Philip Zimbardo, PhD, is internationally recognized as “the voice and face of contemporary psychology” through his widely viewed PBS-TV series, Discovering Psychology, his media appearances, his bestselling trade books, including The Time Paradox: Reconstructing the Past, Enjoying the Present, Mastering the Future (with John Boyd, Free Press, 2008), and The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, (Random House, 2007, paperback 2008), and his classic research, The Stanford Prison Experiment.

Phil has been a Stanford University professor since 1968 (now emeritus), having taught previously at Yale, NYU, and Columbia University. He also continues to teach at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California (courses on the psychology of terrorism), and is professor at Palo Alto University, in California (teaching social psychology to clinical graduate students). Phil has been President of the American Psychological Association (2002), President of the Western Psychological Association (twice), Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (SCCP) and is now chair of the Western Psychological Foundation, as well as the Director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Policy, Education, and Research on Terrorism (CIPERT).

Phil has received numerous awards and honors as an educator, researcher, writer, media contributor, and for service to the profession of psychology. He has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Foundation Prize for his lifetime of research on the human condition as well as the American Psychological Association’s prestigious 2012 Gold Medal in Science Award. Among his more than 600 professional publications, including 60 trade and textbooks, is the oldest current textbook in psychology, Psychology and Life (currently in its 20th edition), and Core Concepts in Psychology, now in its seventh edition.

In recent years, Phil’s increasing interest in his time perspective theory lead him to consult with Rick and Rose Sword in regards to their development of his theory into an efficacious, therapy/training. Phil is coauthor of The Time Cure, and along with Rose, is coauthor of the popular Psychology Today Time Cure blog column.  He is Chief Consultant for Aetas, Mind Balancing Apps, an innovative and effective new way to help gain balance in our increasingly stressful, fast-paced world. Phil is also founder of The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging and empowering individuals to take heroic action during crucial moments in their lives.  

Richard Sword, PhD, was a practicing clinical psychologist on the island of Maui for thirty years before his death in 2014. A graduate of the University of Florida and Saybrook Institute, Rick taught at the University of Florida and the University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus. In the early 1980s he became interested in the treatment of post-trauma and became an expert in post-traumatic stress disorder. He was a lead psychologist for the National Disaster Medical System, Region IX and was deployed to over 30 nationally declared disasters. As his clinic was in Hawaii, he was afforded the opportunity to work cross-culturally and was adept at helping people of many cultures. He considered his crowning career achievement to be helping thousands of seasoned veterans from 6 “wars” (WWII, Korean, Vietnam, First Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan) which lead him and his wife Rose to the development of Time Perspective Therapy in 2008/2009. Along with Phil and Rose, Rick was co-author of The Time Cure as well as Time Perspective Therapy journal articles.  

Rosemary Sword is a Time Perspective Therapist/Trainer in private practice on the island of Maui. As part of her Hawaiian heritage, she was trained in the Hawaiian psychology based on forgiveness known as ho’oponopono (literally “to make right”.) She has practiced this form of healing for 30 years. Along with her husband, Richard Sword, she developed Time Perspective Therapy/Training. Rose is also coauthor of The Time Cure, published in English, Wiley, 2012, German, 2013, Russian and Chinese 2014, Polish 2015, The Time Cure Therapist’s Guidebook, Wiley, 2012, Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application, Essays in Honor of Philip G. Zimbardo, Springer 2015, Living and Loving Better, McFarland November 2017, Seeing Through the Grief, McFarland April 2024, as well as book chapters and psychological journal articles. Rose and Phil are coauthors of a popular Psychology Today blog column and have published over 100 time perspective articles ranging from bullying and shyness to toxic relationships, and happiness versus living a meaningful life to coping with grief and loss.

Recently, Rose and Phil teamed up with a Polish media corporation to develop the first of its kind: a time perspective therapy “nanodegree” (on-line certification.) After successful completion of the pilot project, there are now nearly 100 time perspective therapists in Poland and discussions are underway for the global expansion of the time perspective therapy nanodegree. Phil and Rose are also working with representatives of China to introduce them to the benefits of time perspective therapy.

Rose and Phil have also created two FREE Time Perspective Therapy-based 4-week tracks for Happify.com. One helps people overcome PTSD and the other assists those experiencing grief and loss learn coping skills (see Links page).