Karla McLaren, M.Ed. is an award-winning author, social science researcher, workplace consultant, and emotions and empathy expert. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages.
Her lifelong work focuses on her grand unified theory of emotions, which revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens startling new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy.
Karla also developed the groundbreaking six essential aspects of empathy model that highlights all of the processes in healthy empathy and makes them easily understandable, accessible, and attainable for everyone.
This fully realized model teaches people how to access, develop, and manage their empathy intentionally. It also explicitly welcomes people who have been exiled from earlier models of empathy (such as men, boys, autistic people, and people dealing with narcissistic or sociopathic conditions).
Her applied work, Dynamic Emotional Integration® is a trailblazing approach to emotions and empathy that reveals the genius and healing power within the emotional realm. Licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration Trainers and Consultants are available across the globe.
She is also the founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics Inc. the developer of the Empathy Academy online learning site and community, and the producer of The Off-Ramp Project podcast.
Karla is the author of many books, audio learning programs, and research studies (see Books by Karla). Her most recent book about leaving her previous career as a psychic healer, Missing the Solstice, is available in Kindle and paperback. She also posts regularly at her On Emotions and Empathy column at Psychology Today.
Karla lives with her beloved family in Northern California, and she volunteers as donations coordinator for Sonoma County Acts of Kindness, a tiny but mighty anarchist nonprofit that does direct street outreach and advocacy to support unsheltered folks.
For more information, please see below.
Karla McLaren, M.Ed. is an award-winning author, social science researcher, and groundbreaking educator whose empathic approach to emotions revalues even the most “negative” emotions, and opens startling new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy.
Karla is the author of The Language of Emotions Workbook: A Practical Guide to Reveal the Wisdom in Each of Your Feelings (2024), The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You (2023, 2010), The Power of Emotions at Work: Accessing the Vital Intelligence in Your Workplace (2021), Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of this Vital Emotion (2020), The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill (2013), Missing the Solstice (2025) and many online courses available at Empathy Academy.
Karla is also the author of numerous books and audio learning sets published prior to 2003, when she made a sea change in her career and left her metaphysical approach behind. This message to followers of her earlier work explains this transition.
Her honors and awards include the 2010 Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the 2010 Silver Medal from the Nautilus Book Awards for The Language of Emotions, and the 1998 Book of the Year from the Coalition of Visionary Retailers. She is also a summa cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi honors scholar.
Karla has taught at such venues as the University of San Francisco, Esalen, Bioneers, Naropa University, Kripalu Center, and the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Additionally, as a prison arts educator with the William James Foundation, she has utilized singing, drumming, and drama to help men in maximum security prisons explore and heal long-held emotional traumas.
Karla is also a Certified Human Resource Administrator and a Certified Career Development Facilitator who helps people identify the emotion work they are expected to perform (or expect others to perform, perhaps without realizing it). When emotion work is brought out into the open and managed skillfully, individuals and businesses can develop stronger self- and community-care abilities, and avoid unnecessary conflict, burnout, and loss of productivity.
Karla served as a researcher and editor on the books When Killing is a Crime by Tony Waters, Ph.D., and Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich, Ph.D.
With Dr. Lalich, Karla also co-authored a research study on the multiple stigmatizations that LGBTQIA++ people experience in fundamentalist religions (Inside and Outcast: Multifaceted Stigma and Redemption in the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Jehovah’s Witnesses).
She and Dr. Lalich co-authored a book titled Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over, based on Dr. Lalich’s groundbreaking study of seventy people who were born in or grew up in forty different cults spanning twelve countries (Routledge, 2017).
Karla has an M.Ed. (with a concentration in linguistic anthropology and neurodiversity studies) and her thesis focused on the social construction of autism and the enforcement of the poorly understood concept of “normalcy” in social skills training programs for autistic people (Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction).
She lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband, Tino Plank, MA, MSN, RN, a nurse educator working in hospice and end-of-life care (and the co-developer of the Healthy Empathy® program).
With her husband, Tino Plank MA, MSN, RN, Karla developed the Healthy Empathy® program. Healthy Empathy helps health and healing professionals develop healthy and sustainable empathy and compassion skills in their practice, in their workplace, and in their lives.
Karla’s workplace consulting process, Emotional Dynamics at Work® helps individuals, teams, and organizations develop strong emotional skills and effective communication practices that make the workplace actually work. See her book The Power of Emotions at Work for a description of this humanizing and emotionally well-regulated approach.
PUBLICATIONS
McLaren, K. (2025). Missing the Solstice. Laughing Tree, Windsor, CA.
McLaren, K. (2024). The Language of Emotions Workbook. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. (2023). The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You. (Revised and updated edition) New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. (2021). The Power of Emotions at Work: Accessing the Vital Intelligence in Your Workplace. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. (2020). Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius Inside this Vital Emotion. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. (2018) The Dynamic Emotional Integration® Workbook. Windsor, CA. Laughing Tree Press
McLaren, K. & Ball, A. (2018) Emotional Genius for Teens! Windsor, CA. Laughing Tree Press
McLaren, K. & Lalich, J. (2017). Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over. New York, NY: Routledge.
