Testimonials

Testimonials

“Your presentation at our firm-wide retreat was absolutely excellent. Your style – honest, at times self-deprecating, engaging, funny, etc. – was absolutely flawless and everyone enjoyed themselves from start to finish.  You brought your A-game and we appreciate it!”
CAMMIE

ON BEHALF OF ASPIRIANT

“So excellent! Perfect presentation for our superintendents. I had so many positive comments, texts, and e-mails after your talk, I couldn’t respond to them all. I believe SEL took a major step forward in CT. I am beyond grateful for your commitment to Connecticut’s education system.”
FRAN RABINOWITZ

Executive Director, Connecticut
Association of Public School Superintendents

Attendees of your presentation have provided such positive feedback. Your presentation helped NSF staff members better understand feelings and how they affect mental and physical health. The Mood Meter you developed, along with the How We Feel app are great tools for everyone to start identifying and understanding their emotions.
Much appreciation for your bravery in sharing your story. Your inspiration for becoming an Emotional Scientist helped to express the importance of having emotionally supportive people in our lives. Thank you to your Uncle Marvin for being there when you needed him most and bringing your talent to light, so you can now help people around the globe to have better well-being.
Alicia J. Knoedler

Ph.D., Head,
Office of Integrative Activities, Office of the Director

“Home run! Unanimously positive feedback!! It really was a perfect session.”
Goldman Sachs
“As someone who lives, works, and breathes the impact of emotions, I couldn’t conceive of how an entire curriculum could be developed to explore something I thought was so intuitive and basic. RULER has highlighted how presumptuous and naive I was.”
JONATHON

GOOGLE HR

The presentation hit home on so many levels. My children are in college and high school, both seniors. Both wonderful, hard-working kids, but both living that roller coaster life. That, of course, has put my wife and I squarely in the front row on the roller coaster. And it’s an often bumpy ride.
I feel better equipped after listening to you and downloading the app to handle their daily ups and downs, and to be in touch with my own emotions as I help them process and navigate theirs. Thank you for that gift today.
Christopher Gardner

Director of Communications
Yale Department of Psychiatry

“Everyone is still on a high from your session!  This note is specifically to thank you for bringing
both rich content and research AND tremendous style and charisma to our Summit."
Annie Tobias,

Vice President, Learning and
Engagement, Ontario Hospital Association

“The Seinfeld of psychology”
Susan David

Institute of Coaching at Harvard

“I want to thank you for being our keynote speaker yesterday. It seems everyone I talk to wanted me to express appreciation for your inspiring presentation. Your years of research, your depth of understanding of emotional intelligence, and your ability to present the subject in such a compelling way produced one of the most memorable presentations in NYC’s DOE’s history..”
Dolores Esposito,

Executive Superintendent of
Leadership, NYC Department of Education

Your talks both yesterday and today gave me someone to look up to, gave me a role model in which to aspire to be like, gave me permission to feel. Of course, part of it has to do with your past as I do feel more of a personal trust and connection to the things you say, but it also connects to how passionate you are about your work. You aspire to be so much more than your trauma and that itself is an inspiration. Thank you for all the work you do, and thank you for trying to improve the health for teenagers everywhere like me. Everything you are doing is what I aspire to do, and seeing it being done gives me hope for a better tomorrow.
Tristen Harris

AIM youth center conference

I wanted to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for your insightful keynote during the 20th Annual PCE Club Conference. Your words not only resonated with our members but also enriched our understanding of emotional intelligence and its profound impact on the parenting journey.
The feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive. Your expertise, combined with your genuine passion for the topic, truly captivated our audience. It's evident that your mission to turn everyone into an "emotion scientist" is making waves, and we're honored to have been a part of that journey, even if just for an evening.
Hui and Angela PCE Club
“This was the most important, significant training in 40 years of being an investor---both
personally and professionally.”
Evelyn

TD Ameritrade

“Easy to understand, Great storyteller, Authentic, Funny, Engaging, Passionate Looking forward to working with you again soon!”
Cyndy

BearingPoint Managers

Executive Education at Yale

Reviews From Executive Education At Yale School Of Management, Including Reviews From Students In The Executive Mba Program, And Organizations Such As Association Of Talent Development (Atd), Underwriters Laboratories (Ul), Bearingpoint, Etc.
  • Breaking down the “what” and the “why” of emotional intelligence was brilliant. I think emotional intelligence is a term everyone things they understand, but digging into why it matters took what was familiar and made it meaningful.
  • Marc Brackett was the best of the best. He made the content come to life and helped each learner to find their own meaning in the content. His ability to use personal experiences to underscore the content demonstrated the absolute level of superior presenter that he is
  • Absolutely one of the best and most useful sessions to enhance my work and life.
  • The session was fantastic! Combination of exceptional instructor, relevant and interactive group work, and clear tactics I can use to increase my own emotional intelligence and that of my team!
  • “This is the most effective training I have ever experienced! It was challenging, exciting, sometimes scary and taught with such care and integrity.”
  • “I wish I knew this in my personal life prior to the birth of my children.”

