Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

Brackett (Creating Emotionally Literate Classrooms), founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor at the Yale Child Study Center, examines how acknowledging one’s emotions can create confidence and promote mental health in this provocative, accessible work. Brackett uses his own life story—he was bullied and sexually molested as a child—to demonstrate the toxicity of repression and how the openness and attention of his uncle eventually gave him “permission to feel” again. With a primary focus on helping adults teach children emotional intelligence, Brackett encourages readers to accept and evaluate their emotions (both positive and negative). He then explains his “RULER” technique—recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotion—and recommends adults teach these steps to children as a means for dealing with stress or trauma. He emphasizes that stress can negatively impede a child’s creativity and memory and encourages negative behaviors such as poor diet and, eventually, smoking. While Brackett focuses on educational and child-based applications for his methods, his wise principles can easily be applied to adult situations as well. Readers looking for strategies for responding to stress, particularly in children, will find much guidance in this cogent, welcoming work. A[em]gent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Sept.) [/em]