Books › Permission to Feel
Permission to Feel
304 pages
A compassionate, science-backed blueprint that transforms the heavy burden of unexpressed emotions into a structured path toward healing and success.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting down with a deeply empathetic mentor who possesses both the warmth of lived experience and the rigor of a seasoned scientist. The narrative moves at a steady, deliberate pace, anchoring its practical psychological frameworks in vulnerable, real-world stories of childhood suffering and eventual triumph. It cultivates a profoundly validating and hopeful mood, wrapping the reader in an atmosphere where no emotion is deemed wrong or shameful. The prose is accessible and encouraging, seamlessly translating decades of academic research into actionable, everyday wisdom. It is a deeply supportive experience designed to delight parents, educators, and anyone eager to replace the isolation of unacknowledged feelings with a clear, empowering system for emotional well-being.
- Mood
- validating
- hopeful
- reflective
- supportive
- Tone
- empathetic
- authoritative
- earnest
- encouraging
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- emotional intelligence · validating difficult feelings · childhood well-being · practical psychology · overcoming adversity
- The writing
- Accessible and grounded, blending vulnerable personal narrative with clear, research-backed psychological frameworks.
- The arc
- Moves from the painful isolation of unacknowledged childhood suffering to the empowering clarity of emotional mastery and shared healing.
- Who it's for
- Parents, educators, and individuals looking for a compassionate, science-based blueprint to understand and harness their emotional lives.
Content notes
- bullying
- abuse
- depression
- childhood suffering
About the book
Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 years as an “emotion scientist,” he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults – a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he’d endured. And that was the beginning of Marc’s awareness that what he was going through was temporary. He wasn’t alone, he wasn’t stuck on a timeline, and he wasn’t “wrong” to feel scared, isolated, and angry. Now, best of all, he could do something about it.
In the decades since, Marc has led large research teams and raised tens of millions of dollars to investigate the roots of emotional well-being. His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers, and schools) is a system called RULER, a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. RULER has been proven to reduce stress, depression and burnout and enhance to encourage higher academic achievement. This book is the culmination of Marc’s development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. It is tested, and it works.
This book combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don’t have to be. Marc Brackett’s life mission is to reverse this course, and this book can show you how.
Description from Open Library.
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