This book offers spiritually-based healing tools for survivors of childhood sexual assault. Going beyond the veneer of surface healing, REBUILDING THE GARDEN outlines a simple series of grounding, centering, and energy-releasing techniques designed to restore the emotional and spiritual boundaries destroyed by sexual trauma. Written in a warm, engaging, and even lively way, REBUILDING THE GARDEN steers clear of lengthy symptom lists and endless depictions of sexual abuse. Instead, this book enters into the underlying trauma of the sexually assaulted soul and offers in-the-moment help, real solutions, and real therapy. Survivors and their families, therapists, spiritual healers, and counselors throughout the country are calling REBUILDING THE GARDEN a "must-read" book for anyone dealing with the aftereffects of childhood sexual trauma.
Hello!
I'm Karla McLaren. I'm an author, social science researcher, and empath, which means I know that I read emotions. My website is here: http://karlamclaren.com/
I worked as an empathic healer for twenty-five years, and I once thought that my empathic skills were mystical. However, I questioned that and returned to college in 2004 to learn about the roots of my empathic skills. I discovered that empathy is a natural human ability, but it looks magical because most of us are so confused about emotions.
I received my B.A degree in Social Science and Sociology in 2006, graduating summa cum laude as a national Phi Kappa Phi honors scholar. I also worked as a researcher and editor on numerous sociological studies and textbooks.
A special focus in my studies continues to be the sociology of work and occupations, because I am fascinated by the many ways that the workplace reinforces emotional illiteracy. I continue to study everything I can get my hands on regarding work; I'm a Certified Human Resource Administrator and a Certified Career Testing and Guidance Counselor.
In my sabbatical from my healing career, I also had the opportunity to work as a Prison Arts Educator for the William James Association's Prison Arts Project. I taught a cappella singing, drumming, and drama in a maximum security men's prison, and loved the work completely. Being with these men, hearing their stories, and helping them organize their stories into artistic expression was an honor. As a survivor of early childhood trauma, this experience also helped me complete a circle of healing that started with healing my own trauma, then evolved into helping other survivors of trauma. Finally, facing a source of trauma -- facing these perpetrators themselves, I didn't find monsters. I found fellow trauma survivors, and I loved them.
Now, I'm excited to say that I've re-written my 2001 book, Emotional Genius, to include excellent new information -- not just from the academic world of sociology, neurology, social psychology, and cognitive psychology, but also from the mythological, poetic, artistic realm where true empathy and deep healing reside. This new book (and audio learning program) is called The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You (Sounds True, 2010).
In The Language of Emotions, I use my empathic skills on the emotions themselves, and treat them as a complete and interdependent system without which we cannot be whole. In the field of the sociology of emotions, researchers attempt to connect emotions across cultures to create a grand unified theory of emotion. In this book, I jump into the middle of the emotional realm itself and connect the emotions within and throughout the psyche. The emotions are a fascinatingly interconnected and unified system, and I'm so looking forward to sharing this information with you!
Cheers,
Karla McLaren
