Inner Crucible: Truth Telling and the Gifted Child

Speaker: Catherine Zakoian

Gifted children have sophisticated internal understanding of justice. Yet, simultaneously, they struggle as they experience themselves living in unjust ways. As this self-knowing intersects with gifted perfectionism, the inner turmoil can be overwhelming. We can help gifted children find their way to truth telling as a first step to support this inner landscape and foster a more harmonious family circle.

This session is for parents who wish to help their gifted child begin to meaningfully develop their relationship to truth-telling. In my experience when gifted children fib, they do so to please, or to avoid repercussion, to circumvent parental authority, or to get needs met they do not know how to articulate. Usually, gifted children do not like fibbing any more than their caregivers do, but they need understanding and assistance to untangle this dynamic. We will discuss the perfectionism and sense of justice beneath the inner anguish gifted children experience when they are dishonest, and how to bring this to light so a gifted child need not suffer alone. We will discuss the collective ethos around truth telling in our contemporary culture and its impact on gifted children. I will offer a tested, practical, and straight forward set of steps for parents to begin the process of helping a gifted child find a genuine relationship to truth telling, when they are ready. I will walk parents through how to start this conversation with their child. We will also discuss the importance of parental self-awareness and relationship to their own truth. We will discuss the merits of helping children cultivate this self-understanding. And we will discuss how to help a child hold on to their truth in circumstances and environments where truth telling may not be the norm.

About the Speaker

Catherine Zakoian, MA, LPC, NCC, is a national certified and licensed professional counselor. For twenty years, her Colorado-based private counseling practice www.catherinezakoian.com has specialized in child and family counseling services for gifted, twice-exceptional (2e), and profoundly gifted children, adolescents, teens, adults, and families. Her educational consultation practice provides guidance for creating psychologically healthy educational environments, authentic leadership and program development, and meaningful educator self-awareness and care within well recognized public, independent, and alternative PreK-12 schools serving gifted and neurotypical populations. Her newly published book: Raising Gifted Children: A Practical Guide for Parents Facing Big Emotions and Big Potential (Rockridge Press, 2020) has received a warm welcome in the gifted field.

Click here for complete details and registration.