GIFTED ADULTS GROUP EXPERIENCE (GAGE)

$295/series, 6 sessions

Next six-encounter series begins in early 2026 and runs weekly. Tuesday evenings from 6:15 – 8:15pm Eastern Time. Held entirely on Zoom.

Cost for the whole series is $295. Equity rate for BIPOC folks who choose it is $220.

Register here

“I was shocked by how quickly the group members and I were able to freely share our thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I was also surprised and overjoyed with the comfort doing so provided.” – Trent M.

Some themes that have emerged in previous groups are:
  • Multipotentiality and multidimensionality
  • Multi-exceptionalities (2e+)
  • Embracing the Neurodiversity Paradigm
  • Finding community
  • Self-knowledge -> self-acceptance -> self-advocacy
  • Releasing shame
  • Expanding self-concept
  • Grief, Trauma -> Integration, Healing
  • Trust and safety as precursors to fun and play
  • Unmasking: all of the layers of this
  • Unburdening and Expansion
  • Theory of Positive Disintegration

GIFTED ADULTS GROUP EXPERIENCE (GAGE)

When so much of your lived experience is through the lens of differentness and/or loneliness, being in community with actual peers is a fast track to rapid expansion and evolution. Adults who are still learning to relate to their own giftedness crave spaces to explore and discuss it freely with others. If that’s you, then you’ve come to the right place. When you’re: feeling such difference from the neuromajority and knowing that the masks just don’t fit – having questions about your intensity, complexity, and drive – wanting to be with people who share an existential depth – the Gifted Adult Group Experience is here to provide a place to be together and know yourself in new ways.

Once you’ve realized that your giftedness has everything to do with the way you interact with the world, the next, inevitable steps are toward processing, recalibrating, reorienting, and living a life more aligned with who you are. This group provides gifted adults a space to explore their neurodivergences in a virtual room full of other outliers. GAGE is designed to be a balm and a laboratory. This six-week group coaching experience is open to all self-identified gifted people.

You’ll meet other neurodivergent people, each in their own experience, and each showing up ready to connect and learn. The overlap between giftedness and a host of other neurodivergences is broad and deep. Characteristics of what the neurotypical world calls autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, dyslexia, dyscalculia, aphantasia, synesthesia, etc. are elements of the gifted experience that you may possess. Pathologizing those characteristics and the innate intensity and complexity of giftedness results in cultures where gifted people internalize rejection and shame, where we learn to mask our authentic selves in order to make it.

How it works

The next group will commence in early 2026 (guessing early February). If, for some reason, we don’t get to our six-person minimum, I will move the start date further out and offer people immediate refunds or reservations.

Prior to the opening session, I’ll send everyone a document with links to some readings as well as some prompts for reflection. It’s all optional.

At the opening session, we’ll establish our group norms and get to know each other in various ways, including sharing some of our gifted journeys. I’ve been leading groups for a couple of decades now, and I’ve figured ways to do this that are meaningful and non-cringe.

I will facilitate large group and breakout room explorations. The themes and questions that emerge from the group will provide the foundation for our Week Two content. We’ll repeat this iterative process each week, making GAGE a group process that responds to each group’s needs and emerging themes rather than following a pre-determined formula. By the end of the series, we’ll all know each other deeply, feel accepted and seen, and understand ourselves better than we did when we arrived.

The Details

  • Six sessions, weekly except for holidays
  • Minimum of six participants and a maximum of nine
  • Next series is early 2026 (dates TBA)
  • Optional readings and reflection prompts sent weekly
  • Each week’s themes are drawn from the previous week’s exploration
  • Each GAGE group is unique in its content
  • Facilitation by Gordon Smith, a licensed counselor
  • Large group and breakouts each session
  • Each session lasts around 120 minutes
  • $295 total / $220 Equity Rate available for BIPOC participants
Register Here

Past participants have said…

I was looking for a group of similar thinkers who were possibly experiencing the same troubles I was having navigating the workplace and relationships as a gifted person. I appreciated the group as a whole and individually from the first day. I felt as if I was in a real conversation with people who “got me” because I was. It was an unfamiliar experience. Gordon led the group in an organized way we all appreciated but also asked for our input so it was meaningful to us. I enjoyed homework assignments because it kept me focused on the work we were doing in group between sessions. If you are feeling like an outlier and it is impeding your ability to feel successful in work, any type of relationship including with yourself, or preventing you from engaging fully in life, I would recommend this group to you with great confidence. Gordon is open and receptive and keeps the environment comfortably intimate while making sure everyone’s needs are met and you challenge yourself.
S.E.
I was shocked by how quickly the group members and I were able to freely share our thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I was also surprised and overjoyed with the comfort doing so provided. Gordon did an excellent job providing us with thoughtful and helpful material to read and discuss and expertly moderated the group sessions.
Trent M.
Being newly aware of my giftedness, this group came along at the perfect time.  It has given me a sense of community and connectedness with other gifted people, and much opportunity for personal growth.  The topics we explored have helped me have a better understanding of my experience of life, and challenged me to expand my own thinking.  Gordon is truly gifted at what he does.  He provided a wealth of information that I will continue to study and practice in the present and future.
Keri H.
Having a supportive and safe space for your giftedness to have a place to land and unfold can be hugely rewarding, scary, vulnerable, and worth the risk.
Adam K.
Doing GAGE was a lot like finding my people at the Johns Hopkins summer programs when after 8th and 9th grades, people whose brains and hearts are at similar intensities as mine. As an adult re-discovering my giftedness in mid-life, I had a group to talk to about what I was experiencing and how I was growing, where we could use the “G-word” (or not) freely without fear of others’ baggage hanging on it. We could talk about how this neurotype manifests in our own lives in different ways. It was ok if we were the only ones in the group who felt or experience a particular thing, I felt I could rely on the group for acceptance and effort at understanding me, and to mirror when they could. Gordon made a container for and actively facilitated that ethos. He also has the knowledge, experience and skill to gently bring patterns to the surface and see them and name them, both during meetings and through the weekly letter. I am really glad I did GAGE, and it will be bearing good fruit in my life for a long time to come.
E.P.

If you’ve read this far down the page, I know you’re considering this. If you have questions for me, please ask. I’m happy to share anything that will aid you in making your decision.

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