Healing for Empaths & Highly Sensitive Persons

02/22/2026

Empaths and Highly Sensitive Persons (E/HSP) often feel a sense of responsibility for healing and/or “being there” for others. This typically starts out when we’re very young, when we’re most loving and most impressionable, and is typically directed toward our parents.

Whether it is by being cute, fully, musical, or creative, or the Negative Love Syndrome where the child mimics the "negative" actions and energies to resonate with the caretakers, or by actually absorbing the parents’ energies and emotions, it is all an attempt to connect, and to give and receive love.

Unfortunately, this never works, and the E/HSP then reaches out and attracts friends and eventually romantic interests who allow them to mimic the same behaviors from earlier in their life.

Some go into the healing arts to heal others but are never satisfied no matter how well they do because underneath it all is that subconscious desire to connect with and heal their family of origin.

When this is unsuccessful, and it will be, the illusion of responsibility grows outwards.

We then feel responsible for healing the vibrations, energies and emotions of our lineage, culture, a particular issue, nation or even the world. Indeed, how many of us have said or thought, “I feel the like I’m carrying the whole weight of the world on my shoulders.”?

But it’s all a distraction.

Obviously, not only does this distraction not heal anyone or anything, but it places tremendous pressure on us, resulting in perfectionism, increased self-criticism and an absorption of other people's energies.

We end up with ETIPs – Empathically Transmitted Illness or Pains, for example: anxiousness, lethargy, tight muscles or a sense of hopelessness or an often-immovable sadness that won't heal no matter what we've done.

The proverbial “hamster wheel of healing” becomes an everyday experience for untrained E/HSPs.

Empaths and Highly Sensitive Persons need specific tools to prevent and heal ETIPs.

If you have a plumbing problem, call a plumber. Likewise, if you’re an Empath a/o Highly Sensitive Person, you need tools created by and for other Empaths & Highly Sensitive Persons!

I feel you. And I’m here for you. This is what I do.

So let’s not get lost in the distraction, but rather heal the real issue!

(Image licensed via Canva Pro)

02/20/2026

My 2013 book Self-Care for the Self-Aware was on Amazon’s Top 20 for 41 consecutive months, so why not recreate the cover and update the title to something a bit more… today!?!?!

JK! 🙂

But now that I’ve got your attention, and hopefully provided a laugh, let’s address this serious subject. My upcoming book, Refuge for the Weary Empath says something about the empath-narcissist relationship:

“Have you ever asked yourself why narcissists seem to show up everywhere in your life? If this dynamic feels familiar, you’re not alone. Many sensitive people find themselves repeatedly drawn into these challenging relationships. What is it about your energy they desire? What is it in them that we seek? Let’s explore this all-too-common dynamic.

Despite what they project, narcissists are in a lot of pain.

When children experience severe neglect or abuse, they often dissociate as a survival mechanism. In response, the child creates a dream persona (I’ll be somebody else. Another version of me has to be more lovable than the current version), but what is created is a closed-down version of their former tender selves in an attempt to minimize the pain. They project a “fantasized perfection,” never admitting mistakes or taking responsibility for anything gone wrong.

As adults, this dream persona projects a know-it-all mentality, as if they’ve got everything under control. They’re great at blaming others for problems and attacking sources of discomfort rather than addressing the discomfort itself.

Breaking the Pattern: Three Stages

I’ve observed three stages in the empath-narcissist relationships:

Stage 1: The Normalized Stage
Stage 2: The Awakening Stage
Stage 3: The Freedom Stage

The book walks you through each of these three stages with compassion, insight, and practical guidance for understanding this wounding and reclaiming your sense of self in relationship to it.

Because the social media algorithms might not show you when it’s available, sign up for my newsletter to be the first to pre-order! Link: https://www.davemarkowitz.com/newsletter/

02/11/2026

These days, more seekers than ever are connecting with the power of music as a vibrational healing tool to shift life’s most difficult situations and create lasting transformation, while becoming more joyful and spiritually alive along the way....

