Therapy for the ‘Too Much’ and ‘Too Sensitive’ Crew

If you’ve ever walked away from a conversation replaying the phrase “Was I too much?” on a mental loop, you’re in the right place. Maybe you’ve been called dramatic, intense, oversensitive, scattered, awkward, or “a lot,” and somewhere along the line you started to believe it meant there was something wrong with you. For many neurodivergent and highly sensitive folks, that story began early and got reinforced often.

Here’s the thing: what gets labeled as “too much” is often a nervous system doing exactly what it was built to do—notice more, feel more, process more. Research on sensitivity and neurodivergence shows that some brains take in more sensory and emotional data, process it more deeply, and stay activated for longer, which can lead to overwhelm and shutdown in environments that move fast and expect people to “just push through.” The traits that get you side-eyed in a staff meeting are the same traits that make you perceptive, empathetic, and able to spot patterns others miss.

Of course, knowing this doesn’t magically make life easier when fluorescent lights feel like interrogation, group chats feel like a sport you never learned the rules for, and everyone else seems to have an inner “volume knob” that you’re missing. Sensory overload, emotional flooding, and decision fatigue are not character flaws; they’re signs that your system is overcapacity. Many neurodivergent adults describe shutdown, burnout, or emotional outbursts not as laziness or drama, but as the end result of chronic overload in a world that doesn’t fit how their brains and bodies work.

At Soma Roots Therapy, the goal is not to make you less sensitive or more “normal.” The work is about building a relationship with your sensitivity and neurodivergence so it becomes a source of information, not constant self-attack. A neurodiversity-affirming approach treats ADHD, autism, high sensitivity, and other brain differences as natural variations in human wiring rather than problems to be fixed, while still making room for real support with things like overwhelm, shutdown, and executive function struggles. Therapy can be both validating and practical: yes, your feelings make sense, and yes, tools and boundaries can help.

Practically, that might look like mapping your “too much” moments through the lens of the nervous system instead of morality: What were the sensory conditions? How much social energy did that day demand? How many transitions did you have to manage? Together, we might experiment with micro-rest breaks, sensory supports, or scripts that let you leave early or say no without apologizing for existing. The point is not to toughen you up; it’s to design a life and coping style that actually fits you.

Therapy is also a place to unpack the shame that comes from years of being misunderstood. Being told “you’re overreacting” or “you think too much” trains you to question your own perception. Reframing sensitivity as a strength involves grieving those experiences and slowly practicing new internal messages: “My reactions have context,” “My needs are not inconveniences,” “My depth is a gift, even when it’s heavy.” Many sensitive and neurodivergent people, once supported, become powerful advocates, creators, and connectors precisely because of that depth.

In the Soma Roots Therapy space, stimming is welcome, tangents are allowed, eye contact is not required, and taking a moment to breathe or cry doesn’t derail the session—it guides it. You do not have to pretend to be fine to be worthy of care. If you’ve been told you’re too sensitive, too intense, too emotional, or too anything, consider this an alternate story: you are not “too much”; you are exquisitely tuned. The work is not to make you smaller—it’s to build a world, starting with your own nervous system, where you actually fit.