Daniel Joseph Tomasulo (born July 20, 1951) is an American counseling psychologist, writer, and professor and the Academic Director and core faculty at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute (SMBI), Teachers College, Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology, MFA in writing, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and was formerly the Director of the New York City Certification in Positive Psychology for the New York Open Center. He is also a Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology's special section on Positive Psychology and recipient of the Teachers College, Columbia University 2021 Teaching Award.
His clinical specialization is in psychodrama and sociometry, with an academic specialization in intellectual disabilities. Tomasulo developed Interactive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) and later Positive-Interactive Behavioral Therapy (P-IBT), forms of group psychotherapy for people with intellectual disabilities, and coauthored the American Psychological Association's first book on the subject: Healing Trauma: The Power of Group Treatment for People with Intellectual Disabilities (2005) with Nancy Razza. Tomasulo is also the author of: Action Methods in Group Psychotherapy: Practical Aspects (1998), Confessions of a Former Child: A Therapist's Memoir (2008), American Snake Pit (2018), Learned Hopefulness, The Power of Positivity To Overcome Depression" (2020), and "The Positivity Effect: Simple CBT Skills to Transform Anxiety and Negativity into Optimism and Hope" (2023).
Education and career
Tomasulo was born in New York City and raised in Waldwick, New Jersey, with an Irish mother and Italian father. He earned a B.S. in psychology from Springfield College in 1973, an M.A. in child development from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1976, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Yeshiva University in 1981. Tomasulo began his study of psychodrama and group therapy in 1980 with Jacquie Siroka and Bob Siroka. He was hired at Brookdale Community College in 1980 where he won the Master Teacher award and became professor of psychology. He worked there until 2001 and then moved to New Jersey City University where he developed the first online psychology courses and later the first permanent positive psychology course in the New Jersey state system. In 1998–99 he was a teaching fellow at Princeton University under the mentorship of John M. Darley in the psychology department and studied with Tony Award-winning playwright Christopher Durang. He won two international reTHINK Theatre playwriting competitions for his plays on mental health: Negatively Oriented Therapy N.O.T. (2012) and Sticks, Stones and the R Word (2010). Both plays premiered in Auckland, New Zealand.
Mentored by the author Dani Shapiro, Tomasulo studied creative nonfiction and earned an M.F.A. from The New School in 2001. He won the New School MFA Chapbook Competition for his essay "Kettle of Fish," and later studied in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (M.A.P.P.) at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012, he became an assistant instructor for Martin Seligman, the Father of Positive Psychology, and James Pawelski, Director of Education and Senior Scholar at the Positive Psychology Center. He was the first psychologist and psychodramatist to graduate from the program and join the teaching staff. In 2011, ShareCare identified him as one of the top ten online influencers on the topic of depression