Are you feeling called to explore the science-backed transformations that sound-healing practices can bring — and continue your healing journey as you dive even deeper into your heart?

Maybe you’re feeling ready to fine-tune your energy so you can share your gifts and ignite your purpose — and reclaim the parts of yourself you’ve put on pause during challenging times.

On Thursday, February 12, my good friend Barry Goldstein—award-winning producer, composer, author, and “musitarian”—will share how the science and spirituality of music can enhance your power, purpose, and passion. Some of you may remember that Barry and I co-created musical healing circles together in NYC. We go back a long way!

He’s also worked with Neale Donald Walsch, Anita Moorjani, Gregg Braden, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Joe Dispenza, and many more!

And Barry's album, Genesis from his Ambiology series has been my go-to music for healing and meditation since 2002.
You can register for Experience Inner Coherence Through the Science & Spirituality of Music, Sound & Vibration: A Musical Practice to Reconnect With Your Heart, Mind & Spirit for f.r.e.e when using my link: https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/ecttDM/a19495/

In this 60-minute free online event, you’ll:
~Discover the role of music as a sound tool for improving heart and brain coherence — and how it can help you achieve your goals for wellness, quality of life, and fine-tuning your purpose
~Learn how you can use the healing aspects of sound as a bridge to upgrade your vibrational and creative state and experience a more fulfilling life
~Feel yourself transported into a more relaxed and transformed emotional state as you experience a live sound activation composed and performed in the moment by Barry
~Explore how a daily music program can empower you to skillfully manage stress, anxiety, life challenges, your energy, and more
~Identify something you feel you might have given up or put on hold — and use the power of music during Barry’s experiential exercise, “Reclaiming You,” to recommit to it and invite it back into your life… Barry will explain the fascinating science behind the process (Entrainment, Coherence, and Parasympathetic activation)

Researchers and scientists have shown how toning, sounds, tuning, chanting, mantra, breathing techniques, and vibrations can transform internal and external states — and that you can achieve more coherent heart and brain states through techniques and experiential processes.

You won’t want to miss this opportunity to discover how music can help you “biohack the brain” to quiet the mind and access more peaceful states. Barry will help you redefine how you think about healing — and empower you to identify and release your subconscious energetic blocks and attune to higher vibrational states.

Warmly,
Dave

P.S. We hope you’re able to catch the event as scheduled, but if you register and miss it, you’ll receive a downloadable recording as soon as it’s available.

Sign up for f.r.e.e using my personal link: https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/ecttDM/a19495/

Experience Inner Coherence Through the Science &; Spirituality of Music, Sound &; Vibration A Free Video Event With Multi-Award-Winning Producer, Composer, Author &; Musitarian Barry Goldstein

02/04/2026

Feeling overwhelmed?

Anxious? Disoriented? Exhausted?

How could you not be?

The world feels more turbulent than ever — changing faster than our nervous systems can process.

Many empathic people are feeling it as anxiety, irritability, fatigue, or a constant sense that something is off.

If part of you keeps screaming “DO SOMETHING!”

…but no clear next step appears —

this may be for you.

I’m hosting a 6-session live online course designed to help empaths calm the inner chaos stirred up by global uncertainty — so your intuition can come back online and your inner guidance becomes clear again.

Through guided healing, sound, visualization, gentle movement, meditation, and group connection, we’ll create the conditions where real clarity emerges — not from urgency or fear, but from alignment.

This isn’t about forcing answers.

It’s about stabilizing your nervous system so answers can arise naturally.

Awareness can happen in an instant.

Lasting change comes from steady intention and practice.

That’s what this container is designed to support.

You’ll also be joining a group of people navigating these same pressures — co-creating a safe, grounded space for authentic connection, mutual support, and relief from compassion fatigue.

Why Is This Course Being Offered Now?

I understand the need for answers. And I also get how so many of us rely on our own intuition for those answers.

