Healing for Empaths & Highly Sensitive Persons

04/23/2026

A Client, a Mystery, and a Lesson I Didn’t Expect

“Hi Dave, my father isn’t feeling well. He’s been to several doctors, and no one can find anything. I’m not expecting a diagnosis, of course—I was just hoping you could help him relax a bit while he goes through more tests.”

This was one of the first voicemails I received when I began practicing massage therapy.

I met him the next day. He seemed fit and vibrant—but also, understandably, confused.

About halfway through his session, I got the worst headache I’ve ever experienced. I had no history of anything like it. Looking back, I’m not sure how I finished the session, packed up my table, or even drove home.

A few days later, I was back to normal.

And then, a few days after that, she called to tell me he had passed away from advanced cancer.

I felt awful—not from another headache, but for her. Her dad had seemed active and healthy. Like anyone else. I was shocked.

Years later, it hit me: this was my first clear experience of physical pain resulting from an energetic transfer. Of course, I can’t prove that—but nothing else made any sense.

Eventually, I became known as “The Empath Guy,” writing a bestselling book on energetic transfer, return, and prevention. It stayed in Amazon’s Top 20 for 41 consecutive months—numbers that are practically unheard of for a self-published author.

That man was quite a teacher.

I can now see how so many of my experiences have shaped who I am today. And I see the same pattern in the people I work with.

We are constantly being shown who we are through our interactions with others. We are and have been guided the whole time.

04/22/2026

Free In Person Event! Refuge for the Weary Empath: A Sacred Conversation with Dave Markowitz

Join local bestselling author Dave Markowitz for an intimate, podcast-style conversation about his groundbreaking new book. In a world where so much feels personal—where global anxiety lands in our bodies, where family tensions mirror larger divides, and where collective and individual pain often blur together—Dave offers a compassionate new lens for understanding what’s stirring beneath the surface.

Rather than a formal reading, this is a relaxed, unscripted exchange between Dave and an empathic host from our community. Together, they’ll explore why many of our familiar tools for healing and leadership don’t reach as deeply as they once did—and what it means to work with today’s shifting realities instead of against them.

This gathering is especially for empaths, healers, and leaders who feel the weight of both personal and collective challenges—and are ready to explore a more sustainable way forward.

Bring your curiosity and your questions. More than a typical book launch, think of this as a chance to connect, reflect, and walk away genuinely inspired.

Dave Markowitz is a 2x best-selling author and intuitive healing practitioner with almost thirty years of experience backing up his findings. His self-published book, Self-Care for the Self-Aware: A Guide for Highly Sensitive People, Empaths, Intuitives, and Healers was on Amazon’s Top 20 list for 41 consecutive months. Dave is a faculty member of The Shift Network, the world’s largest transformational education, media, and events company and community of 3.2 million seekers. His work has been endorsed by energy intuitive, channeler, and bestselling author Lee Harris; former CEO of HeartMath Bruce Cryer; CEO of The Shift Network Stephen Dinan; multi-award-winning producer, composer, and author Barry Goldstein; award-winning author Dr. Deborah Zucker; author Amaya Gayle Gregory; and many more.

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/newrenaissancebookshop/2126709

Free In Person Event! Refuge for the Weary Empath: A Sacred Conversation with Dave Markowitz – New Renaissance Bookshop, Sat Apr 25, 2026 - Dave Markowitz, Saturday, April 25, 11:30-1PM, Free!  Join local bestselling author Dave Markowitz for an intimate, podcast-style conversation about his grou...

04/16/2026

Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Our World is a steadfast companion for readers on their journey toward wholeness, empowerment, and purpose. With compassionate understanding, practical tools, and grounded spiritual insight, it guides readers to the very roots of sensitivity and the deeper truths of healing.

Central to this work is the exploration of The 4 Original Wounds—the deep‑set imprints that underlie all personal and collective pain and suffering. By illuminating and transforming these wounds, readers awaken to a renewed sense of clarity, strength, and connection to the universal Source of healing and love.

Through gentle guidance, readers learn to discern what is theirs and what they’ve absorbed from others, fine‑tune their empathic gifts, and stand present with confidence and grace. Each chapter nurtures restoration, resilience, and authentic belonging while inviting readers to embrace the meaningful contribution only they can make.

For empaths, intuitives, and sensitive souls longing for clarity, peace, and direction, Refuge for the Weary Empath offers exactly what its title promises—a sanctuary for the heart and a path home to one’s true self.

