Karla McLaren is an award-winning author and empath whose groundbreaking approach to the emotions has taken her through the healing of her own childhood trauma into an empathic healing career, and now into the study of sociology, neurology, and cognitive and social psychology.

Karla has taught thousands of people through her four books and five audio learning sets, and at such venues as the Omega Institute, Naropa University, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. 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.

In her academic career in sociology and social science, Karla served as a researcher and editor on the books When Killing Is a Crime and Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships. She has recently completed an academic study on the stigmatization of GLBT youth in fundamentalist religions.

Karla lives in California with her husband and son, and is choral director and comic relief for St. Pink’s Infirmary. Her website is karlamclaren.com.