The author uses her experience coping with her daughter's mental illness, and the discoveries she made about her daughter and herself in the process, to provide guidance for how to function as a highly sensitive person or an empath and how to parent a child who is highly sensitive or empathic. The author and her husband utilized the traditional mental health treatment model for their daughter, and at one point it was even necessary for their daughter (Ellie) to undergo a prolonged stay in a mental health institution as a young teenager. However, the traditional approach was not working well for them. The medications made Ellie feel like a zombie or had other undesirable side effects. Benefits of treatment were often short-lived because the treatments did not adequately account for how Ellie experienced things emotionally, and did not provide her with the tools she needed to adequate cope with her environment. In trying to better understand herself and her daughter and find a way to more effectively help her daughter, the author explored various holistic treatment options and learned about the concepts of "highly sensitive child/person" and "empath."

The author starts out the book by recounting the moment when her ten-year-old daughter yelled at her, "Stop trying to fix me." It took a couple more years before the author realized what her daughter was really trying to stay. The author discusses how traditional western healthcare, especially mental health care, is focused on "fixing" the patient, as if the patient is just a problem that needs to be solved. However, Ellie did not need to be "fixed" but rather she needed to be accepted for who she was and given the tools to successfully function as someone who was highly sensitive. The author does not deny the benefits of medication, psychotherapy, etc., but encourages people to consider other treatment modalities, in addition to or possibly in place of the traditional model.

The reader will need to keep an open mind. Some of the things the author talks about doing/trying will sound very "woo woo" to many readers. There were multiple occasions where the author discussed something she explored/tried, and I instinctively thought that was "crazy", and I had to remind myself to step back and be open to the possibility that there might be something to what she was talking about.

In addition to encouraging readers to be open to other possible treatment options, the author provides a lot of advice, based on her own experience and what she has learned from others, about parenting a sensitive or empathic child, advocating for yourself and your child, how to manage your own self-care so you can be there for your child, how to help siblings cope with the situation and how to ensure that the needs of the siblings are not overlooked due to the focus on the highly sensitive child, finding a supportive community, etc.

I really enjoyed reading this book about the author's journey to find a path forward with her daughter's very young diagnosis of mental health issues at the age of 8 years old.

The key recommendations are sound: listen to your intuition, listen to your child, listen to your family, learn to be resilient and find comfort, strength and courage in modalities that feel right to you (within reason).

The book repeated a lot of information and I felt as though the author perpetuated some negative stereotypes or information even as she extolled the value of her own personal spiritual journey. While she relates the story of a shift in her daughter at age 14 after being sent off to an in-patient clinical setting as having blossomed and grown into a highly sensitive empath, she still continues to refer to her daughter as having mental health issues.

I felt like the author should choose -- is this a person with a mental health issue -- or is this a misunderstood sensitive empath? Sure, it can be both - but it seems to me that if she's quit all her medications, quit therapy and is using crystals and flower essences and coping mechanisms for resilience, maybe she isn't and never was suffering a mental health issue?

The author relates a story about how a social worker sent to her home interviewed her and said "I think that it's your parenting that is causing these issues." The author was destroyed by this assessment - but then goes on to describe how her husband's more structured parenting style and her own laissez-faire style created confusion for her daughter and resulted in some of the behavior that was observed. So, maybe, yes -- this was the result of contradictory parenting styles. It's better to find out sooner than later -- and, I should imagine, if she's so self-aware and open minded that she's willing to seek out a medium and the advice of angels or ghosts, she might also be willing to examine how her own behavior and choices had an impact on her daughter.

This was such a great read! As a person who is a mental health counselor, I found this a great tool for parents, caregivers, and anyone who works with children and teens! A lot of the time adults in children's lives want to "fix" children instead of wanting to gain a better understanding of why they do the things they do. I plan on using this book as a resource for parents in my own practice.

Overall, I found this to be a pretty powerful testimony of a mother and her family as she they maneuvered around her daughter's mental health challenges.

Personally, I was interested and invested in her story and their journey. For such a highly developed country, our medical system leaves a lot to be desired. My favorite part of the book were the actionable ways to advocate for ourselves and our loved ones when it comes to our medical care and treatments. I was right there with her until... I wasn't. Once she refocused her discussion to crystals and mediums and essential oils, my skepticism took over and I lost interest/focus.

Overall, this was interesting read with some useful nuggets of information.

The Sensitive Ones hit a little close to home. My son and I are much the same (and boy is that a struggle sometimes!), so I knew this would be an immediate request. Did everything within these pages resonate with me? Of course not. Just like anything in life, you take what you need from things and leave it or save the rest for when you do actually need it. I am thankful for the ability to read about others experiences. It’s 4 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book will make all my fellow sensitive souls feel seen, heard, and understood. As someone who has always felt "too sensitive" and "too anxious", this book helped me to better understand parts of myself that aren't shortcomings--they're strengths! This was a good reminder that being different isn't a bad thing. Loved the author's real-life advice and experiences; while I'm not a parent I really resonated with this book and will be applying the advice into my own life.

As the mother of a teenage daughter who is a HSP and has a great deal of anxious traits (although does not have a GAD) I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I didn’t discover it until just before archive date so didn’t have the opportunity to read all of the book, which is a shame. It is certainly a book I would consider buying in the future; however, the notion of crystals etc put me off a little - but that is this family’s story and does not have to apply to, or resonate with, everyone.
An interesting read, I just wish I’d found it earlier & could have finished it.

While some of the information was useful, I personally did not enjoy the parenting approach to all of it. It did not resonate as well with me as others.

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!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free eARC copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review.

The most important thing I learned from this book is: you have to work on your own shit to help those around you. It's something I've learned in therapy, grad school, preach at work... and is the central theme in this book.

I could only give Nardi two stars for this book. Her story is her story... and I found a lot of scientific inaccuracies. That doesn't mean she didn't experience what she did-- I truly believe her family's journey as presented. I just worry that desperate parents might grasp at this narrative when what their child needs is traditional intervention (not even medication-- therapy).

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.

Actually this is quite good book about mom's struggling with her daughter's anxiety. So it could gave some insights about do's and dont's when we have children then.

However, I was expecting it contains more research studies, not only her experience-based.

I was excited for this read as someone who has mental illness and is a mama. I was excited for this book to grow my knowledge in helping those with mental illness. But my excitement dwindled fairly quickly and I truthfully had a hard time finishing the book.
I believe many mental illnesses are misdiagnosed, as I have had experience with that myself. Doctors like to look for whatever checks the boxes first rather than looking at the whole picture. So when the author described her daughter's symptoms and was promptly diagnosed with anxiety, I questioned what the doctors were thinking. And though the book discussed empathy, I didn't feel as though it came across, and it felt a lot like a mom who just felt like they were failing their child but not trying to understand why the child felt the way they did.

Aside from not feeling the empathy, the writing style did not capture me in the way I had hoped it would. I read quite a few books within the "self-help," "science based," etc genres and I just could not track with the way things were written out. The timeline was very jumpy. I think this book has potential, but it simply was not what I was looking for.