First published in SENGVine, November 2014​

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.

Melinda Stewart, MSW, LICSW is a member of the PDA Therapy Collaborative serving as mentor and advisor with her insightful clinical consults.

Meet Melinda:

Melinda joined our group to find her own PDA professional community. She continues to follow her PDA young adult clients that she has worked with since their childhood.

Among some of her career accomplishments she is a retired Director of Counseling at The Groton School, founder of Voyagers a home school cooperative for gifted children, a former educator of multiple subjects and a former staff member of The Stone Center at Wellesley College and McLean Hospital.

She has advanced clinical training in psychodynamic therapy, substance abuse counseling, trauma therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT), parent guidance and cross-cultural counseling.

She is a frequent presenter on topics relating to gifted education and counseling and written and presented extensively on giftedness as it affects child development.