Uncovering Treasures That Matter

About the Author

For more than forty years, Bonnie Bernell has been a licensed Psychologist and is currently in private practice in Redwood City, California, and via telehealth. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Contributor to Psychology Award from the California Psychological Association and the author of the award-winning book Bountiful Women. For 25 years, she was an adjunct Professor of Psychology in the graduate programs at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA, and at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA teaching Law and Ethics, Human Sexuality. She has offered multiple continuing education classes and written in the professional literature, including as coauthor with Sandra Borrelli-Kerner, a chapter in a book edited by Randolph Charlton, M.D. and Irv Yalom, M.D., Treating sexual disorders, "Couple therapy of sexual disorders." She has a doctorate and a master's degree in counseling from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and a bachelor's degree in psychology, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the California Psychological Association, the Santa Clara County Psychological Association, and the San Mateo County Psychological Association. She is an Advanced Clinician and Workshop Presenter for Imago International and is a Guided Autobiography facilitator. She is an artist-painter, and bookmaker. She currently lives in Redwood City, California, with her life partner and Brodie Lee Terrier, a border terrier. See her website at BonnieBernell.com.

. Cheryl Svensson has been involved in the field of aging since she graduated from the first Masters in Gerontology program at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 and later completed her Ph.D. at the University of Lund, Sweden. She worked closely with Dr. James Birren, founding Dean of the Davis School of Gerontology at USC, and is the Director of the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies (www.guidedautobiography.com). This organization is dedicated to researching and developing programs to help people write their life stories. She has taught Guided Autobiography (GAB) at USC, UCLA, and several universities, libraries, and senior and assisted living centers. In 2009 she created a live, interactive online training webinar to teach students how to become GAB instructors; there are now 600 GAB instructors in 31 countries. She is the co-author with Richard Campbell of the book, Writing Your Legacy: The step-by-step guide to crafting your life story. She's passionate about writing and sharing life stories. Cheryl makes her home bi-continentally - living in the fast lane in southern California and the bike lane in Sweden. You may reach her at cheryl.svensson@gmail.com.