Emotions and Empathy Are Your Natural Language

Hello and welcome! If you're looking for clear and useful information about emotions and empathy, you've come to the right place. See our Start Here page.

Author and researcher Karla McLaren. M.Ed. is an emotions and empathy expert, and she's the developer of the EmpathyAcademy.org learning site, where you can learn robust emotional skills and healthy empathy in a welcoming online community.

Her applied work, Dynamic Emotional Integration^® (or DEI), is taught at Empathy Academy, and you can find licensed DEI Professionals all over the world.

Your emotions are a powerful healing language

The new and updated Language of Emotions is here!

Available now!

We've been told that emotions are mostly problems, but nothing could be further from the truth. Emotions do not create problems; they contain the exact genius you need to solve those problems.

In this newly revised edition of The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You, you'll learn how to access the brilliant wisdom in your emotions to create a deeply meaningful, healing, and awakened life.

Learn more and order here

In The Art of Empathy, Karla McLaren brilliantly illuminates the rich, textured landscape of emotional intelligence and the most important glue holding together all relationships — empathy.

Peter Levine, PhD, author of Healing Trauma and Freedom from Pain

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

Karla’s knowledge of how to understand emotions and engage with them in a positive and healing way is an invaluable resource.

Janja Lalich, PhD, author of Take Back Your Life and Bounded Choice

Karla McLaren is an emotional genius; she is the perfect guide to lead us through the complexities of emotions, and right into the heart of compassion.

Michael Meade, author of The Water of Life and The Genius Myth

THE POWER OF EMOTIONS AT WORK speaks truth to the reality that so much of work is actually emotional 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

There is no doubt that Karla McLaren’s passion to help her readers understand emotions, and provide them with useful tools to do so, makes this new edition of The Language of Emotions a gift for those who are suffering from or grappling with what they feel.

Mary Lamia, PhD, author of Grief Isn’t Something to Get Over and Understanding Myself

Embracing Anxiety is a kind and empathetic, practical and reality-based approach to managing emotions, useful for anyone and everyone.

Mark Bertin, MD, author of How Children Thrive

Escaping Utopia is a must read book for everyone concerned about the real nature of human nature.

Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

Escaping Utopia: This accessible and nuanced account of a controversial subject will be the standard reference on its subject for many years to come.

Benjamin Zablocki, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University

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 tool box.

Dr. Samantha Brody, author of Overcoming Overwhelm

Book and audiobook covers for The Language of Emotions

26 Sep 2023

Free resources from The Language of Emotions!

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In celebration of the release of the newly updated Language of Emotions, I’ve created a free resource packet with bonus materials for you! Too good to leave out As I was voicing the audiobook for... Read More

21 Sep 2023

The Rejuvenation practice

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Accessing happiness and joy in grounded and healthy ways Sadly, many of us were taught that happiness and joy are the only worthwhile emotions. Happiness and joy are very important emotions, but they’re just 2... Read More

19 Sep 2023

Turning complaining in to a healing practice

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When people think of empathy, they tend to see it as a soft skill, full of yielding and niceness. That’s a part of empathy, but there’s a deeper and more full-bodied form of empathy that... Read More

14 Sep 2023

Course: The Emotional Life of Parenting

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Learning to Parent with Your Emotions A 4-week course at Empathy Academy Starts Monday, September 25 Parenthood can be one of the most deeply emotional adventures in our lives, but we don’t have a... Read More