Roni Beth Tower grew up in Akron, Ohio, majored in religion at Barnard College, and earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Yale University. After working at Silver Hill Foundation, she opened a private practice in Westport, Connecticut; taught psychology courses and supervised graduate students’ clinical work at Yale; earned Diplomate status from the American Board of Professional Psychology; and became a Fellow of the Academy of Clinical Psychology. She completed a three-year National Institute on Aging post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale Medical School, where she remained a Research Affiliate for another ten years, studying closeness in older married couples. Later, she taught clinical psychology to graduate students at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her signature course was Psychology of Human Intimacy.

She chaired the Yale Graduate School Alumni Fund Board, served on the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association Board, was a Disaster Mental Health volunteer for the American Red Cross, served on the Surrogate Decision Making Committee of the State of New York Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. She and her husband, David, live in Sleepy Hollow, New York. She loves Paris, yoga, dance, quilting, and bringing comfort and joy to people. In addition to her blog on this site, Love is Real, Roni Beth blogs regularly at “Life, Refracted” on PsychologyToday.com.