Bruce Di Marsico
(1942-1995)
“The Option Method takes unhappiness from that vague cloud of confusion and that which just happens to you and brings it down to the real dynamics that cause your emotions . . . your beliefs and your judgments.”
“The Happiness Secret - Is Happiness A Choice?”
The founder of the Option Method, Bruce Di Marsico was originally a student for the Catholic priesthood. Recognizing that what he was searching for was not within the confines of the monastery, Bruce began to find his true calling while studying psychology and philosophy in the 1960s at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. Years later while at work as a psychotherapist, and human relations consultant, he came to develop the Option Method. Through his experiences with clients and his own self-exploration, he began to formulate his own insights into the reasons why people were unhappy.
He introduced his method in New York City in 1970 at a para-professional school for group counseling and therapies called Group Relations Ongoing Workshops (GROW). The human potential movement was under way. Most of the movement’s concepts we take for granted today, in this age of self-awareness and self-improvement, but at the time this movement was new and exciting.
G.R.O.W. offered certificates and training exclusively in such subjects as Group Encounter, Psychodrama, Gestalt Therapy, Sensitivity Training, Existential Analysis, and much more. Bruce continued to teach his method for over 27 years until his death in 1995.
The foundation of his approach to helping people was based on his recognition that people were unhappy because they believed that they should be. He understood that people believed that it was good and necessary to feel bad. Bruce believed that people had a choice when it came to their emotions.
The Option Method has been taught to teachers, psychologists, therapists, social workers, clergy and other practitioners as an additional tool in their professions. Above all, Bruce created the Option Method to help people help themselves to find their deepest wisdom and happiness. Since Bruce’s death his students and his widow, Deborah Mendel, have continued to help people become happier by teaching them how to use the Option Method Dialogue.
Learn more about Bruce’s Option Method and his philosophy from his book Unlock Your Happiness With Five Simple Questions-The Option Method. You can now hear Bruce discuss the Option Method questions and reveal how asking these questions help uncover the judgments and beliefs that stand in the way of happiness. Find out more about the audio CD.
“. . . our session was very healing/helpful for me. You have a wonderful smile. Your eyes really sparkle and beam love, and I sure enjoyed smiling with you.” — Patricia L.
“I feel him with me as I continue to deepen my personal experience of the ineffable gift he came to know and share. Option and Happiness are what I live, breathe and be and I am so utterly grateful to him.” — Guy Kuperman
“Bruce left an indelible impression on me. Time with him was mystical and transforming. His truths a simple soothing balm. He could cut through a lifetime’s worth of gnarled rooted anguish, and redefine what was and is, in a completely different way. I traveled through his eyes, and his voice as he spoke ageless wisdom, guiding me through myself, and changing me forever. A powerful man with a profound gift.” — JP
“Bruce Di Marsico taught me how to be happy. Before I knew him it was a chancy thing, and elusive experience that didn’t happen often or last long. Every day I use his lessons to help me swim against the tide of belief in unhappiness in which we live.” — Mandy Evans
“Bruce Di Marsico was devoted to teaching the truth that no one has to be unhappy in this world. He developed a method to help anyone who wanted to be happy see with new eyes. Bruce knew that the most profound love of another human being is acknowledging their freedom to choose their beliefs. His teaching changed my life.” — Wendy Dolber
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