Valerie Tarico is a Seattle-based psychologist and author. In private practice since 1993, she previously directed the Children's Behavior and Learning Clinic in Bellevue, Washington. Currently, in addition to her writing and lectures, she maintains a practice specializing in adolescents and families. Her first book, Deas and Other Imaginings, is a collection of stories described as "somewhere between Zen and folktales, somewhere between child's play and wisdom, somewhere between dreaming the world and healing it." In her own effort to heal a world that is being fractured by cultural and religious zealots, Tarico wrote a second book, The Dark Side, about her personal encounter with religious fundamentalism and her spiritual journey in search of goodness, love and truth. She has developed a series of lectures informed by her clinical practice and personal experiences that equips parents and educators with tools to understand and nurture the innate goodness in our children.