opening hours

Fribourg

• monday to friday: 8.15 - 20.00
• saturday: 15.00 - 20.00

Further opening times are possible on request.

Zurich

• monday to friday: 10.00 - 17.30

MUsic and arts

Talents are, just as strenghts and weaknesses, different in each person. Individual talents, sometimes many of them, can be strong or even extreme, others are weak to imperceptible.

People often know about their talents, and ideally they are using them, because the chances of success, and thus for both satisfaction and positive feedback, are far greater than in areas where a talent is weak or unrecognized. But even with strong or exceptional talents, exercise and failures are quite normal, because "no master has fallen from the sky", as the saying goes. Although predispositions and thus talents are genetically conditioned, they require a trigger, namely a constructive environment, but also a lot of motivation and training. But then they - and thus also the results achieved - are often an outstanding feature that distinguishes the achievements and works from others.

Music and art, but also sports, crafts and many other domains, are part of this.

However, the talent must be recognized. Often this already happens in childhood, when it is easier in playful intercourse to achieve something particularly beautiful, compared with results from other people. But sometimes this is difficult or even impossible, e. g. when the appropriate tool is missing: how should a talent for playing the piano or for the violin be discovered, if there are no instrument and no opportunities for teaching available?

In a professional checkup, where the entire personality, i. e. all aspects of the concerned person, are covered, we draw up a comprehensive "layout" of talents and potentials, including in terms of previously undiscovered or unknown ones. In the following steps we are discussing about to what extent a development of these talents is realistic and can be supported, how they can be further promoted and used in life, perhaps even in a professional activity.

Musicians and artists often have an increased sensitivity (percepting many detailed information from the environment) as well as sensibility (high emotional responsiveness): they often perceive and react quicker and more intense than other people, and they reflect longer about such feelings. Therefore, they can often produce impressive or even outstanding works. However, these intense impressions can not always (quickly) be arranged and processed with a calm, sovereign attitude. Depending on the degree of self-competence, empathy and emotional stability (to name just a few factors), this affects (and possibly impacts) one's own life and, as a consequence, the quality of the artistic activity.

This is the point where we start and work together, in full transparency and professionalism: to work out the initial information (current situation), to define the possible steps, decide on realistic goals and how to get there, as well to define metrics and set milestones to ensure they can be achieved. Framework requirements or preconditions are defined as well, with positive and negative influencing factors and the necessary time in order to ensure that possible challenges, difficulties and obstacles will be recognized in time, so that they can be faced in a proactive way, with failures being analyzed and handled constructively.

This strenghtens the personality, and the recognized, developed and consolidated talents lead to better achievements and happiness.

Organisation

During the first meeting, we collect together information on the current situation and discuss about the available options, depending on your wishes. You will receive further information and explanations concerning the process, an information sheet as well as other details of the cooperation.

The duration of each session is usually between 60 and 120 minutes, depending on the situation and nature of the proceeding, your needs and the goals for the sessions. A short assessment can be made in a few sessions. Coaching (personality development and career coaching) extends over at least a few weeks, in most cases a couple of months up to a few years. Upon request, individual meetings or follow-up assessments (short examinations) may occur later, even after several years.

Giftedness / High Potential

When determining the shape or degree of giftedness, we discuss together with the interested person the current situation, the reasons about the desire for clarification and previous experiences regarding this subject. On the basis of extensive procedures with appropriate standardized and validated tests as well as the detailed observations by the assessors, we clarify whether and to what extent, and in which areas, a special giftedness is existing.

Based on the analysis of these results and observations, concrete advices and, as far as necessary and desired, a plan for personal development will be compiled. Some people only wish clarity regarding their abilities and talents, in order to undertake steps by them own towards a further development. In other situations, a more intensive support in the form of a coaching resp. a personality development is desired. Often a giftedness is associated with an increased sensitivity (sophistication / complexity and subtlety in perception) or sensibility (intensity of emotional resonance).

The aim of an assessment and clarification on giftedness is, on the one hand, to ascertain resp. to confirm whether, in which form and in which areas, the specific talents lie, and on the other hand to identify the possibilities of their further development and use, and to discuss the implementation of these options. Experience has shown that the satisfaction of a person is higher if he/she knows his/her talents and can also use them, because then both the subjective sense of achievement and the objective benefit (in the workplace or for society) are higher, including motivating reactions of the environment.

The bases for aptitudes and talents are primarly genetically determined, therefore since birth through the genetic endowments from parents and further ancestors. In order for these to develop, a supportive, constructive environment is needed - e. g. basic trust, which is consolidated in the first few weeks and months of life, as well as during childhood and adolescence a benevolent environment (family, school, friends...) that playfully supports the discovery and development of abilities and interests. Self-reliance and maturity, with age and experience, foster the development and use of these talents both in free time and, ideally, in education, training, career choice, occupation and private life. Determination as well as analysis of present talents and potentials brings clarity and opens the door for further, possibly previously unknown, options in life.

Giftedness is usually defined in comparison with the general population, in what ratio resp. in what rarity it occurs. In the example of intellectual giftedness, 2% of the population with the highest intellectual abilities are defined as reference. This means when the general intelligence of the concerned person is higher than in 98% of the general population. As a further common definition, high giftedness occurs when the general intelligence of an individual is higher than in 99.9% of the general population. Intellectual abilities are subdivided into different dimensions: verbal, logical, spatial intelligence, computational thinking, memory skills, etc. It often happens that some abilities or dimensions are strongly represented, and others less. Therefore it is important to evaluate a broad scope of abilities during an intellectual assessment.

Beside of the intellectual abilities, there are obviously talents in many other areas, such as art, sports and characteristics of certain personality traits, like e. g. empathy. Here, too, one speaks of giftedness or high giftedness when they are seldom encountered in their expression. However, the exact determination and mapping is more difficult here as there are less standardized procedures and the evaluation often depends on the judgement by experts - here an assessment or estimation is usually made on the basis of works / products and results, as e. g. with great painters, sculptors, musicians and athletes.