Schwab Impact Conference

  • Everyone with the desire to live life more fully and richer should listen to Marc and work on developing skills he teaches
  • Full of personality! Made me think; helped that my boss and I attended together and helped up learn how to work better together.
  • Incredible session, best of the conference. Interactive, engaging, great material and takeaways
  • My absolute favorite because of his ability to work the entire room. Funny and brilliant!
  • This was BY FAR my favorite session. Dr. Brackett was phenomenal, and I truly enjoyed not only his style, but the content he presented. A MUST HAVE in the future.
  • All the sessions have been good but this was by far my favorite. Funny, informative, thought provoking. I loved Dr. Marc!!!
  • Marc is one of the best speakers I have ever heard at a Schwab conference. This type of material is very helpful in improving how our staff can work together more effectively.
  • My cup runneth over for the impact this may make in how we work and live together.
  • This is one of the best presentations I have ever seen. It was relevant, conceptual but with actionable information, and highly entertaining. The speaker was great and really challenged are preconceived notions about ourselves and our abilities. I would sit through the same presentation the next chance I got because it was just so good.
  • This was possibly the best breakout session of any I have ever been to at a Schwab Conference. The presenter was excellent! The content was great. Have him back.”

Managing at Yale Leadership Forum(s)

  • Professor Brackett's presentation was not only informative, thought-provoking and interesting but entertaining as well! I brought back to my office several take-always that were very helpful for me to understand my approach to others in the work place, and at home, too. Thank you for sharing one of Yale's finest professors! I look forward to attending other sessions like this. It helped me connect more to the Yale community of scholars as a staff member, i.e., to understand what Professor Brackett teaches to others.
  • Tough act to follow!
  • This was the most compelling, engaging, and relevant presentation I have experienced at Yale. Fantastic speaker, directly applicable content, and extraordinarily well presented.
  • This was one of the best sessions I've attended in my 22 years at Yale. I could have listened to Dr. Bracket for hours. I would have liked it just a little longer.
  • This should be a "mandatory" class for all managers
  • Thank you for organizing today’s Managing at Yale Leadership Forum on Emotional Intelligence. It was a fantastic forum and it was well worth the 2-hr investment of time. Dr. Brackett is an exceptional presenter and I found the content to be highly useful.
  • I thought that this was one of or the best session that I have taken in my 29 years at Yale.
  • Marc’s session should be a requirement for all managers at Yale.
Dear Dr. Brackett,
I’m writing to thank you for writing “Permission to Feel.” A psychologist I know recommended the book to me, and it is one of only a few books that have changed my life. You have profoundly changed the way I approach emotion and, thus, approach myself.
I’m 60 years old and an ex-lawyer. Partly as a result of your book, I am entering a two-year Master Degree program this fall in mental health counseling. My goal is to work with adolescents with severe depression or psychosis who have multiple past suicide attempts.
I’m the father of such an adolescent
I’m also taking a summer school course this summer at the Harvard Extension School with Elizabeth Phelps. Just an Introduction to Psychology. But I have to start somewhere!
Best wishes,
DAVID JOHNSON
SPRINGFIELD, MA
Hi Marc,
BearingPoint Managers are in session with Professor Taly Reich on “Speaking Up Without Freaking Out.” She asked as the first exercise, “What makes a presenter exceptional?” The first few participants immediately noted you and your presentation style!
  • Easy to understand
  • Great storyteller
  • Authentic
  • Funny
  • Engaging
  • Passionate
Well done! Oh, and they loved your session. Our Learning Design team will share the survey results and comments with you directly.
Looking forward to working with you again soon!
CYNDY
Dear Dr. Brackett,
I want to thank you for taking the time to attend our meeting today and to share your expertise on emotional intelligence.
The presentation hit home on so many levels. My children are in college and high school, both seniors. Both wonderful, hard-working kids, but both living that roller coaster life. That, of course, has put my wife and I squarely in the front row on the roller coaster. And it’s an often bumpy ride.
This morning my daughter (the high schooler) texted from school that she got an email from Quinnipiac saying she was accepted to the nursing program. We are all thrilled. Nursing as you know is highly competitive and QU has a wonderful program.
Not 90 minutes later she texted saying that her math test went HORRIBLE (all caps as she put it) and that her friends were asking how she could do so poorly. “I’m trying not to lose it,” she texted. “I’m going to go sit alone in the bathroom.”
Roller coaster.
I feel better equipped after listening to you and downloading the app to handle their daily ups and downs, and to be in touch with my own emotions as I help them process and navigate theirs.
Thank you for that gift today.
Best wishes,
Christopher Gardner
Director of Communications
Yale Department of Psychiatry
Hi Marc!,
I’m Raquel Caspi, I took the RULER workshop in Guadalajara in 2016. I am fortunate enough to be part of the Permission to feel book club, which has been amazing and a beautiful refresher. I’m sad we only have one more session to go, it has truly been uplifting. I downloaded the app yesterday!! Used to have the Mood Meter app… I can see the amazing changes in the new one! I loved that every emotion has a definition, as well as the videos! Congratulations!
