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

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: 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

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

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

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

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

Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

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

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

28 Nov 2023

How much emotion is too much?

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When I talk about The Language of Emotions, one of the central ideas I share is that all emotions are useful. If you can approach them with care and ask them the right questions, there... Read More

21 Nov 2023

You Can Befriend Your Sadness

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Befriending Sadness Welcoming Flow Into Your Life Online course starts November 27 at Empathy Academy Letting go, relaxing, and rejuvenating: These are the gifts of sadness I call sadness “the magical healing balm of the... Read More

14 Nov 2023

Emotion Regulation for Beginners!

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You Can Learn How to Regulate Your Emotions Live Zoom workshop, Saturday, November 18 from 10am-11:30am Pacific Time Your emotions contain genius, yet many of us have been socialized to ignore them, or to... Read More

7 Nov 2023

The Myth of Second-Hand Emotions

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It’s normal for emotions to work together One big misunderstanding happens regularly with anger – which many people misidentify as a “second-hand emotion.” People have a lot of mistaken ideas about anger, but this is... Read More