Over the past few years, there have been a bunch of developments in sensitivity research.

In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I share some reflections on the Second International Conference on Sensitivity Research. It was organised by Michael Pluess, Francesca Lionetti, and Corina Greven through The University of Surrey.

In all honesty, academic presentations aren’t really my cup of tea. My mind drifts too easily. But I munched on bananas and persevered because I really think this stuff matters…I was helped by the recorded replay too. So I hope this episode helps others who are interested in the essence of sensory processing sensitivity research right now.

“If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.”

– Douglas Adams

I want to understand these developments, so I’m taking on a challenge; to piece together what I’ve learned from the research and explain it as best as possible. A lot of information was packed into three hours, and I have tried to grasp as much of it as possible. But I very much welcome those with more expertise to help clarify, contradict, or correct any misunderstandings.

The full text version of my conference summary is available here.

• 
  
• Highly Sensitive Children in the School Context (Jenni Kähkönen)
  
• High Sensory Processing Sensitivity: Blessing or Challenge? (Veronique de Gucht) – here’s the SPS Monitor Questionnaire
  
• Genetics of Environmental Sensitivity and its Association with Mental Health and Wellbeing (Elham Assary)
  
• Sensitivity and Overstimulation (Sofie Weyn)
  
• Attentional Capture and Sensitivity (Robert Marhenke)
  
• Effects of Sensitivity and Childhood Family Conflict on Objective Stress Responding (Sophia Bibb)
  
• Measurements of Sensitivity (Panel Discussion)
  

Did anything surprise you in the research? Are there any areas or topics that you would love to see researchers explore in the future?

If you’d like to clarify or correct anything, please do share a comment below.

And if you fancy chatting with me about anything mentioned in the episode, I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a message.

The music you will hear in the episode is a piece I wrote as I was piecing the show together. Writing music gives me breathing space when I need to reflect on, understand, and retain information without looking directly at it. Here is the whole track (the video is of a train that went past when I was waiting for mine about an hour before the conference “started”.