RULER changed my life, as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, daughter-in-law (ugh), and psychologist. It also changed my approach to feeling. I’ve always been an extremely sensitive person and always felt this was a huge flaw, especially growing up in a household with a conservative Jewish Mexican father and an American Catholic mother (who later converted to Judaism, as did I- if you can imagine, but that’s a trauma story for another time). As the oldest, and a girl (who didn’t act the way a girl was supposed to act) somehow everything that went on was always my fault. Not the responsibility of two adults who decided to get married and have a family despite their abismal differences, but my fault. And for a long time, I believed it- that, and that I was crazy for feeling everything I felt.
I have a bachelors degree in Special Education, a masters degree in Transpersonal Psychology and a PhD in Human Development. A couple of years ago, I started working therapeutically with human trafficking survivors. My investigation for my PhD was about resilience and meaning of life after human trafficking. It did not surprise me to find that for these women, the interpersonal factor that had the largest impact in their resilience development, was having an uncle Marvin in their lives.
I must tell you that RULER also came in handy with these extraordinary women, for being able to recognize, understand, label and express everything they have felt and continue to feel after being victims of modern day slavery, gave them a certain type of freedom they had not yet experienced. Of course regulating is still in process, but hey, as you very eloquently said in your book, we have to give ourselves permission to feel but also permission to fail. If I don’t have it together even though I am a psychologist who has been in therapy for over 10 years, I can’t expect others to be able to regulate their emotions, especially those who have had fine through the unimaginable.
If you like reading in Spanish, I wrote a book about the life story of one of these women… it’s a heart breaking story, but it really encompasses the reality in México and the triumphant story of this remarkable young woman. The book is called “La Estrella de Luna”, in case you ever want to read it.
We moved to Denver six months ago and I am currently also working in a school with a very complex migrant population, so as you can imagine, RULER has come so in handy here too.
The thing is, I want to thank you for your work. For your honest and vulnerable way to connect (when I saw you in Guadalajara I worked at el Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City) and my then colleagues teased me about falling in love with you. Which I did, it’s platonic, don’t you worry, but it was also in a professional way. You gave me the option to give myself permission to continue growing professionally through emotions, connection, vulnerability, by seeing that heart and brain can work together. You gave that to a stranger! So among all of the effects you have had on the thousands of people you have touched through your seminars, please add this one to your list. You changed my life. Because for me, brain (science) has always been extremely important- and if Yale has a Center for Emotional Intelligence that teaches others it’s ok to feel, and that we can work not only on “feeling better” but becoming better at feeling all the feelings, then, I knew was on the right path.
Your life situations, that caused so much pain and hardship, together with your brilliance (and your uncle Marvin) gave you the opportunity to develop and share SUCH VALUABLE information and resources that have had a ripple effect. I know for a fact that because of what I learned from you, I have been able to continue working on myself in many levels, and to teach my children (Emma 11 and León 9) since 2016 that emotions matter. I printed a huge mood meter to have at home, and since they were 5 and 3, they knew they had permission to feel. Leon, who is in the autism spectrum, defends his feelings like his life depended on it… and you know, it kind of does- for all of us.
I also know that aside from everything I’ve learned through my studies, having RULER as my go-to resource, internalizing that I have permission to feel, and working on being an emotion scientist and not a judge, I have been able to reach the hearts of many different people through therapy, and make a difference (sharing the secret ♥️) and I just wanted to tell you that I think your story and your work are remarkable.
Thank you so very very very much for all that you have done, do, and will continue to do.
What I want to say doesn’t translate well to English, but I know you know Spanish, so I’ll just say it in Spanish. ¡Eres grande!
Abrazos con cariño!
Dra. Raquel Caspi
Dear Marc,
Thank you for helping me better understand my emotions and get in touch with my feelings!
As a woman in her mid fifties, the practice of expressing our feelings was not readily welcomed in my home growing up. We were a family of grit and resilience- important traits and qualities, but we were not in touch with how we felt. Being out of tune with my emotions did a number on me.
Fortunately, (with the help of my resilience) , I discovered and read your book and shared it with my grown sons and daughter in law with the hope that we would begin to cultivate the practice of tuning into our feelings and that future generations would be introduced to the concept at much earlier ages!
