By Melinda Stewart.
Please hear me! What happens when there are no words to express anguish so deep, sorrow so profound, nor fear so paralyzing that all reason stops? For the gifted, who feel more things more deeply than words can sometimes hold, the unspeakable can become actions; “symptoms” perhaps. Writer’s block, cutting, school refusal, selective mutism, eating disorders, compulsions, and substance abuse are all examples of actions that can sometimes hold the uncontainable. We must never fail to try first to understand their purpose before we attempt their extinction. Sometimes our job is simply to translate and contain the voice of the heart.
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Melinda Stewart is currently the Director of Counseling at Groton School in Groton, MA and has worked with gifted children and adolescents in a variety of settings for over 30 years. She is the founder and former director of Voyagers, Inc., and has been on the staffs of the Stone Center at Wellesley College and McLean Hospital. She is the mother of two grown PG children.