understand your nervous system
Therapy for Highly Sensitive Adults in Tampa and throughout FL
Being highly sensitive doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.
It means your nervous system takes in the world deeply.
Highly sensitive adults often notice subtleties others miss — emotions, tone shifts, body sensations, environmental changes, and relational dynamics. While this depth can be a strength, it can also feel overwhelming in a world that moves fast, expects constant productivity, and rarely makes space for emotional nuance.
If you’ve ever been told you’re “too sensitive,” “overthinking,” or “too much,” therapy can be a place where your sensitivity is understood — not minimized or fixed.
Highly sensitive adults often come to therapy feeling exhausted, anxious, or unsure of themselves — not because they’re broken, but because they’ve been adapting to environments that don’t fit how their nervous system works.
you may relate to:
Feeling emotionally impacted by other people’s moods or stress
Needing more downtime than others to feel regulated
Overanalyzing conversations, decisions, or perceived mistakes
Feeling deeply affected by conflict, criticism, or rejection
Being highly empathetic, intuitive, or emotionally attuned
Feeling overstimulated by noise, crowds, or busy schedules
Struggling with self-doubt or people-pleasing
Carrying a quiet sense of shame for needing “more” rest, space, or support
Many highly sensitive adults have spent years trying to toughen up, push through, or ignore their internal cues — often leading to anxiety, burnout, low self-confidence, or disconnection from their own needs.
Here’s what we’ll do together
Sensitivity Is Not the Problem — Nervous System Overload Is
Highly sensitive people often have nervous systems that are more reactive to stress, emotional input, and sensory information. This is not a flaw — it’s a difference.
In therapy, we don’t try to eliminate sensitivity. Instead, we work on:
Understanding how your nervous system responds to stress
Identifying protective patterns like overthinking, perfectionism, or people-pleasing
Learning how to self-regulate without shutting yourself down
Developing boundaries that honor your energy and values
Rebuilding trust in your internal signals and intuition
When sensitivity is supported rather than suppressed, it often becomes a source of clarity, creativity, compassion, and emotional intelligence.
When all is said and done, here’s the thing:
Therapy for highly sensitive adults focuses on helping you feel safer, steadier, and more confident in who you are — without forcing yourself to become less sensitive.
What we’ll work on
Imagine a place where you can…
Gently explore anxiety, overwhelm, or chronic self-criticism
Understand how past experiences or trauma shaped your coping strategies
Learn how to differentiate intuition from anxiety
Develop boundaries that don’t require guilt or over-explaining
Make decisions that feel aligned instead of fear-driven
Create a life that supports your sensitivity rather than constantly taxing it
My Approach to Working With Highly Sensitive Adults
Parts-based work (Internal Family Systems) to understand inner conflict
Acceptance-based strategies to reduce shame and self-judgment
Somatic awareness to support nervous system regulation
Gentle trauma processing when appropriate (for example, using Brainspotting)
Practical tools that feel realistic — not overwhelming
Sessions are a space where you don’t have to explain why something feels like “a lot.” We slow down, listen closely, and make sense of what your system is communicating.
therapy for highly sensitive adults in Florida
I work with adults throughout Florida via secure telehealth, and in person in my Tampa office. My practice is affirming, inclusive, and intentionally designed to feel calming and welcoming — especially for clients who are easily overstimulated.
I am a private-pay therapist and work best with clients who are seeking depth, self-understanding, and long-term change rather than quick fixes.
- Keri Baker, LCSW, Therapist for Highly Sensitive Adults
Does this resonate?
You’re not *too much*
You are just wired differently.
Highly sensitive adults often thrive once they stop trying to override themselves and start learning how to care for their nervous system with compassion.
If you’re ready to understand yourself more deeply, build self-trust, and live in a way that honors your sensitivity, therapy can help.
Questions?
FAQs
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Being highly sensitive means your nervous system processes emotional, sensory, and relational information more deeply. Highly sensitive adults tend to notice subtle shifts in mood, tone, environment, and body sensations. This depth can be a strength — but without support, it can also lead to overwhelm, anxiety, or burnout in a fast-paced world.
Sensitivity is not a diagnosis or disorder. It’s a temperament and a way of being that deserves understanding and care.
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Not exactly. While many highly sensitive adults experience anxiety, sensitivity itself is not anxiety.
Highly sensitive people may become anxious when their nervous system is overloaded, when they’ve been pushing past their limits, or when they’ve learned to doubt their internal signals. Therapy can help you differentiate between anxiety, intuition, and nervous system overwhelm — and respond to each with more clarity and compassion.
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Not at all. You don’t need a label to know that you feel deeply, notice a lot, or get overwhelmed easily.
Many clients simply know that traditional advice like “just stop overthinking” or “don’t take things so personally” hasn’t worked for them. Therapy for highly sensitive adults meets you where you are — without requiring a specific identity or framewor
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Therapy is paced gently and collaboratively. Sessions are a place to slow down, reflect, and make sense of what your system is experiencing.
We may explore emotions, body sensations, thought patterns, and past experiences while focusing on safety, regulation, and self-understanding. The goal is not to change who you are, but to help you live in a way that feels more grounded, aligned, and sustainable.