Book of the Month February 2022 - My Intense Emotions Handbook

My Intense Emotions Handbook: Manage Your Emotions and Connect Better with Others
by Sue Knowles, Bridie Gallagher and Hannah Bromley. 
Illustrated by Emmeline Pidgen

This is a great book. The authors condense huge amounts of beneficial information into just over 200 easy-to-read pages.

​From the outset, the tone is set for what the reader can expect; wonderful concepts introduced and revisited from chapter to chapter to build on what went before or stand alone. Concepts such as emotions are not good or bad, they just are, the importance of feeling OK in our own bodies and why emotions are vital and helpful.
Notice the why here? This book not only delivers on understanding intense emotions and learning how to manage them but why the authors make their many suggestions. In the process, I think this empowers the reader.
 
Strategies on managing emotions and relationships are abundant. Lots of practical tips for people who wish to ‘do’ something, like practicing mentalizing by watching a foreign language movie clip to see if I can work out what a character is intending, thinking and feeling, with the idea of staying curious rather than making assumptions. There is also information and explanations on letting feelings just ‘be’ and I particularly loved the chapter about riding your emotions. The authors interweave humour and often use personal examples to emphasise a point. This works, as it shows them not in the sole role of educator but as humans experiencing intense emotions too.
 
Aimed at young people aged 14+, I personally think anyone who wants to understand the role of trauma, their relationships, attachment and how their own past influences their emotions and responses to them, will find something helpful in this book.
 
Review by Jane Burton
Counsellor. Trainer.

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