Missing the Solstice
How do people create (and survive) drastic changes? How do they leave unhealthy relationships, groups, belief systems, or entire identities? And how do they leave when these things are essential parts of their lives, their careers, their place in their families … or all three?
These questions are crucial in a time when so many of us have been drawn into polarized belief systems and conspiracy theories that are tearing apart families, friendships, political parties, and the foundations of American governance itself.
But change and reclamation are possible at any time.
Missing the Solstice is a true story about one woman who left a community, a belief system, a thriving career, and an entire identity behind, but it’s also a story about what it means to leave any situation or identity that you’ve outgrown — and what it means to reclaim yourself.
Paperback and E-Book
The Language of Emotions
“The Language of Emotions has changed the way I relate to others, and to myself, forever.”
Gavin DeBecker, author of The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift
Your emotions are a part of everything you are and everything you do, and each one contains a specific form of genius you can learn to access. There’s no such thing as a negative emotion and there’s no such thing as a positive emotion: all emotions are necessary.
The Language of Emotions explains what emotions do, how they work, and how to work with them in brilliant new ways — so that you can understand and respond to the genius and healing power in each of your emotions instead of reacting on autopilot.
Paperback, E-Book, and Audiobook (Buy the audiobook here)
The Language of Emotions Workbook
“Without a doubt, this is THE workbook for better mental health, relationships that flourish, and overall life success and satisfaction.”
Anita Nowak, PhD, author of Purposeful Empathy
This hands-on companion to The Language of Emotions gives you easy access to information on each emotion and all of McLaren’s unique Empathic Mindfulness practices that make working with your emotions easier and more fulfilling.
The Language of Emotions Workbook is filled with guided exercises, reflections, and prompts to help you access your emotional genius and build lasting self-awareness and deeper relationship skills.
Paperback and E-Book
The Power of Emotions at Work
“This wonderful, insightful, and practical book will help you create teams that work better together and make better work.”
Charlie Gilkey, author of Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done
We’ve all been taught that “being professional” means suppressing our honest emotions while we’re on the clock — but research shows that this actually leads to a loss in productivity, diminished creativity, and crushing job dissatisfaction.
The Power of Emotions at Work welcomes the emotions back into the workplace (they were there all along), and teaches all workers how to create respectful, effective, and emotionally well-regulated environments where everyone can get their best work done.
Paperback, E-Book, and Audiobook (Buy the Audiobook here)
Embracing Anxiety
“Karla McLaren’s breakthrough approach provides the missing link for those who want to finally get off the merry-go-round of anxiety, shame, and self-judgment. Embracing Anxiety has become a permanent fixture in my toolbox.”
Dr. Samantha Brody, author of Overcoming Overwhelm
Your anxiety is not a mistake or a problem. It’s an essential source of foresight, motivation, and energy, and you can learn how to work brilliantly with this vital emotion.
Your anxiety has an important job: it helps you look ahead, organize yourself, and gather the energy you need to complete your projects and meet your deadlines.
In Embracing Anxiety, you’ll learn how to work with this essential and brilliant emotion in new and life-affirming ways.
Paperback, E-Book, and Audiobook (Buy the audiobook here)
Escaping Utopia
“This study accomplishes the unusual task of creating an immensely accessible book for the general public, current and former members, and academics. Nothing else like it exists.”
Stephen A. Kent, Sociology Professor, University of Alberta
We think of cults as bizarre, inexplicable, or otherworldly places that only strange people inhabit, but cults and other abusive and high-demand groups are actually common. In fact, the social pressures and authoritarian structures that create cults exist to a greater or lesser extent in every human relationship and every human group.
In the first in-depth research of its kind, the authors focused on sixty-five people who were born in or grew up in thirty-nine different cultic groups spanning more than a dozen countries.
In Escaping Utopia, Lalich and McLaren craft groundbreaking research into an accessible and engaging book that can help cult members understand the systems that entrapped them.
Paperback and E-Book
The Art of Empathy
“Karla McLaren is an emotional genius; she is the perfect guide to lead us through the complexities of emotions and feelings, and right into the heart of empathy and compassion.”
Michael Meade, author of Fate and Destiny and Why the World Doesn’t End
What if there were a single skill that could directly and radically improve your relationships and your emotional life? Empathy, teaches Karla McLaren, is that skill.
With The Art of Empathy, McLaren teaches us how to perceive and feel ourselves and the experiences of others with clarity and authenticity — so that we can connect more deeply and effectively in our increasingly complex world.
Paperback, E-Book, and Audiobook (Buy the audiobook here)