About Annet 1-9

Where Sensitivity meets Sensation Seeking

and where the Wild Sensitive Woman arises

 

About Annet van Duinen

I am a Wild Sensitive Woman, on a lived and ongoing journey of empowering Wild Sensitives®, individuals who are both Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) and High Sensation Seekers. I walk this path alongside my life partner, Randy Grasser, with whom I co-create much of the work that exists under the Wild Sensitive umbrella.

I am a Wild Sensitive coach, author, and speaker specializing in Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) who are also High Sensation Seekers, supporting individuals and organizations through nervous-system–informed personal development and leadership work.

I am the co-author of The Wild Sensitive: Unlocking the Power of the Highly Sensitive High Sensation Seeker and the Wild Sensitive High Sensation Seeker book series. My work as a Wild Sensitive coach, speaker, and Living Adventurer is rooted not only in science, but in lived experience and years of deep engagement with sensitivity, sensation seeking, emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and human development.

For over a decade, I have worked in the field of personal development, initially supporting highly sensitive people and gradually expanding into a broader mission: empowering individuals to become who they truly are, to reconnect with their inner compass, and to rediscover joy, meaning, and fulfillment in life.

My Focus and Work

I am passionate about helping people live more grounded, authentic, and fulfilling lives, with a particular focus on Highly Sensitive Persons, and Wild Sensitives. With over ten years of experience in personal and professional coaching, my work centers on helping people understand their nervous system and learn to work with their sensitivity rather than against it.

My work focuses on resilience, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. I support individuals through one-on-one coaching, group work, workshops, and educational experiences that emphasize practical, embodied tools over surface-level solutions.

Alongside individual work, I collaborate with organizations to increase awareness of these traits to prevent burn-out and bore-out in the workplace. This includes supporting leaders and teams in recognizing the value of sensitive nervous systems and creating environments that foster depth, creativity, well-being, and sustainable performance.

I am deeply committed to continual learning and have been trained in person by Dr. Elaine Aron on Sensory Processing Sensitivity, alongside extensive education in high sensitivity, high sensation seeking, neuroscience, resilience, and positive psychology. Learning is not separate from my work, it is part of how I live.

Partnership and Shared Life

Randy and I met when I invited him to be a guest on my podcast Sensitive and Strong to talk about being a highly sensitive sensation seeker. From the start, there was a deep sense of recognition, of being seen and understood without the need to explain ourselves.

Together, we explored what it truly means to be a highly sensitive high sensation seeker, not only in theory, but through lived experience. Traveling together across Europe and the United States, and later embarking on a two-month motorcycle journey from Las Vegas to Fairbanks, Alaska, became profound experiences of self-discovery. It was during this journey that we came to understand that this way of being is not simply the combination of two traits, but a unique, integrated whole: the Wild Sensitive.

Our relationship is grounded in deep love, mutual respect, and a shared devotion to growth and adventure. It reflects the essence of Wild Sensitive living, where sensitivity is honored, emotional connection is central, and curiosity remains alive. This is not something we teach separately from our work; it is something we live every day.

Today, we live and work together from Baja California, Mexico, a place that reflects the rhythm, space, and intentionality we value in both our personal lives and our work. While based in Mexico, our work is international in scope, supporting individuals and organizations across Europe, North America, and beyond.

The Wild Sensitive Within

At heart, I am a Wild Sensitive. I balance high sensitivity with a strong desire for discovery, novelty, and meaningful experience. Curiosity and courage guide my life, not as recklessness, but as a devotion to aliveness.

A Wild Sensitive is someone who embodies both Sensory Processing Sensitivity and High Sensation Seeking. The SPS trait, identified by Dr. Elaine Aron, is defined by the four elements of the DOES acronym: depth of processing, susceptibility to overstimulation, emotional reactivity and empathy, and sensitivity to subtleties. All four aspects must be present.

High Sensation Seeking, as defined by Marvin Zuckerman, includes four dimensions: boredom susceptibility, novelty seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, and disinhibition. An individual may express one, several, or all of these aspects, leading to a wide range of lived experiences and expressions.

All four sensation-seeking aspects are present in me, though in different proportions. These nuances matter, and understanding them is central to helping Wild Sensitives make sense of themselves without self-judgment. My life’s work is dedicated to helping others discover what it truly means to be a Wild Sensitive, moving away from limitation-based narratives and toward purpose, self-assurance, and inner freedom.

My approach is informed by academic research in Sensory Processing Sensitivity, Sensation Seeking, neuroscience, and psychology, combined with extensive lived and applied experience.

The Wild Sensitive Movement

As we came to understand how fundamentally different the Wild Sensitive experience is from that of Highly Sensitive Persons alone, we began researching it deeply. What we found was a pattern of misunderstanding, mislabeling, and lack of appropriate support.

The Wild Sensitive Movement was born from this realization. It exists for people who think deeply and feel deeply, who crave meaning and experience, who often place others before themselves, and who are guided by truth, fairness, and integrity, not just niceness, but genuine kindness.

Within this movement, the Wild Sensitive Village was created as a space where people can understand their nervous system, honor their sensitivity, explore their desire for life, and discover who they are, without shrinking to meet expectations that were never designed for them. It is a place to be understood, to learn without judgment, and to belong.

Co-Founded Work and Initiatives

As Randy and I explored the Wild Sensitive concept more deeply, we realized it had not yet been clearly named or described. This led to the creation of our first book, which offers an in-depth exploration of who the Wild Sensitive is and the unique challenges they face.

As our understanding grew, it became clear that each of the four sensation-seeking aspects plays a profound role in shaping a Wild Sensitive’s life. This insight led to a dedicated book for each aspect, exploring how it shows up within high sensitivity.

Together, we have co-founded:

Each exists as an extension of the same core intention: to support sensitive, depth-oriented people in living fully and truthfully.

My Work in the World

I have never been particularly interested in titles. I am interested in impact, integrity, and depth.

My work includes:

  • Co-authoring:
    • The Wild Sensitive – Unlocking the Power of the Highly Sensitive Sensation Seeker (July 2025)
    • The Wild Sensitive with Boredom Susceptibility (December 2025)
    • The Wild Sensitive Who Seeks New Experiences (January 2026)
    • The Wild Sensitive Who Seeks Thrill and Adventure (February 2026)
    • The Wild Sensitive with Disinhibition (June 2026)
  • Co-founding the Wild Sensitive Village
  • Speaking on sensitivity, sensation seeking, courage, emotional resilience, autonomy, and empowerment for both small and large audiences

Everything I do returns to one guiding question:

How do we help people live fully, while empowering them to bring their unique perspective into the world and discover who they truly are?

What I Stand For

I believe that Highly Sensitive Sensation Seekers carry a vital gift. We are often able to connect complex information, sense what is missing in a situation, anticipate outcomes, and see the broader picture. When supported and grounded, this capacity translates into clarity, wisdom, and deeply practical contributions to the world.

We are not broken or contradictory. We are a missing link in modern culture, one that the world needs if it is to move toward wholeness. Wild Sensitive leadership is not loud or dominant; it is perceptive, ethical, and quietly transformative.

I also believe deeply in our capacity to grow and change. Research on Differential Susceptibility shows that we are more deeply affected by our environments, for better or worse. This places responsibility in our own hands: to create conditions in which we can truly thrive.

Combined with neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change through practice, this means we are capable of profound transformation when we commit to it consciously and consistently.

I believe in:

  • Authenticity
  • Kindness
  • Autonomy
  • Accountability and responsibility

I do not believe in:

  • Superficiality
  • Dishonesty
  • Inefficiency
  • Being limited by life

Contact Me

If you reach out, do so as a human, not as a pitch.

I welcome connection with those who feel aligned with this work, who wish to collaborate with integrity, or who are walking a similar path.

Contact Annet (#3)