But when we’re stressed, anxious, and uncentered, it’s really difficult to get clear intuitive guidance.

Our biggest decisions are better informed from a Source beyond mind.

One example:

In 2008, Source informed me it was time to move when more than a couple of humans randomly asked, “I heard you’re moving” and from many on the West coast, "When are you moving out here?”

I was so stressed about this move away from everything I’d ever known—45 years in or near NYC—that my guidance was giving me answers that couldn’t possible be true, or just none at all.

Amazingly, I saw in my inbox that day a 1-week course offering exercises to get answers to much needed questions.

And by the end of the week, everything was crystal clear. I even intuitively saw an image that turned out to be the home page image for the website of the apartment building I was going to move to… 3,000 miles away!

Now, in these tender times, I'm returning the gift—expanded to two weeks for deeper clarity.

Join us in co-creating From Chaos to Clarity: A 2-Week Journey for Empaths to Find Calm, Direction, and Power

A note on the investment:

My typical rate for a 6-session workshop is $300–$400.

But these are not typical times.

For this course, the full two-week experience is $39.

Yes — really.

And if you can’t attend live, full recordings are included for every session.

If this resonates, I’d love to have you join us.

Ready to integrate and shine? Enroll today.

Warmly,
Dave

Click here: https://www.davemarkowitz.com/events/02-16-2026/

02/02/2026

Perfect timing—Groundhog Day arrives as a metaphor for our inner shadows: repressed fear, anger, and grief.

Just as sunlight reveals (and dispels) the groundhog's shadow, our inner light transforms these unintegrated parts.

From my upcoming book:

“These “shadow” aspects are perhaps named as such because we prefer to keep them in the dark, but they desperately need to be acknowledged, honored, and embraced. The work involves bringing all aspects of ourselves—even those we’d rather not acknowledge—into conscious awareness.

As we integrate our shadow parts, we alter who we are at our core, which transforms how others—whether human or otherwise—interact with our energy field.

Shadow work involves witnessing and honoring the entire spectrum of our human experience. It’s not about limiting our emotional range, but about fully embracing our humanity while maintaining our energetic integrity.

We’re not here to avoid triggers, sadness, anger, depression, or fear. Nor are we here solely to experience love and light.
Our purpose encompasses the entire range of human experience. This is how we learn and grow.

The 3D existence serves as a playground for our souls. Through duality and contrast, we learn who we truly are as we strive to rediscover our innate wholeness. Healing involves embracing all aspects of ourselves and accepting others as they are, especially the shadow parts we all tend to hide or reject.”

Groundhog Day is a beautiful reminder that when we finally (ideally, gently and with support) turn toward what we fear, we stop being haunted by it.

01/27/2026

"...theories were of little use or consequence. It was only through doing that she had learned her most enduring life lessons...

There is a lot gained when we give up the self,” she noted. “We break out of rumination. We discover we’re part of something larger, and we learn it feels good to care for others."

My quest to understand consciousness took me to a cave in New Mexico and then deep into the cosmos.

01/19/2026

Are current events driving you bonkers?

We’re all connected, so even if you’re not paying close attention, external chaos still ripples into your inner world.

In my three-plus decades of mind-body work, I’ve learned that mentally bypassing our feelings or rationalizing them away, or “seeing from above the clouds” can help you feel better—but only in the short term.

Eventually, what’s been buried resurfaces, showing up as symptoms both diagnosable and mysterious.

What does work, even if others don’t get it? Being real.

Real with what you feel.

Embracing the inevitable ups and downs, along with the emotions they bring—creates true wholeness.

And wholeness is why we’re here.

We’re here to ride the emotional roller-coaster to live and learn through duality and contrast.

We can’t truly savor the heights of joy without having known the depths of sorrow.
What we see “out there” mirrors humanity’s un-integrated shadows: egos run amok, fear-driven ids making rules, stoking the collective’s unhealed wounds.

