thing. I have a client who stays in a job maybe for two years, and then she's ready to go to something else and not everybody can do that, but the multipotentialite gifted person is highly creative and, and so they have so many interests and ability, so many things that they are capable of doing.

So how do you decide, how do you choose?... So that's where I come in. I help normalize that in a way, right?" – Paula Prober

Resources

• Rainforest Mind
• Paula Prober on Instagram #paulaprober
• Paula Prober on Twitter @paulaprober
• Paula Prober on Facebook @paula.prober
• First Book by Paula Prober - Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth
• Second book by Paula Prober - Journey Into Your Rainforest Mind: A Field Guide for Gifted Adults and Teens

Bio – Paula Prober

Paula Prober is a licensed psychotherapist and consultant in private practice in Eugene, Oregon, USA. She specializes in counselling gifted adults and youth (in the state of Oregon) and consults with parents of gifted children and with gifted adults internationally.

Before becoming a therapist in 1992, she was a teacher in public schools and she worked with gifted children in grades 1-8. She's been an adjunct instructor with University of Oregon and a guest presenter at Oregon State University and Pacific University, and a presenter at multiple conferences, podcasts, and webinars.

Her book, Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth, was released in June 2016 by GHF Press. Her second book, Journey Into Your Rainforest Mind: A Field Guide for Gifted Adults and Teens, Book Lovers, Overthinkers, Geeks, Sensitives, Brainiacs, Intuitives, Procrastinators, and Perfectionists was released in June 2019.

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See you in the same place next week.

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