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 that you can learn to understand

The new The Language of Emotions Workbook will teach you how!

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 her new The Language of Emotions Workbook, emotions and empathy expert Karla McLaren teaches simple ways 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

Emotional awareness can be your biggest superpower. In The Language of Emotions Workbook, Karla McLaren offers powerful exercises that will help you understand your emotions and tap into their wisdom. With Karla as your guide, you’ll dig deep and explore your own endlessly fascinating inner world.

Debbie Sorenson, PhD, author of ACT for Burnout

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

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

Accessing the wisdom of our emotions is key to understanding ourselves and making better decisions. This brilliant Language of Emotions Workbook offers readers a set of easy-to-follow practices to help them receive the precious gifts and skills in their emotions.

Vered Kogan, host of The Mindset Game and CEO of the Momentum Institute

The beauty of this Language of Emotions Workbook is how it orients you back to yourself, with questions and exercises designed to help you meet yourself with more understanding and acceptance. Karla McLaren reminds us that emotions exist because we need them, and that if we learn their language, we…

Michael T. McRay, author of I Am Not Your Enemy

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

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

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

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

6 Oct 2026

The Myth of Positive Emotions

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The Myth of Positive Emotions is of course related to The Myth of Negative Emotions In my work with emotions, I don’t treat any emotion as better or worse than any other. Instead, I focus... Read More

Photo of many colored jewels on a white background

12 Sep 2026

The Myth of Negative Emotions

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The Myth of Negative Emotions is of course related to The Myth of Positive Emotions In my work with emotions, I focus on the intelligence, gifts, and skills that every emotion brings to you. I... Read More

14 May 2026

The Off-Ramp Project, Season 2

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A deeper dive in season 2 In Season 1 of my new podcast, The Off-Ramp Project, I explored ways to step away from the polarization, emotional manipulation, enemy-making, and intentional chaos that reigns in the... Read More

10 May 2026

For Mother’s Day

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How Do We Celebrate Our Mothers? A real-world poem for Mother’s Day How do we celebrate our mothers — The ones who are here and the ones who aren’t? The ones who gave their lives... Read More