I have been involved with anxiety interventions since the early 1960s, first examining ways of expediting desensitization therapy, then devising the brief-intervention anxiety management training (AMT), applied initially to anxiety treatment, then to anger management.

I was born on May 8, 1933, in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was raised in a multiethnic environment, attended St. Louis High School, and my freshman and sophomore years at the University of Hawaii. Although considering various science or medical majors at the university, the introductory psychology class, experience as a research subject, and volunteer work at the counseling center shifted my interest to psychology.

I was admitted to Ohio State University, arriving there by flying over the ocean, taking a train from the West Coast to the Midwest, then ...