Author Talk: Dr. Jennifer Veilleux – "Open to Emotion"

Local author Dr. Jennifer Veilleux will lead a fascinating discussion of her new book, "Open to Emotion: How Acknowledging, Understanding, and Regulating Your Feelings Can Improve Your Mental Health."

Open to Emotion: How Acknowledging, Understanding, and Regulating Your Feelings Can Improve Your Mental Health is a practical, engaging resource that offers a clearer understanding of the science of emotion and a helpful path forward in regulating your emotions.

This reader-friendly book illustrates that emotions are messages; they provide information, like an email, a physical postcard, a letter from a pen-pal, or even a medical bill. Information isn’t inherently good or bad, and narrowly aiming to minimize unpleasant emotions and maximize pleasant ones ignores the research-based fact that the unpleasant emotions can have value too. This book teaches you about the science of emotion and the best research-based practices for coping and regulating emotion. It shows you how this understanding can then be applied toward solving a variety of problems, including self-realization and self-compassion, as well loving others in a deeper way. This is an essential guide for anyone seeking to improve their overall emotional health.

About the author

Dr. Jennifer “Jenn” Veilleux is a Professor of psychological science at the University of Arkansas, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses broadly on the emotional and motivational factors that undercut a wide variety of mental health conditions, with an aim towards facilitating more effective psychotherapy techniques. She is particularly interested in the beliefs that people hold about emotions, and in trying to improve people’s abilities to withstand and tolerate their aversive emotional states. As a professor, she also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on personality, statistics, personality assessment, emotion regulation, and she supervises graduate students learning how to conduct psychotherapy and psychological assessments in the in-house training clinic. Her private practice is called Emotion Centered Psychological Services, which highlights her focus on emotions in her therapeutic work with adult individuals and couples. Personally, Jenn loves watching TV, reading young adult fantasy, and listening to musical theater. She also has two kids aged 8 and 11 who she’s raising with her stay-at-home dad husband, where emotions and personality are regular topics of conversation at the dinner table.

All abilities are welcome. For disability accommodations, call 479.856.7250 or email questions@faylib.org 2-3 weekdays before a program. Plan your visit by viewing our building map and details on accessibility services.

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