The Sensitive Ones

My daughter is highly sensitive so I really enjoyed reading this book and getting more tips and strategies for helping her feel more content.

I am so thankful that Heather Nardi chose to share her experiences and those of her family in this poignant and honest book. Her daughter was diagnosed with a mental illness at 8 years old and she first sought to help via the route of mainstream medicine. However, with her steady decline after years of being medicated, with often terrifying side effects, she felt compelled to try a different approach. She began to focus on first addressing her own childhood traumas and current issues, which led to understanding her child better. Learning more about highly sensitive empathetic people, she realized that her and her daughter both fit the description. This knowledge played a key role in how she changed how she approached parenting a gifted and “different” child.

After her daughter told her she wanted to get off all medication she started looking into more holistic approaches. What I loved about this book was that Nardi was not pushy at all with her views. So many books nowadays are either extremely pro-medicine or the opposite-trying to shove holistic practices down your throat as the be all end all. This is not that. Nardi simply explains how she tried a number of different things and what worked for her family specifically. I appreciated that she was very aware that every person is different with different and ever changing needs. Personally, a lot of the things she wrote about really resonated with me. Finding a balance between spiritual, mental and emotional well being and the different ways you can do that. She emphasized how helpful shadow work, meditation, Reiki and essential oils helped her. I also enjoyed the connections she made between empaths sometimes being more prone to experience psychic abilities or seeing flutters from the other side. While I understand some people may scoff at these types of ideas I believe there is a need for a balance between logical and spiritual emotional views. All in all, this book brought me joy and made me feel optimistic about my ability to stop the cycle of generational trauma within my own family.

Overall this is a powerful testimony of a mother and her family history as she recounts her struggle with her daughter's mental health challenges. Her daughter is considered an "empath", a term not always used or understood, yet the premise of this book.

The mother describes how her daughter's struggles were misunderstood by the inconsistent medical system. I can relate and appreciate the bottom line discussions of reminding us what is important (family), with actionable ways to advocate for ourselves in effort to avoid the codependent realm.

I do appreciate most of the spiritual discussion, though admittedly believe the granular level of talk about crystals and essential oils, etc. is a bit deeper than I'd like, and to me detracts from the read. I understand that's my opinion, and I understand the value for the author.

I appreciate and learned much from the discussion of "empathy" and "highly sensitive" children. Further, this has sparked me too look into some other books that she uses as a reference to continue this discussion.

The sensitive ones by Heather Nardi is an emotional read which digs into a mothers journey of supporting her empathic daughter. This book is brimming with heartfelt writing which I fell in love with within the first few pages of this book.
I have my own experiences with mental health difficulties, and could resonate to the author’s daughter, Ellie on a deep level. It soon became apparent how similar my own life has been thus far, when compared to Ellie’s. Reading this book and about the author's experience, gave me the interesting point of view of those surrounding myself: What is their experience like living with me, a person who is mentally ill? Heather Nardi excels at showcasing her perspective as the mother of Ellie in this book.

This book has a definite balance between experience and knowledge, with some of the book dipping into the author's experiences, and some delving into key tips for readers trying to support themselves or their emotional children.
I also think that this book does an excellent job at discussing science with spirituality using a sensitive tone, through acknowledgement of medicine as a tool for helping those with mental illness, but also through sharing holistic healing options.

This is a well written book which combines the perspectives of a daughter with mental illness but also everyone around her as well. Furthermore I liked that the sibling point of view was shown in the more practical side of the book.
Overall I think this book is an explorative read about empaths, highly sensitive individuals and also those who have increased emotions. I believe that many can benefit from reading this: those in a similar situation and for those who feel or wish to be more spiritually aligned in general. Thankyou to Netgalley, Heather Nardi and Wise Ink Creative Publishing for the DRC!

This is a must-have resource to help one improve mental health, resiliency, and live a more full and happy life. It is full of great strategies, advice, and easy to implement ideas. This is one I'll return to again and again. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.