Lantern Path Counselling
Cory Stevens, RCC
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
Brené Brown, PhD, MSW
Brené Brown has spent decades researching vulnerability, shame, and human connection, and this book maps out 87 unique emotions and experiences that shape how we move through the world. Brown argues that language matters — that we can only process, communicate, and understand what we have words for, and that unfortunately, most of us are working with a shockingly limited emotional vocabulary. She draws on her research to define and differentiate between emotions that are often misunderstood. For example, what separates grief from sadness? Or how do we know that we’re experiencing guilt rather than embarrassment?
What it offers
This book helps readers find the language to accurately describe their emotional experience, communicate about it with others, and even develop a better understanding of what might be happening emotionally for the people around you. Beyond just being able to name emotional experience, this book can help people understand the functional nature of their emotions – what is an emotion like sadness for? What kind of benefit could there be in experiencing anger? This book can also serve as a handy reference to return to when an unfamiliar or unexpected emotion surfaces.
You Might Want to Read This If You:
- Struggle to identify or name what you’re feeling
- Want to improve communication in your relationships
- Grew up in environments where emotional expression was forbidden, ridiculed, or discouraged
- Are curious and enjoy writing grounded in research
- Feel misunderstood or struggle to understand or empathize with others
A Note From Cory
I think this book is a work of art. It’s thoughtfully written, evidence-based, and the writing is accompanied by gorgeous illustrations (at least in the hardcover copy I own). When I first read this book, I was so excited by it that I started buying copies as gifts for all the people I care about. I certainly may be biased – I think that at its core, counselling is often a process of identifying, talking about, and processing our emotions. I think of emotions as the subtle language spoken by our bodies and nervous systems, and it’s a meaningful process to start to understand our emotions, accept them in all their messiness and intensity, and to feel equipped with the language to share them with the people closest to us.
How Accessible It Is
Accessible and engaging, written for a general audience. The book is visually impressive and organized by emotional clusters, which makes for easy navigation. 87 is a lot of different emotions though, so you may want to revisit this book periodically rather than all in one sitting.