Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.

Dr. Siegel received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA. He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA. Dr. Siegel serves as the founding editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over seventy textbooks. He has also authored several books, five of which are New York Timesbestsellers: Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline.

Dr. Siegel’s ability to make complicated concepts exciting as well as easy to understand has led him to be invited to address local, national and international organizations where he speaks to groups of educators, parents, public administrators, healthcare providers, policy-makers, clergy and neuroscientists. He has been invited to lecture for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, and TEDx.

Poet, essayist, naturalist, teacher, and all-around creative genius, Diane Ackerman has for decades been writing scientifically informed and compulsively readable books of astonishing variety. In her work, she's dedicated herself to capturing the sheer wonder of life on this planet. Her latest book, The Human Age: The World Shaped Us, explores the ramifications of the current Anthropocene age - the first time humans are the dominant force of change on the planet.

John Gottman, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Washington, where he established what the media called, "The Love Lab," and conducted much of his award-winning research on couple interaction and treatment. Dr. Gottman has studied marriage, couples and parent relationships for nearly four decades. He has authored or co-authored 119 published articles as well as 44 books, including: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, The Relationship Cure, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail, and How You Can Make Yours Last, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting, And Baby Makes Three and The Marriage Clinic.

World renown for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction, Dr. Gottman's research has earned him numerous national awards, including: Four five-year-long National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Awards; The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Distinguished Research Scientist Award; The American Psychological Association Division of Family Psychology Presidential Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Research Contribution; The National Council of Family Relations 1994 Burgess Award for Outstanding Career in Theory and Research.

Dr. Gottman, together with his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, is the co-founder of The Gottman Institute, which provides clinical training, workshops, services, and educational materials for mental health professionals, couples, and families. He is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Relationship Research Institute which has created treatments for couples transitioning to parenthood and couples suffering from minor domestic violence.

Dr. Gottman has presented hundreds of invited keynote addresses, workshops, and scientific presentations, to avid audiences around the world including Switzerland, Italy, France, England, Israel, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Norway. A wonderful story-teller and expert, Dr. Gottman has also appeared on many TV shows, including Good Morning America, Today, CBS Morning News, and Oprah, and he has been written up in numerous print articles, including Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Glamour, Woman's Day, Men's Health, People, Self, Reader's Digest, and Psychology Today.

Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, Ph.D., is the co-founder and Clinical Director of The Gottman Relationship Institute, and Clinical Supervisor for the Couples Together Against Violence study. A highly respected clinical psychologist, she is sought internationally by media and organizations as an expert advisor on marriage, sexual harassment and rape, domestic violence, gay and lesbian adoption, same-sex marriage, and parenting issues. Creator of the immensely popular Art and Science of Love weekend workshops for couples, she also designed and leads the national certification program in Gottman Method Relationship Therapy for clinicians. Her other achievements include: Washington State Psychologist of the Year; Author/co-author of three books: Ten Lessons to Transform Your Marriage, And Baby Makes Three, and The Marriage Clinical Casebook; Wide recognition for her clinical psychotherapy treatment, with specialization in distressed couples, abuse and trauma survivors, substance abusers and their partners, and cancer patients and their families.

Inspiring, empowering, respectful, and kind, Julie's leadership of The Gottman Relationship Institute has made it possible to identify and integrate the expertise of her staff, therapists, and the wider research and therapeutic community. Her commitment to excellence and integrity assures that as The Gottman Relationship Institute grows, it continues to maintain the highest ethical and scientific standards.

She is in private practice in the Seattle area, providing intensive marathon therapy sessions for couples. She specializes in working with distressed couples, abuse and trauma survivors, those with substance abuse problems and their partners, as well as cancer patients and their families.

Bessel A. Van der Kolk, M.D., is a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of post-traumatic stress.  His work integrates developmental, neurobiological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment.

Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development, memory, and the psychobiology of trauma.  He has published over 150 peer reviewed scientific articles on such diverse topics as neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, Developmental Trauma, yoga, theater and EMDR. 

He is founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts.  The Trauma Center consists of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applies treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide.  He also created the Trauma Research Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Trauma Center, that is organized to promote clinical, scientific and educational projects.

His most recent 2014 New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma, transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring – specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust.  He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, somatically based therapies, EMDR, psychodrama, play, yoga, and other therapies.

Dr. van der Kolk is the past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School.  He regularly teaches at conferences, universities, and hospitals around the world.