Michael Bernet was born in Germany and was smuggled out of Germany to England ten months before the outbreak of World War II. In 1948, he volunteered for the Israeli Army in its War of Independence, serving in the maps and photography division of the Intelligence Corps. He became a journalist writing for a number of Israeli and British papers, first in English and then also in Hebrew. From 1959 to 1960 he published and edited Hashavu`a be’Eilat, Israel’s first independent small-town newspaper. He came to the United States in 1962 and supported himself variously as writer, author, reviewer, editor, translator, and ghost writer. His 1967 book on the Six Day War, The Time of the Burning Sun, which reported on the war through the eyes of soldiers and civilians on all sides, tank drivers and pilots, Arabs and Jews, Egyptians and Palestinians, became a succès d’estime (it has recently been reprinted and updated).
In Israel in January 1971, Michael and his then wife, Rena, founded Tivyon, a center for personal growth and humanistic psychology, which soon became a magnet for therapists and humanistic psychologists from around the world. They returned to the United States in 1977, conducting workshops in various locations: Milford, CT, Mays Landing and Flemington, NJ, Annville, PA, and Shandalee (Livingston Manor), NY.
Michael has an M.A. in clinical psychology from Southern Connecticut State University, a Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a postgraduate diploma in behavior therapy from Long Island University. He is also licensed as a school psychologist by New York State.