Reaching Others ...
through The Option Process® &
The Son-Rise Program®

The 1979, the classic best-seller Son-Rise was made into an award-winning, NBC television movie special, which has been viewed by 300 million people worldwide. In response to requests from around the world, Barry (Bears) Neil Kaufman and Samahria Lyte Kaufman went on to create The Son-Rise Program® to work with other families who have children with special needs. A brand new and compelling updated version of the book Son-Rise, titled Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues, was published in January 1994. It includes the stories of five other families who, using The Son-Rise Program, went on to reach their "unreachable" children.

Bears Teaching

In 1983, the Kaufmans Co-Founded The Option Institute International Learning & Training Center. This center on a 100-acre campus in Sheffield, Massachusetts, offers year-round programs for individuals, couples, families, and groups wishing to improve the quality of their lives, and also helps people challenged by adversity to find hopeful and loving ways to respond to their difficulties. They also founded the Autism Treatment Center of America, a division of The Option Institute.


Son-Rise Child Facilitators working with children with special needs



What began with one special child in a bathroom as a unique opportunity to expand our attitude and happiness has blossomed into a method of working with children from all over the world who face very special challenges. Most important, this attitudinal and educational approach, which is profoundly accepting and respectful of each child's dignity, has facilitated deep-seated and lasting change in thousands of children and their families throughout the world.

Both Bears and Samahria Kaufman remain Co-Presidents of The Option Institute and still teach full time in conjunction with their very dedicated, seasoned and capable staff. Raun K. Kaufman (the first Son-Rise child) is now the C. E. O. of The Option Institute, as well as a lead teacher/seminar facilitator and international lecturer. Bryn Kaufman Hogan did a Son-Rise Program with her husband, William, for their own daughter, (our granddaughter, who also exhibited autistic behavior) and is the Executive Director of the Autism Treatment Center of America as well as a senior Son-Rise Program teacher and trainer.

Bears/Samahria & Colleagues
(Part of Option Institute's 80 Member Staff)

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By personal example and through his writing and counseling, he gives a compelling vision for the building of inner and outer peace.

President Jimmy Carter
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate