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Learning to Thrive as an Introvert, Perfectionist, or Highly Sensitive Person, with April Snow

We interview April Snow, a licensed psychotherapist who works with highly sensitive introverts, perfectionists, and high achievers to overcome anxiety, embrace their strengths, and create a life on their own terms.

When we first learned about April Snow’s work, we felt like she was speaking directly to us. April is a licensed psychotherapist based in the San Francisco Bay Area who specializes in working with highly sensitive introverts, perfectionists, and high achievers – and between the two of us, we check all those boxes!

From April’s website:

Does this sound familiar:

    • You’re burning yourself out trying to do everything perfectly.
    • You have been told that you’re “too quiet,” “too sensitive” or “too emotional.”
    • You have big plans for yourself, but get too overwhelmed or lack the confidence to follow through.
    • You feel too guilty to put yourself first and struggle to say no. You’re doing all the self-care things and still feeling stuck, exhausted, and stressed out.
    • You’re yearning to understand yourself more deeply, but don’t have the space to do so.

If so, you’re not alone.

Together, we can discover what’s getting in the way of feeling your best, learn to prioritize yourself without all the guilt and stop feeling so overwhelmed all the time.

UM YES. This is a huge part of why we started Semi-Together.

We’re very thankful to have the chance to speak with April. She talks about what it means to be a highly sensitive person (HSP), which is a newly researched trait, within the last 30 years. HSPs make up 20% to 30% of the population and share four main characteristics:

    • Depth of processing
    • Overstimulation
      • Emotional responsiveness
    • Sensitive to subtleties in your environment

April explains why sensitivity is a strength – not a weakness, as we’re often told! – that we can channel to make a positive difference in our lives and the world. She shares advice for sensitive people and recovering perfectionists on how to prioritize self-care, set boundaries, cultivate self-compassion, let go of unrealistic expectations, and learn to thrive on our own terms.

Steal This Tip: April Snow Edition

What has been a game changer for me around self-care is putting it in my calendar. I personally set aside Saturday morning – or sometimes all Saturday – as my “me time.” I use that day to catch up on rest and self-care. After a busy week, it’s how I refill my tank.

It’s helpful because it has become my routine, and I can rely on it at the end of the week. For HSPs, we get decision fatigue, and we are constantly mulling over decisions. But if it’s in your calendar, and it’s part of your routine, it just becomes second nature.

And then if someone does ask you to do something during your self-care time, you can create an automatic response. Something like: Thanks for the invite, but I need that time to relax. How about another time? Create that space for yourself, and put a pause before you say yes to an invite.

Thank you so much for joining us, April!

Get It Together / Got It Together

We each share something that we’d like to work on and something that’s going well for us right now.

Melia Get It Together: Lack of focus and productivity 

Melia Got It Together: Publishing Evolving 40 posts every day

Gill’s Get It Together: Procrastination 

Gill’s Got It Together: Leaning into a slower summer 

Get In Touch

If you’re a highly sensitive person, introvert, or perfectionist, tell us about your experience and anything that resonated with you from this conversation. Email us at podcast[at]semitogether.com, or send us a voice memo. You can also leave a comment on Facebook or Instagram.

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/semitogether and getting all kinds of fun extras. If you haven’t already, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And sign up for our e-newsletter.

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