Karla McLaren

Researcher, Emotions and Empathy Expert, Author

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® (also known as DEI) is a trailblazing approach to emotions and empathy that reveals the genius and healing power within the emotional realm. Licensed DEI Trainers and Consultants are available across the globe.

She is also the founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics Inc. and the developer of the Empathy Academy online learning site and community.

Karla is the author of many books, audio learning programs, and research studies, including her popular guide The Language of Emotions (now in its second edition). The new Language of Emotions Workbook was released in 2024, and she’s currently working on a book about leaving her previous career as a psychic healer, Missing the Solstice. 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.

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