SENSE OF JUSTICE

Gifted people frequently seek counselling because of their strong sense of justice and the associated emotional sensitivity and intensity which causes suffering not only the gifted person, but also their environment. To my knowledge, there is no clear explanation of this phenomenon. Interestingly though, there is a theory of moral development by Lawrence Kohlberg, which was developed according to cognitive development as theorized by Piaget, which relates directly to giftedness. This theory, however, is controversial and only a first intellectual approach. If you would like to delve deeper into this topic, you can find an overview of the subject here: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development),

This is what I find useful in practice:

• Take suffering seriously (If you follow the gifted person’s interpretation, it is often appropriate)
• In an empathy training, work on finding the differences between motive and effect, and differences in interpretation, of people who break the rules. If a second-grader says something hurtful, he usually wants to test himself, have fun, rise in social hierarchy status etc. Contrary to the gifted child, he is probably not aware that he can cause serious, lasting injuries in others.
• Philosophically abstract discussions about on topics of humanity, the right to be wrong, high expectations etc.
• In the respective situation: Imagining the adversary in a funny way.
• Reduce basic stress and related responsiveness
• Train methods that facilitate an active relaxation of the nervous system,
  e.g. PEP by Michael Bohne or breathing techniques
• Enhance emotion-regulating competencies,
  e.g. through the training of emotional competencies by Berking
• Practice nonviolent communication by Rosenberg
  (opportunities and information can be found at the Center for Nonviolent Communication under: http://www.cnvc.org/)

Information on the individual methods and seminars can be found under Counselling and Therapy Concept  in the section Method Recommendations.