In episode 16, Chris and Emma were joined by Dr. Shelagh Gallagher, for a discussion of overexcitability (OE) and openness to experience (OtE), based on her paper which compares the two frameworks. Shelagh is an independent consultant in gifted education and President-Elect of the National Association for Gifted Children. We discussed the controversy in the field of gifted education about OE and OtE, and the value both frameworks can provide in informing us about the gifted student experience in education.

In episode 10, Chris and Emma were joined by Dr. Eric Windhorst, a counsellor, coach, and psychotherapist committed to helping others connect with their inner nature (their true, authentic selves) and outer nature (the wider, more-than-human world). Eric shared his story with us and connected his experiences of personal growth and development with Dąbrowski’s theory as well as other frameworks. He discussed spirituality, an aspect of self that is often overlooked in intellectual frameworks, and we learned about Eric’s journey to becoming his authentic self.

In episode 9, Chris and Emma were joined by Lotte van Lith, a coach, lecturer, and author from the Netherlands. Lotte has been studying and working with Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration for more than a decade, and she brought her personal and professional expertise to this discussion of complexity and emotional development in gifted and creative people. She feels that once you view the complexity of life through the lens of emotional development, you can see the paradoxes inherent in human experience. We talked about complexity as a hallmark of giftedness and discussed how the drives for authenticity and self-actualization can be supported in this population.

*Content Warning: Please be aware that sensitive issues such as suicide attempts, hospitalizations, police-related trauma, and drug use and treatment are mentioned. In episode 8, Chris and Emma share their personal experiences of positive disintegration, in an intimate, honest (and brave) discussion. They connect these life stories with constructs from Dąbrowski’s theory, and explore the dynamisms which other people might be experiencing during their own times of crisis and disintegration.

In episode 7, Chris and Emma were joined by Fiona Smith, a psychologist from Sydney, Australia. Fiona brings to life the issue of living with intensities and sensitivities, from her perspective of a parent as well as her own experiences. We learn (again) that having an intense experience of life brings challenges, and we hope that listeners will resonate with her words. We discussed empathy, overexcitabilities, what it’s like to be image-free (aka aphantasia), and how Dąbrowski’s theory has played a role in Fiona’s life and work.

In episode 6, Chris and Emma were joined by Kate Arms, JD, PCC, a leadership coach who talked about her personal experience of development through positive disintegration, and how she created her own autopsychotherapy practice… What is autopsychotherapy? Kate talks about some of the strategies and methods that have worked for her, and we share our ideas and stories on what we have found useful, in the hope that others in the process of development will benefit.

In episode 5, Chris and Emma were joined by Dr. Frank Falk, who has been dealing with the construct of overexcitability as a researcher for more than 40 years. Frank talked about his work with the original Overexcitability Questionnaire (OEQ) and the subsequent development of the Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two (OEQ-II). We discussed the challenges of researching OE and the effort that Chris and Frank are making to rectify misunderstandings about Dąbrowski’s theory in the gifted community.

In episode 2, Chris talked about her presentation at the 2021 NAGC Conference on distinguishing science from pseudoscience. Emma and Chris went over the forms and expressions of overexcitability, the connection between OE and positive disintegration, and also discussed some of the myths and misunderstandings about OEs that are found in the gifted community.

In the inaugural episode, Emma and Chris introduced themselves and Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration. The discussion touched on some of the basic ideas from Dąbrowski such as unilevel vs. multilevel, the levels of development, overexcitabilities, and more. We learned a little about how Chris and Emma came to learn about the theory and find meaning in the idea of positive disintegration.