I’ve written my first book called Notes from the Soul- 52 weekly inspirations to lead a soul-based life. I reference your book Permission to Feel with sincere gratitude and discuss how your book helped me learn and connect with my feelings.
I’m happy to mail you a copy if you’re interested. Thank you again for helping me answer the question, “ How are you feeling?”
Have a wonderful day!
Marcella Carroll
(610) 613-8144
Hi Dr. Brackett,
Your time is valuable. If you're reading this email, please accept my sincerest gratitude for you and your book, Permission to Feel. It's changed my life, work, and outlook on life. Growing up, feelings were intended to be ignored (I was always called sensitive). I had a lot of learning (and unlearning) to do in adulthood. Your book, I genuinely believe, saved my life.
Thank you so, so much. You inspire me.
Dr. Austin D. Smith
Director of Secondary Education
Good evening Dr. Brackett!
I hope you get plenty of time to recharge and rest from this conference, and if you are traveling I hope you travel safe! I am the junior from Carmel High School who attended the AIM youth center conference as well as the girl who came up to you thanking you for everything you do.
I am not amazing with words when in the moment, so I just wanted to express more properly how much your talks meant to me.
I moved here from the Philippines not too long ago. I went to the International School Manila where I had met so many people from very different and varying cultures, and each person I met gave me different views and experiences from their lifetimes. I have always been the type of person to take every detail someone tells me about themselves as data, so in later times if a problem arises, I could take what I knew and give them the help they asked for. You could say I have a tendency to analyze people. My time in the Philippines was truly eye opening and brings up very pleasant memories.
But, as everything does, my positive moments were accompanied by negative ones. When I was 13, I went to a very popular mall in Manila, and while I was there I got separated from my friends and was raped by a man who I had not known before that moment. My friends then found me and continued to tell my peers from school that "I let it happen," and that "I wanted it." When I returned to school I was met with negativity and labels in which a 13 year old should never be labeled. From that point on I was alienated from the rest of my peers, and struggling with financial problems as well, had no choice but to move back to the U.S..
From that point on, my whole life seemed to revolve around that one experience; I thought that was all I was gonna be known for, I thought I would always be known as the example. The example for other kids on why they should stay with their parents or why they should always know the ways to get out of a situation like that. I would forever be a lesson and that scared me. So I didn't tell anyone. Until my "Uncle Marvin" swooped in. My Psychology teacher, Nora Ward, who also spoke to you today, helped me out of the depths of darkness I was engulfed in. Now I want nothing more than to help those who also consider themselves to be an "example," and instead help them understand that what they are going through is something that will build them up to their full potential.
Ever since that experience, like you said, my happiness, my yellow, has been holding other people up and helping them to where they deserve to be.
Your talks both yesterday and today gave me someone to look up to, gave me a role model in which to aspire to be like, gave me permission to feel. Of course, part of it has to do with your past as I do feel more of a personal trust and connection to the things you say, but it also connects to how passionate you are about your work. You aspire to be so much more than your trauma and that itself is an inspiration. Thank you for all the work you do, and thank you for trying to improve the health for teenagers everywhere like me. Everything you are doing is what I aspire to do, and seeing it being done gives me hope for a better tomorrow.
I will be reading and FULLY annotating your book (as soon as I purchase it), and please let me know of any classes I could attend of yours as I would love to hear more from you some more.
With the best regards,
Tristen Harris
Dear Marc,
I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for your insightful keynote during the 20th Annual PCE Club Conference. Your words not only resonated with our members but also enriched our understanding of emotional intelligence and its profound impact on the parenting journey.
The feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive. Your expertise, combined with your genuine passion for the topic, truly captivated our audience. It's evident that your mission to turn everyone into an "emotion scientist" is making waves, and we're honored to have been a part of that journey, even if just for an evening.
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule and for sharing your knowledge with our community. Wishing you continued success in all your endeavors.
Warm regards,
Hui and Angela PCE Club
Dr. Brackett,
I simply wanted to reach out to say thank you for the wonderful work you've created with Permission to Feel. I'm 57 years old and have been married for 27+ years to a wonderful woman who has struggled for years to get me to become better in touch with my emotions. I've been in therapy off and on for general/mild issues and have never been as 'struck' as I have been with the way you are communicating/teaching how to think about emotions.
Again - just wanted to say thank you - I believe what I'm learning now with your book will be paying off dividends for years to come!
Ben Gardner

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