The good news? We’re aware and therefore can take conscious, positive action.

Join the livestream to explore embracing what you feel: heal personally, radiate collective calm, transform pain into peace—and move from NOOOOO! to OMMMM...

Let’s do it together!

Sunday, January 25, 2026. Click below:

Would you like to go from NOOOOO! to OMMMMM? Do you need a little help getting there? Join Dave in this essential livestream, where he’ll share tools to move you from fear to peace, from confusion to clarity, and from lonely to connected. Many workshops tell you to only focus on the positive—for...

01/02/2026

The ego cleverly convinced millions of spiritual seekers to “let go” of itself—a brilliant deflection that turns self-inquiry into its own trap. What could be more ingenious than watching humans struggle to erase a part of themselves, all while thinking they're making progress?

Can an ego ever fully be erased?

I once asked an enlightened teacher if he was fearless. He paused, leaned in, and whispered, “I fear… less.”

I think we’d be better off befriending all parts of ourselves—our emotions (yes, all of them), and even our egos, which serve their purpose.

Or is that just my own ego convincing me of something?

11/24/2025

Sometimes a single sentence from a teacher lands so strangely that it sticks with you for years.

That happened to me in an acting class in NYC—yes, I took a few classes purely to get over stage fright—when my teacher looked at me and said:

“You’ve got to kill your parents, Dave.”

I remember blinking, unsure I’d heard correctly.

“Not literally, of course,” he clarified. “I mean the beliefs you absorbed from them. They’re still in your system. They’re running your life and keeping you small.”

Odd as it sounded, he was right.

Many years later, I could clearly see how much of their belief systems—and even their energetic patterns—had shaped parts of my identity, covered up pieces of my authentic self, and even influenced my habits and symptoms.

In a way, that realization informed my work decades later: helping clients protect themselves from incoming energy and return what isn’t theirs to its rightful owner. Who knew something so obscure—yet strangely logical—could help thousands of people better navigate their health and relationships, both familial and otherwise?

I bring this up now as we approach Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season, because many of us will be spending time with family in the coming weeks. And as much as we love them, well… sometimes we don’t want to be around them longer than we have to.

Not all of us, of course. I enjoy spending time with my cousin, siblings, their kids, my in-laws, and their families. But my parents were challenging for my sensitive nervous system. I still love them, and I’ve even heard from them more than a few times since they’ve passed on.

For those of you connecting with family, make use of my YouTube video that explains The Keyhole Technique, demonstrated here: https://youtu.be/Ii7yNVM-Qy8

Many of you already know it, and some have yet to see the most advanced version—playfully called V2.1! And some of you know it well and have used it successfully, but may need a gentle nudge to practice it a bit more over the next few weeks.

While you’re there, please like and subscribe. And of course, if you know someone who could benefit from this life-altering technique, please share it with them.

And remember: if your intuition says so, it’s okay to say no to an invitation. It may not feel good, but sometimes self-preservation has to take precedence. It’s okay to take care of your needs.

Blessings,
Dave

Healing for Empaths & Highly Sensitive Persons

11/17/2025

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Make Something Up!

The intuitive nudge came: apply to teach your “Healing Neck & Back Pain” workshop at The Learning Annex—the biggest adult education facility in or near NYC.

Done.

Their application said they were inundated with proposals and to allow up to six months for a response. No problem.

So I waited.

And waited.

Six months passed. Nothing.

I sent another proposal.

Still nothing.

After another six months with no reply—not even a “Thanks but no thanks”—I was feeling a bit irked. Okay, I was angry. Knowing that anger, when processed, can be a powerful tool, I leaned into the feeling. What arose was “disrespect,” “not seen,” and “not heard.”

I wondered if perhaps Healing Neck and Back Pain wasn’t as needed as I had thought. Maybe I needed to be bolder—to own my intuitive gifts and use them in a different way. To be seen and heard doing what at that time would have been the weirdest use of my energy.