“Instantly, I was powerfully engaged—a rarity in my world. I was willing, and more than ready to move into the body’s buried trauma, the lifelong holdouts, the unseen but ever-present emotional residue. What a gift! I already feel lighter, more relaxed in my skin. This sweet little body seems to know what to do now, or at least has a colossal clue. I’m not sure which of the many remarkable phrases unlocked the storehouses of held energy, but I don’t need to. Bowed humbly to your brilliance, Dave.”
– Amaya Gayle Gregory, self-aware author in on the cosmic joke, WA, USA

Paperbacks now available at New Renaissance Bookshop in Portland, Amazon, and eBooks through the author directly at davemarkowitz.com/refuge/

04/10/2026

If you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed—by the state of the world or challenges in your personal life—wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an affordable source of healing and guidance right at your fingertips?

“Refuge for the Weary Empath is a profound gift for anyone who feels deeply. As someone deeply committed to using music and sound as medicine, I find Dave Markowitz’s work beautifully complementary: just as music can recalibrate the nervous system, Dave’s teachings recalibrate the emotional body. His message reminds us that individual healing fuels collective transformation — an essential insight for anyone seeking to create harmony within themselves and the world around them.”
– Barry Goldstein, Multi-Award-Winning Producer/Composer, Author of The Secret Language of the Heart

I’m excited to share that Refuge for the Weary Empath is now available at Portland’s beloved metaphysical bookstore, New Renaissance! https://www.newrenbooks.com/

You can also find it on Amazon or download the eBook instantly from my website. Links in comments.

04/08/2026

"As you’ve likely learned (or are still learning), you can’t make anyone do anything. You can’t get a mean person to be nice, break a narcissist out of his mold, or convince your uncle at Thanksgiving that what he just said is wrong.

You can’t get others to care about the things you care about—or things you think they (and everyone) should care about—any more than you can get someone to read a book that doesn’t interest them.

No matter how well intentioned, few people welcome unsolicited advice. What you’re suggesting could be seen as an attack to their ego and experienced as judging them and making them wrong. Ironically, accepting people as they are opens the door to communication and potential behavioral change.

I’ve noticed that fear often keeps people stuck in their beliefs, no matter what evidence we present. So which do you choose to add to their experience, acceptance, or judgment and more fear? What would you like to receive when you’re feeling stuck, or when others point out an error in your ways?"

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

04/06/2026

"We engage in or avoid certain behaviors all the time to manage our emotional state. A simple example might be asking myself, 'Is there something I don’t want to feel right now?' when I pick up my cell phone compulsively. Or when I look in the refrigerator several times within a few minutes expecting to find something different each time. You can laugh, but I’m guessing you’ve done this, too!

These seemingly innocent behaviors often mask our attempts to avoid uncomfortable feelings. Through this sacred work of integrating the feelings we don’t want to feel, we can transform lower-vibration energies into higher ones. This reduces their pull, alleviates symptoms, and minimizes recurrence through root-level emotional healing.

I have found that there is always an emotional component seeking to be processed. Questioning ourselves and our prior belief systems can lead us to the emotions in need of processing. When we honestly ask ourselves—or are asked in a safe environment—what we’ve been avoiding, we are likely to uncover the shadow energies and emotions we have repressed."

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

04/05/2026

“Our spiritual journey is driven by the darkness of a perceived separation and a subsequent desire to get back to the lightness of oneness and connection once again”

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

04/03/2026

"Have you noticed how your mind gets extra busy right when you’re trying to fall asleep? The body naturally sees periods of quiet as opportunities for emotional processing of the day’s (or even year’s) events. However, because the mind fears facing previously buried feelings, it will engage various distractions to keep you awake or wake you during the night.

The anxiety we experience when unable to fall or stay asleep often stems from our expectations of what we think should happen when our head hits the pillow.

I advise my clients that this is an ideal time for emotional processing, if they can remember to do so! A good cry, journal entries, writing out the to-do list, or expressing previously unspoken thoughts to your partner can calm an agitated mind. Emotional release can transform meandering thoughts, worries, and fears into hours of blissful REM sleep."

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

04/01/2026

"If you’re anything like me, you’ve found yourself 'doom-scrolling' through newsfeeds or watching people tear each other apart on social media, thinking, 'How the hell did we get here?'

And by 'here,' I don’t just mean the political dumpster fire or environmental crisis du jour; I mean this whole mess—the way we treat ourselves like enemies, each other like threats, and our planet like something we can use up and discard.

What’s this intense contrast teaching us?

Ask 100 different people how we got here, and you may get 100 different answers.

