V. Let’s start with here and now! I live with my dear Phil in the house we built here in North Carolina. I am at home here, surrounded by natural beauty – a field, old trees, many flowering plants native to this region; they bring birds to live by us; a small herd of deer take advantage of our meadow, and now and then a small turkey flock parades across it.

P.  I love living here with Vellie. We have made a home together, and we are blessed to live in a peaceful, natural space. We have our daily routines and activities – for me, writing, exercising, having time with Vellie.

V. I am now in my eighties as is Phil. We have been together over forty years, and arriving here was a long journey, one I look back on in wonder. 

P. I grew up in a stable, middle class family in a pretty American village in the north near the Great Lakes. My father was a chemical engineer; my mother managed the home; and we lived in the same house from the time I was three until I graduated from college. 

V.  My family roots are in the Deep South, its culture, physical environment, and its Southern Baptist Religion; all went into who I became. I grew up in small, rural towns, all within a small area of Louisiana; we felt at home in each one with neighbors, friends, school, and church. 

P. My undergraduate degree was in philosophy from Cornell University; my MA in philosophy was for work on perception. I took this intellectual orientation to Harvard University for my PhD in clinical psychology; my thesis, The Psychology of Religious Doubt, was original research in the psychology of religion and was published.  

V. My mother modeled for me having work and a career that she enjoyed, and I also learned that it would be important for me to have a college education that would ensure that I could have my career, as well as survive economically. With state scholarships, I graduated with my BSN. And from then on I went my own way. 

P. I had always told myself, I would have an academic career, but events proved otherwise. From the time I finished my PhD, I was on a non-academic path, becoming a therapist, and then in the more open atmosphere of the 70s, I began to study bioenergetic analysis, a therapy that was influenced by the work of Wilhelm Reich. 

V. My way took me to Boston when I was thirty. I moved from medical nursing to psychiatric nursing, trained in community mental health, then earned an MSN in psychiatric nursing at Boston University. I first saw Phil in one of these settings without knowing who he was; a year later, he called me at the urging of a mutual friend. Like Phil, I became interested in the newer therapies that were just then emerging, and like him I took up the study of bioenergetic analysis. 

P. I have had a lengthy and rewarding career in bioenergetics. I was invited to establish a training program in Massachusetts, a program which more than thirty-five years later is still active, now guided by a woman who was trained in our program. I was also invited to establish the first journal for the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. My experience in this field was enriched when I became a faculty for the Institute and taught for many years in Norway and Israel. What made this possible for me was that Vellie joined me in all that travel, and we worked together in the training workshops. I summarized what I had learned in the first twenty-five years in my book, Sex and Self-Respect. The Quest for Personal Fulfillment.

V. Before Phil and I became a couple, we shared office space for our therapy practices, and we both participated in every way we could to learn to practice as bioenergetic therapists. We were a couple when Phil established the Massachusetts Society, and I supported him and helped him with all the difficulties involved. Once we had the training program going, I taught bioenergetic exercise classes, twice a week, sometimes three, for twenty-five years, something we both considered an essential adjunct that kept the program alive and body-focused. These classes were also a foundation for my personal development through work with my body.

P. Through all the years of my education, professional training, and work life, my inner life occupied just as much, perhaps more, time and energy. This is what I write about in my parts of our book. I am grateful for the many fulfillments that came to me in both aspects of my life.

V. I left the South and my family culture and found what I needed in New England and Boston. Not that I knew what that was for a long time, but the direction I followed allowed me to resolve inner issues and become who I am as a person. This is the journey I write about in our book.