Alex Wills: Radically Accepting our Emotions

Published: Jan. 13, 2023, 10 a.m.

It makes me very happy to speak with Dr. Alex Wills in today’s episode. Alex Wills, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, who has developed an innovative approach to how to deal with our emotions. He has developed the Radical Emotional Acceptance Method to help patients heal from issues ranging from past traumas to interpersonal struggles in their marriages. Just now, he has published a book with the title: “Give a F*ck, Actually: Reclaim Yourself with the 5 Steps of Radical Emotional Acceptance (January 2023, Skyhorse), offering a timely and persuasive counterargument to the runaway bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck. In this episode, Alex argues that there are no bad emotions – only bad reactions to powerful and often painful feelings that Radical Emotional Acceptance can teach us to process. We are learning from him that on the flipside of every painful emotion is a desire. These painful emotions are actually supposed to hurt us as badly as they do. They are trying to get our attention and let us know the importance of a situation or relationship. Dr. Wills is taking us through the 5 steps of his fascinating Radical Emotional Acceptance (REA) Method and explains how practicing this method helps us to develop a better relationship with all our emotions instead of suppressing them. He compares human emotions to colors, which are just there. Very importantly, we’re also talking about how this method can help with parenting children. I loved when Alex said: “Imagine what a wonderful world we would have, if children learned from the very beginning naming their emotions, building emotional vocabulary and simply accept them”. We’re excited to have you as our guest today on Before It’s Too Late, Dr. Alex Wills!