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!

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

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 genius of Karla McLaren’s Language of Emotions Workbook can be summed up by three sentences in her introduction: ‘Your emotions don’t create problems. They arise to help you deal with problems. Learn their language, and you can change your life.’ Without a doubt, this is THE workbook for better mental health, relationships that…

Anita Nowak, PhD, author of Purposeful Empathy

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

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

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

Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus, Stanford 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

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

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

5 Dec 2025

Becoming Unscrapeable

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I found out this year that all of my books have been scraped by AI without my permission, and I can’t get away from the offensive brainless nonsense. Every week, another one of my online... Read More

22 Sep 2025

Why did you believe in the end of the world?

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The Rapture and the Despair I’ve been thinking — or more honestly, feeling — a great deal about this week’s Rapture, when there will supposedly be huge, planet-wide earthquakes, a rapture into heaven for 200... Read More

7 Sep 2025

The Off-Ramp Project is here!

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Welcome to the Off-Ramp! My newest project starts with this question: How do we get out of intense relationships, positions, ideas, and groups? How do we take an off-ramp, and how do we become an... Read More

31 May 2025

Join Our Community Space!

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We welcome you to our Empathy Academy Community! For many years, I’ve been fortunate enough to develop a worldwide community of licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration® professionals who have become friends and family. Their presence, empathy,... Read More

Emotions and Empathy Are Your Natural Language

Your emotions are a powerful healing language that you can learn to understand

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

Testimonials

New writing and updates from Karla

Becoming Unscrapeable

Why did you believe in the end of the world?

Join Our Community Space!

From the Bookshop