Heli Heiskanen

My story in short

My life calling and soul purpose is to learn to understand people and human development as deep as possible through my own experience and in general, and to help people towards a holistic wellbeing, conscious life, human development and their full potential. I have been passionate about understanding humanity already as a child and began to explore it through introspection, literature and courses. So, its’s been already 39 years of almost fulltime studying and practicing these things.

WANTING TO HELP CHILDREN
After high school, I worked as a waitress and at the bar I saw a child with her mother, who was drinking many beers while the child sat beside her just waiting. That moment touched my heart deeply and lighted up a strong desire to help children. It led me to study social work in polytechnic in Finland and worked as a social worker in Helsinki. I enjoyed my work a lot but I missed the opportunity to help people with mental health problems in more depth.

BECOMING A PSYCHOLOGIST
One day I experienced a strong intuition that I wanted to become a psychologist to be able to help people with mental difficulties. I applied and got in to the University of Jyväskylä and graduated as a psychologist (PsM) in 2003. Since then I have worked as a psychologist and trainer.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
During my studies I became very interested in occupational health psychology, because I’ve seen how nowadays so many people are stuggling with stress, exhaustion and challenges to find a balance between their personal and work life. I specialised in occupational health psychology 2005, started my first company and worked for five years as a psychologist and occupational health psychologist at the Jyväskylä Terveystalo private Medical Centre.

I have supported clients with issues such as depression, anxiety, life crises, stress and exhaustion, workplace conflicts and atmosphere problems. I educated and coached a wide range of work communities, companies and public organisations on wellbeing at work. I gained a deep understanding of the challenges of working life and the impact on people’s mental health, wellbeing and the functioning of work communities.

HIGHLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE
The Highly Sensitive People and the power of sensitivity are very close to my heart.

”Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) on short means a person, whose nervous system is more sensitive to feel, notice and experience things, emotions and sensations. It’s not a fault or a disorder but just a normal variation of people, about 15-20% of girls and boys are born more sensitive. Highly Sensitive People are more aware than others of subtleties. Their brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply, they feel, sense and notice a lot more than the others. That can be a gift but also it make them more easily overwhelmed and overstimulated when things are too intense, complex, novel or chaotic for a long time.”

All these years most of my clients have been highly sensitive. The most sensitive people are those who are the first to notice and react to problems in the workplace or a group, such as conflicts or an overly stressful environment or lifestyle. The most sensitive people also tend to be capable of and willing to engage in self-discovery and development as human beings. They are more likely than average to seek help and information about wellbeing.

As a highly sensitive person myself also, by going through my own learning process with it and creating a healthy and balanced lifestyle that supports my sensitivity to appear as a gift, I have a very deep understanding and appreciation towards sensitivity and sensitive people.

Many HSP have learned to think that their sensitivity is a fault and they might have a low esteem because of that. It’s very imporant to be aware of your possible sensitiveness and learn to appreciate it, to be able to find a ways of living that suits you and let the sensitivity become your power not a problem.

HOLISTIC WELBEING AND INTEGRATIVE HEALTH CARE
I really enjoyed my job and the multidisciplinary work at Terveystalo with great colleagues, but deep down I wanted to work in a more holistic way. For 30 years already I have tried myself many tens of different mind and body treatments, complementary medicine methods and still use some of them regularly to balance and nurture my welbeing. I see health care as a broad umbrella under which both formal health care and natural complementary therapies fit together. Each person can choose the forms of treatment and means of self-care that suit their own interests and needs. I’ve noticed, that especially the most sensitive people benefit from the softer approaches to healthcare and welbeing.

In 2009, I established an integrated health care welfare centre (Origonova) in Jyväskylä. We were a group of professionals interested in holistic health care, working in 6 treatment rooms, offering a wide range of services from doctors, psychologists and physiotherapists to various natural complementary therapies. That was very fulfilling and also challenging project, I learned a lot about entrepreneurship, holistic health care, stress management and human development during these years.

MY BOOKS ABOUT SENSITIVITY AND LOVE
In 2013, I felt it was time to free up my time and resources to work full-time as a psychologist, educator and writer, and after much concidering options and deliberation, I gave up the welfare center. In summer of 2013, I started writing the Power of Sensitivity blog and running the Power of Sensitivity courses, and my interest in Highly sensitive people started to gain a lot of publicity.

Over the years my trainings have been attended by thousands of sensitive people and I have been an expert on highly sensitive people in hundreds of media interviews on TV, radio, magazines and online articles.

I’m an author of three non-fiction books about highly sensitive people and love. My first book The Power of Sensitivity was published in 2016. It’s a diverse handbook for sensitive people to make their sensitivity to be their power and strenght, not a fault. For the book I collected data of 181 sensitive people, who responded to my extensive sensitivity survey.

My second book on highly sensitivity, With a Sensitive Child was published in 2022. In this book, I drew on my life long experience and understanding to bring together key insights into understanding the sensitive child and parenting. The book serves as a guide for parents of sensitive children, as well as for sensitive adolescents and adults, to explore their own childhood and adolescence experiences, self-awareness and human development.

Love is one big theme I have been interested in since childhood. I have explored this theme in my own life, in my work with clients, in literature and in popular culture with passion and breadth. I have gained a fundamental understanding of the human longing to love, to be loved, to be accepted and loved, and of the many challenges and obstacles to love that complicate relationships. A very profound and important approach to love and authentic connection via body, mind and soul has become from tantra trainings and conscious movement excercises, which I have practiced almost 1000 hours altogether.

Over the years, I compiled my essential understanding of love into a concise and practical form in my book and The Courage to Love – Towards the Authentic Emotional Connection (2021). The book serves as a tool for introspection, to be read alone or with a partner, and as a guide for relationship professionals.

GUIDED BY INTUITION
A strong intuition has guided my life choices and an interest in human development and spiritual growth has been with me since childhood. Intuition and interest in spiritual growth are gifts for many highly sensitive people as well.

By intuition I mean the most holistic knowledge there is, combining reason, emotion, experiential knowledge and factor “x” (instinct).

I have been teaching groups in intuitive healing since 2012. This training is deeply meaningful to me because it allows me to integrate my understanding of humanity, spiritual growth and well-being in a very holistic and impactful way. Each year a new year-long group begins, which is a profound journey into ones spiritual growth and intuitive healing.

Mindfulness and meditation is one of the red threads in my work. I combine psychology and understanding of spiritual growth in the purest possible core form and in an integrative way, without being bound to any single theory or ideology. My services can be suitable for anyone interested, regardless of their outlook on life or beliefs.

GOING INTERNATIONAL AND LOVE FOR GREECE
My inner calling to go international grew stronger every year. Over time, I have met countless people from all over the world through various trips, events and encounters. Greece is a country I love, I have travelled a lot and one day, when my heart told me it was my country, I started to live there.

Nowadays I offer psychologist counseling online and different kind of workshops and retreats in Greece, Finland and remotely. Retreats in Greece offer you a place and space to pause and heal, human insights and support for spiritual growth in a Greek environment so beautiful and nurturing.

NOTE: More and more international content is coming. Stay tuned! Welcome to join my mailing list below to receive updates on events and publications in English.