It’s convenient to blame corporate greed, economic inequality, decline of religion, whichever news network other people watch, the changing environment, school violence, movie violence, video game violence, gun proliferation, capitalism, political parties, insurance companies, narcissism, and so many more. But while any or all of these can cause suffering, they are the symptoms not the causes.

Let’s not forget these basic facts: Corporations are run by people. Economic policy is implemented by people. Religious beliefs are taught by people. News networks are run by people. The changes in the environment are caused by people. School violence is perpetrated by people. Movie and video-game violence are created by people. Guns are proliferated by people. Capitalism was created by people. Political parties are run by people. Insurance companies are—you guessed it—run by people. And narcissists are people, too (and yes, I know it doesn’t feel that way sometimes!).

To understand how we create these external problems, we need to look at what’s happening inside each of us.

Does that mean that we humans are at fault for all that is currently ailing us?

Yes and no.

Yes, in that what we do can have both wonderful and detrimental individual effects. What we as individuals and smaller groups are doing, saying, and how we are being affects the larger picture as well.

And no, in that so many of our actions are driven by our wounding—meaning, it’s not your fault. We’re all the walking wounded. And no one is to blame."

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

03/29/2026

"Return to Sender does something I’ve rarely seen elsewhere: It gives back what was never yours to carry and retrains your body to no longer absorb energy. This is more about healing the wound that made absorption feel necessary rather than managing your empathy...

Your mind will always want the easier, less painful way out. While shortcuts can provide some relief, I think you want more than that; so this is a slightly more difficult way through, which is more effective every time.

While the Universe is always there to help us, asking it to do all your hard work bypasses the experiential learning our souls are here for. Return to Sender done in this way helps you feel the beauty of returning something to its original owner and transforms the belief that you’re responsible for carrying others’ burdens."

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

03/27/2026

"With all due respect to mothers everywhere—parenting must be the most challenging role on the planet—every thought and emotion a mother experiences becomes part of each child’s earliest introduction to living here.

Whatever your mother was feeling, you were feeling. Whatever she was doing, in some ways, you were doing. However she was being, you were being—for better or worse. For many, it was a quiet, nurturing, and loving experience. For others . . . well, not so much.

If we didn’t feel wanted, for example, we might have been experiencing that and/or our mother’s fears. We could feel her traumas and concerns, and if she was going through depression, we could feel that, too.

Note: None of this is an invitation to blame your mother or yourself as a parent. This process is normal, natural, and needed for our evolution."

~excerpt from "Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World"

03/23/2026

You Feel Everything. And Right Now, Everything Hurts.

These are tender, transformative times — for the world around us, and within each of us.

Many empathic, intuitive, and sensitive people find themselves feeling overwhelmed these days. Some of that weight comes from our own lives — the shifts in family, relationships, finances, or health — while some flows in from the collective energy moving through everything. It all tends to blend together, sometimes leaving us weary, anxious, depressed, disconnected, or lacking clear guidance.

Refuge for the Weary Empath was written as a soft landing place — a space to rest and rediscover what your sensitivity wants to show you. These pages offer stories, reflections, and gentle guidance to help you trace your exhaustion back to its true source, reconnect with your own steady center, and begin to experience your empathy as a bridge to clarity, belonging, and inner peace.

"In a combative world, an empath often feels under siege. But as Dave shows, when empaths do the systematic inner work to harness the real power in our sensitivity, we become agents of evolution, healing, and change, not only for ourselves and our families but for the world. A brighter future for humanity is going to require empaths to lead the way. Dave offers a powerful roadmap and compassionate guide for how to liberate ourselves from suffering and maximize our gifts.”
– Stephen Dinan, CEO, The Shift Network

I’m happy to share that my new book, Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Our World, is now available in eBook format on Amazon right now, and on my website in the next few days!

Experience:
~Immediate Relief: Stop absorbing others' emotional chaos and reclaim your energy for what truly matters to you.
~Authentic Relationships: Create connections based on genuine intimacy rather than unconscious need or people-pleasing patterns.
~Inner Peace: Develop unshakeable calm that remains steady even during external turbulence and collective crisis.
~Clear Purpose: Transform your pain into your medicine, discovering how your unique sensitivity serves both your healing and the world's.
~Empowered Action: Move from feeling powerless about global problems to becoming an agent of positive change without burning out.
~Generational Healing: Break the cycles of wounding that have been passed down through families, and contribute to humanity's evolution.

Go to: https://www.amazon.com/Refuge-Weary-Empath-Healing-Ourselves-ebook/dp/B0GT49K2LH