So I sent another proposal to The Learning Annex. This course was titled, “Your Deceased Relatives Want to Speak to You… Find Out What They’re Saying.”

I didn’t really want to be the medium guy. I’d always focused on healing work. But I knew something had to shift—maybe a little, maybe a lot.

Mediumship isn’t something I advertise, but occasionally a deceased relative or partner of a client shows up during a session And when they do, I’ve learned it’s best to listen.

For example, while working with “Julie” on the grief of losing her sister, I kept hearing James Taylor’s You’ve Got a Friend. At first, I assumed it was just an earworm, but it got louder. Finally, I asked Julie if the song meant anything to her.
She burst into tears.

“That was my sister’s song for me,” she said.

We were both verklempt.

After sending in that “Your Deceased Relatives Want to Speak to You… Find Out What They’re Saying.” proposal, I prepared myself to wait another six months, still hoping some kind of response would come for this new direction that could theoretically alter the course of my career.

The next day, I got a call—yes, an actual phone call—from the head of programming, asking me to come in and meet with her.

I was surprised… and a little, “Really? Mediumship? That’s what you, Source, want me to do with these gifts?”

I dreaded the thought of my parents asking what I was up to.

“Oh yeah, I speak to the dead. No big whoop,” I imagined saying as my arms were being guided into a straightjacket.

I met with the programming director the following day. After a few minutes of conversation, she said, “You know what? I believe you.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” I said.

“Dave, I get so many proposals from people who claim they can do this kind of work. A lot of them aren’t grounded. I couldn’t trust them to lead a class. But you—you’re different. Let’s look at the schedule.”

Cue the straightjacket visions again.

“Can you do this in September? Oh wait—I already have a medium in September. Let’s look at October… no, booked… November… also booked.”

Looking a bit frustrated, she turned to me and asked, “Do you teach anything else?”

“Well, I’ve been teaching a Healing Neck and Back Pain workshop, and—”

“Great, let’s get you in for September.”

I got what I wanted, over a year after the first intuitive nudge. And after, in a way, making something up.

I thought of this story today as I’m putting the finishing touches on the artwork for my upcoming book, Refuge for the Weary Empath: The Sacred Work of Healing Ourselves and Healing Our World. Its physical manifestation has been a whirlwind—full of twists, turns, and unexpected detours.

Can you relate?

Have you had goals you felt sure you could achieve, only to find delay after delay? Healing work you thought would be completed by now? Spiritual growth that seems continually blocked? Intuitive guidance that suddenly feels misaligned?

Sometimes we have to go bold.

Sometimes we have to wait.

Sometimes… both.

Can we surrender the mind’s idea of what should be happening, and when it should be happening? Can we trust that Source knows what we need and when we need it? That sometimes what looks like a blockage is actually an invitation—to go deeper, to step out, to go within, to wait, to breathe, to heal, to allow?

If you’d like an intuitive read on what’s holding you back—and the best possible way forward—schedule a free 15-minute consult (https://www.davemarkowitz.com/sessions.php ) or a session with me. Let’s look at the broader perspective together.

If we were meant to go at it alone, there’d be eight billion planets with one inhabitant each.

Blessings,
Dave

https://www.davemarkowitz.com/sessions.php

11/17/2025

The inspiring message from INTERCONNECTIONS, that our actions truly make a difference in the world, is needed now more than ever before.

Interconnections Screener for Broadcast 30 minute program

11/06/2025

Rabindranath Tagore once said, “The one who plants trees knowing he will never sit in their shade has begun to understand the meaning of life.” Those words are a love letter to selflessness—a reminder that true purpose outlives the person.

In ecology, trees communicate through underground networks, sharing nutrients and signals with others—even different species. They live not just for themselves, but for the forest. Maybe that’s what we’re meant to learn—to give without seeing the result.

To plant kindness, ideas, and hope that future generations will harvest. That’s legacy. What seeds are you planting today for someone else’s tomorrow? 🌳💚