Barry Neil Kaufman

Author, Teacher & Co-Founder of The Option Institute & Autism Treatment Center of America^TM

Barry Neil Kaufman (Bears) is the author of 11 books on The Option Process^® and The Son-Rise Program, including the best-selling Happiness is a Choice, a blueprint of simple, concrete methods to empower the decision to be happy, and Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues. Mr. Kaufman's books are available in eighteen languages in over sixty countries. He has twice won the Christopher Award for writing, and he and his wife Samahria Lyte Kaufman have won the Humanitas Award for their screenplay of the NBC Movie, Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love.

Mr. Kaufman is Co-Founder and Co-Director with his wife, of The Option Institute International Learning & Training Center in Sheffield, Massachusetts, a nonprofit, educational organization and worldwide teaching center for The Option Process.

The Option Institute, a year-round facility offering empowering personal growth programs and seminars for individuals, couples, families and groups, uses life-changing experiential learning techniques designed to greatly improve health, career, relationships and quality of life. Professional Certification training Programs and individual counseling services are also available.

Additionally, the Kaufmans give motivational talks at conferences, lead workshops and seminars, lecture at universities and appear in mass media throughout the country.

As a result of their innovative and successful program, The Son-Rise Program, a groundbreaking treatment method for Autism and related developmental challenges, originally designed to help their once-autistic son, the Kaufmans Co-Founded the Autism Treatment Center of America (a division of The Option Institute) where they and their staff also counsel and instruct families wanting to create home-based, child-centered teaching programs for their own special-needs children. Additionally, the Kaufmans train professionals in their methods.