McLaren, K. (2014). Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction. Masters thesis. Sonoma State University.
McLaren, K. (2013). The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. (2012). Emotional Flow: Becoming Fluent in the Language of Emotions. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
McLaren, K. & Lalich, J. (2010). Inside and Outcast: Multifaceted Stigma and Redemption in the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Jehovah’s Witnesses. Journal of Homosexuality 57(10).
McLaren, K. (2010). The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You. New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
Waters, T. (2007). When Killing is a Crime. Reinner Publishing. Researcher, content and technical editor on this criminology textbook.
McLaren, K. (2006). Ideology versus Reality in the Lunchroom: A Comparative Study of Three School Nutrition Programs. California Journal of Health Promotion 4(1).
Lalich, J. (2006) Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships. Bay Tree Publishing. Content and technical editor on the revision and republishing of this sociological resource on cult abuse.
McLaren, K. (2005). The Social Context of Cults (Review). Skeptical Inquirer 29(4).
McLaren, K. (2004). Bridging the Chasm between Two Cultures. Skeptical Inquirer 28(3).
TEACHING
Karla McLaren focuses on emotions, empathy, and emotional and empathic labor, and she teaches workshops and retreats suitable for professional and lay participants.
She has taught at such venues as the University of San Francisco, Esalen, Naropa University, Kripalu Center, Hollyhock Learning Centre, and the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Additionally, as a prison arts educator with the William James Foundation, she has utilized singing, drumming, and drama to help men in maximum security prisons explore and heal long-held traumas.
Karla has also developed a licensing process for her work, Dynamic Emotional Integration®, a radically nonclinical approach to emotional awareness that can be used by individuals, couples, families, in schools, and in the workplace. The Dynamic Emotional Integration® education and licensing program commenced in 2015, and has now licensed DEI professionals in 12 countries. Learn about DEI professionals here.
DYNAMIC EMOTIONAL INTEGRATION® professional licensing program at EmpathyAcademy.org
Cohort 9, 2026
Cohort 8, 2024
Cohort 7, 2022
Cohort 6, 2020
Cohort 5, 2019
Cohort 4, 2018
Cohort 3, 2017
Cohort 2, 2016
Cohort 1, 2015
EMBRACING ANXIETY
Empathy Academy, 2020-2026
California Institute of Integral Studies, 2021
East West Bookshop, 2020
THE ART OF EMPATHY
Empathy Academy, 2015-2026
Esalen, California, 2019
1440 Multiversity, California, 2018
Esalen, California, 2017
Kripalu Center, Massachusetts, 2014, 2015, & 2016
Naropa University, Colorado, 2013
Hollyhock Retreat Center, British Columbia, 2014
EMOTION THEATER®
Empathy Academy, 2016-2026
Santa Rosa, California, 2016
East West Bookshop, Seattle 2015
Studio 12, Berkeley, 2014
East West Bookshop, Seattle, 2014
Naropa University, Colorado, 2013
People for People, Edmonton, Alberta, 2012
The CG Jung Society, Florida, 2012
University of San Francisco, 2011 through 2013
EMOTIONAL GENIUS
CIIS, San Francisco, 2020
Empathy Academy, 2016-2023
Santa Rosa, California, 2016
The Wake Up Festival, Colorado 2013
Integral Leadership in Action, California 2013
The CG Jung Society, Florida 2012
People for People, Edmonton, Alberta, 2012
Kripalu Center, Massachusetts, 2010-2012
HEALTHY EMPATHY® with Tino Plank, MA, MSN, RN
Esalen, California, 2018
1440 Multiversity, California 2017
Naropa University 2016
East West Seattle, 2016
EMOTIONAL DYNAMICS AT WORK®
Empathy Academy, 2019-2026
New York, 2022-2023
Seattle, Washington, 2014 & 2015
San Jose, California, 2014
EMBRACING YOUR SHADOW
Empathy Academy, 2015-2026
Monte Rio Arts Center, California, 2013
Kripalu Center, Massachusetts, 2010-2012
ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
The Association for Humanistic Psychology, University of Francisco, Omega Institute, and the William James Foundation (as a Prison Arts Educator).
CURRENT RESEARCH
The Off-Ramp Project: Research and writing on the process of leaving powerful communities, identities, and relationships, beginning with Missing the Solstice (2025), the story of leaving her previous identity and career as a psychic healer. And continuing with her Off-Ramp Project podcast that premiered in 2025.
The development of an emotionally well-regulated workplace for The Power of Emotions at Work (2021).
Research into workable approaches to homelessness and endangering poverty, including long term participant observation of a nonprofit doing direct outreach to unsheltered people in Sonoma County, California.
Escaping Utopia, (Routledge, 2017) co-authored with the internationally-recognized expert on cults, indoctrination, extremism, and terrorism, Dr. Janja Lalich. This project focused on the first-person accounts of seventy people who grew up in — and escaped from — cults, religions, or other high control groups.
Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction. Master’s thesis.
Nothing About Us Without Us: An original international survey study of people on the Autism Spectrum, focusing on their responses to existing forms of social skills training. Notably, this was the first-ever study to request autistic expertise and input about services allegedly focused on autistic people’s needs.
Ongoing study organizing autism-positive and diversity-respecting approaches to autism from the research, drawing from linguistic anthropology, neurology, child development, and psychology. See this short compilation of the research.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Empathy, emotions, emotion work, antiracism, workplace research, microsociology, linguistic anthropology, social constructionism, group dynamics, large group social skills, neurology, violence, stigma, disability studies, autism, neurodiversity, microethnographic research, cultic studies, queer theory, crip theory, stereotype content models.
PAST RESEARCH
Workplace research and participant observation research in support of The Power of Emotions at Work (2021).
Ethnographic sociological study of seventy cult survivors (for the book Escaping Utopia, Routledge, 2017).
Research into international, historical, and multidisciplinary data on empathy for the creation of an original, unified model of empathy for the book The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill (2013).
Microethnographic study (2010) for Inside and Outcast: Multifaceted Stigma and Redemption in the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Researcher, coder, and theorist).
Criminological and sociological research for the the book When Killing is a Crime (2007) by Tony Waters, Ph.D.
Researcher and editor for the re-issue of Take Back Your Life (2006) by Janja Lalich, Ph.D.
Original microethnographic study (2006) for Ideology versus Reality in the Lunchroom: A Comparative Study of Three School Nutrition Programs.
EDUCATION
M.Ed. in Education (Empathy and Social Interaction Curriculum Development with a focus in Linguistic Anthropology) – Sonoma State University, CA, 2014
B.A. with Honors in Social Science (Sociology, Criminology, Cultic Studies), summa cum laude – California State University, Chico, CA, 2006
Career Development Facilitator Certification – California State University, Chico, CA, 2006
Human Resource Administration Certification – Santa Rosa Junior College, CA 2009
PODCASTS & AUDIO INTERVIEWS
The Off-Ramp Project podcast.
Insights at the Edge Podcast with Tami Simon on Making Friends with Anxiety and all of Your Emotions (listen to Insights) (1 hour 10 minutes)
Eggshell Transformations podcast with Imi Lo on All About Fear, Anxiety, and Panic (listen to Eggshell Transformations) (49 minutes)
Insights at the Edge Podcast with Tami Simon on The Art of Empathy (listen to Insights, part 1) (1 hour, 2 minutes)
Insights at the Edge Podcast with Tami Simon on The Art of Empathy (listen to Insights, part 2) (1 hour, 6 minutes)
On Bread for the Journey with Marianna Cacciatore (listen to Bread for the Journey) (58 minutes)
On How She Really Does It with Koren Motekaitis (listen to How She Really Does It) (56 minutes)
On Conversations with Michael Stone (listen to Conversations) (51 minutes)
On The Opening Door (listen to The Opening Door) (27 minutes)
On Conscious Talk Radio (listen to Conscious Talk) (56 minutes)
ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS & EXCERPTS
A Talk with Karla McLaren on Rewire Me
Why Feeling (Even Feeling Bad) Is Good on Rewire Me
Shelter (a 4-part essay) on Untold Animal Stories
Excerpt from The Art of Empathy on Spirituality and Practice
The Difference between Empathy and Enmeshment
The Difference between Healthy Empathy and Martyrdom
Empaths on the Autism Spectrum, part 1 on Autism and Empathy
Empaths on the Autism Spectrum, part 2 on Autism and Empathy
The Addiction Show with Shira Goldberg (Video, 41 minutes)
VIDEOS ON EMPATHY AND EMOTIONS
Visit Karla’s Emotion Dynamics YouTube Channel
On Embracing Anxiety (1 hour 33 minutes)
Anger and Good Boundaries (11 minutes)
Shame is Your Friend! (16 minutes)
How Many Ways Can You Say Happy? (4 minutes)
Emotions Simplified! (10 minutes)
The Art of Empathy introduction (2 minutes)
The Magic of Weasel Words! (8 minutes)
Are You Positive about Emotions? (4 minutes)
Embracing Your Emotions (1 minute)
INTERVIEWS ON EMPATHY
Empathy and Emotional Awareness with Anita Nowak (40 minutes)
Empathy meets Aikido with Nick Walker and Edwin Rutsch (33 minutes)
Karla McLaren on Empathy with Edwin Rutsch (1 hour 14 minutes)
The Benefits of Empathy series with Edwin Rutsch
Empathy can help you understand emotions (19 minutes)
Empathy can help you understand emotion work in yourself and others (8 minutes)
Empathy helps you support others (12 minutes)
Empathy helps protect you from emotional manipulation (10 minutes)
Empathy can help you understand art, music and literature very deeply (It’s Einfühlung!) (9 minutes)