Embracing The Whole Gifted Self

Many gifted people cultivate and appreciate their extraordinary intellect, but Dr. Patricia Gatto-Walden uses her 30 years of clinical experience to explore giftedness through the perspective of all the domains of a person: intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social. Only by acknowledging, understanding, and nurturing all the domains can gifted individuals embrace their whole gifted selves.


It is Gatto-Walden's belief that home life, education, and counseling of the gifted must attend to the integration and enhancement of the mind, heart, body, spirit, and social self in order to attain contentment and balance in everyday life. This book encapsulates her holistic approach to understanding the problems experienced by highly gifted children and adults. She covers overexcitability, perfectionism, and asynchrony, with many examples of those she has helped.


Dr. Patricia Gatto-Walden has been honored with a SENG Clinician of the Year Award and the Annemarie Roeper Award for exceptional service to gifted youth.