Scott R. Woolley PhD, MFT is highly sought-after speaker who has trained mental health professionals in couple therapy and/or supervision throughout North America. He is a colleague of Dr. Susan Johnson, founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy with Couples, with whom he has co-written, co-presented and co-trained. He also worked closely with Jay Haley, a senior founder of the field of family therapy. Dr. Woolley’s primary clinical and research interests are in the areas of couple therapy, marriage, observational therapy process research, cross-cultural issues, and supervision processes. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and the American Journal of Family Therapy. Dr. Woolley is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in both Texas and California, and is an AAMFT Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor. He is currently the Director of the MFT Masters and Doctoral Programs at Alliant International University in San Diego, CA.

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is an associate clinical professor at UCLA and is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy® (PACT) with training programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, New Jersey, and Toronto, Canada (www.ahealthymind.org/). He is co-author of Love and War in Intimate Relationships: Connection, Disconnection, and Mutual Regulation in Couple Therapy with Marion Solomon for Norton’s Interpersonal Neurobiology Series, and author of new book, Wired for Love: How Understanding Your Partner’s Brain Can Help You Defuse Conflicts and Spark Intimacy (January 2012). He maintains a practice in Calabasas, California, and runs a bi-weekly clinical study group for medical and mental health professionals (www.ahealthymind.org) and training programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, and New Jersey. In addition to his private practice, he teaches and supervises first through third-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, through which he is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine.

Esther Perel, MA, LMFT, is the author of the international bestseller: Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, winner of the 2009 book award from the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. The book is now available 25 languages. Fluent in nine of them, Ms. Perel brings a rich multicultural perspective to her work on couple therapy, cross-cultural relations and couples and sexuality. She is on faculty of The International Trauma Studies Program and the Ackerman Institute for the Family and is a member of the American Family Therapy Academy and the Society for Sex therapy and Research. Born and raised in Belgium, Ms. Perel holds degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Lesley College. She was trained and supervised in family therapy by Dr. Salvador Minuchin and serves on the faculties of the Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical School, and the International Trauma Studies Program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. A popular media commentator, Ms. Perel has been interviewed in leading publications and has appeared on television programs ranging from the Oprah Winfrey Show to CBS This Morning.

Harville Hendrix, PhD, is co-creator with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD of Imago Relationship Therapy. Their books on Imago Relationship Therapy, Getting The Love You Want: A Guide for Couples, Keeping The Love You Find: A Personal Guide; Giving The Love That Heals: A Guide for Parents and three companion books on meditation and exercises, have sold more that 2 million copies and have been translated into more than 50 languages. Harville is also co-founder and board member of Imago Relationships International, a non-profit which supports over 2000 Imago therapists in 30 countries. Author and co-author of nine books on committed relationships, Harville is a Diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, has an honorary doctorate, two distinction awards, 17 appearances on the Oprah Show and is co-initiating a global couples movement. He and Helen live in NY and NM and have six children and 5 grandchildren.

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (with Rick Mendius, M.D.; foreword by Dan Siegel, M.D. and Preface by Jack Kornfield, PhD), published in 21 languages— as well as the forthcoming Just One Thing. Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, Rick has taught at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and in meditation centers in Europe, North America, and Australia. An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, Dr. Hanson’s work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Consumer Reports Health, and U.S. NeWorkshop and World Report, and his articles have appeared in Tricycle Magazine, Insight Journal, and Inquiring Mind. He edits the Wise Brain Bulletin, and his weekly e-neWorkshop letter—Just One Thing—has over 23,000 subscribers. He has several audio programs with Sounds True, and his first book was Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships (Penguin, 2002).

John Gottman, PhD, was voted one of the top 10 most influential therapists of the past quarter-century by the Psychotherapy Networker. He is World renowned for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction, with thirty-five years of breakthrough research on marriage and parenting that have earned him numerous major awards. He is the author of 190 published academic articles and author or co-author of 40 books, including the bestselling The Relationship Cure; Why Marriages Succeed or Fail; and Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child, among many others. He is co-founder of the Gottman Relationship Institute™ with his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman. He is also the Executive Director of the affiliated Relationship Research Institute, and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Washington, where he founded “The Love Lab” at which much of his research on couples’ interactions was conducted.

Steven Frankel, PhD, JD, is an ABPP Certified Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, as well as an attorney at law. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University and completed an Internship at Columbia University’s Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Frankel has been on the faculty of the University of Southern California for over 35 years and is currently a Clinical Professor of Psychology. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) and is now an Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University School of Law. He has taught courses on healthcare policy, regulation of healthcare practice and mental disorder and the law. Author of more than 50 articles and book chapters, he won the USC Award for Teaching Excellence early in his academic career.

Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological Anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems ( using functional Magnetic Resonance–fMRI) and cross-cultural patterns of romantic love, marriage, adultery, divorce, gender differences in the brain, personality, temperament, and mate choice. She has written five internationally bestselling books, including Why Him? Why Her? Why We Love; and Anatomy of Love. Other publications include articles in Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, The Journal of NIH Research, The New York Times Book Review, Psychology Today, Natural History, Scientific American, New Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and books published by Smithsonian Press, Greenwood Press, Columbia University Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, MIT Press and Yale University Press She lectures worldwide; among her speeches are those at the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, United Nations, Smithsonian and Aspen Institute. For her work in the media, Helen received the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

William Doherty, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, and Director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project. He is author of Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a World That Pulls Us Apart. Dr. Doherty presents training workshops nationally and internationally, and is co-founder of The National Registry of Marriage Friendly Therapists (www.marriagefriendlytherapists.com). He is past president of the National Council on Family Relations, the nation’s oldest interdisciplinary family studies organization. His awards include the Significant Contribution to the Field of Marriage and Family Therapy Award, the Margaret E. Arcus Award for Outstanding Contribution to Family Life Education, and the Outstanding Community Service Award from the University of Minnesota. He has authored or edited nine books for professionals, numerous articles in professional journals, and five books for lay audiences on the topics of family rituals, confident parenting, marriage, overscheduled kids, and the family dynamics of wedding planning.

Ellyn Bader, PhD, is in private practice and is Co-Director of The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, California. Over the past 25 years she has conducted professional training programs in couples therapy and has trained therapists throughout the United States as well as Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. She is a past-president of the International Transactional Analysis Association and a recipient of the Clark Vincent Award for an outstanding literary contribution to the field of marital therapy from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Dr. Bader is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences. She and her husband, Peter Pearson, PhD, co-authored the books, In Quest of the Mythical Mate: A Developmental Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment in Couples Therapy (Brunner/Mazel) and Tell Me No Lies: How to Face the Truth and Build an Honest Marriage (St. Martin’s Press).