Thomas R. Verny is a psychiatrist, academic, award-winning author, poet, global speaker, blogger on Psychology Today and columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is the author of eight books, including The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, published in 33 countries. His most recent book, the Embodied Mind, Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies, (2021, Pegasus, NY), is available in English, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Portuguese, and Czech. Verny is the author of 48 scientific papers. He has previously taught at Harvard University, University of Toronto, York University (Toronto), St. Mary’s University (Minneapolis) and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.

In 1974 Verny wrote his first book, Inside Groups, for McGraw Hill. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (with John Kelly), Summit Books, 1981 followed this. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child has become an international bestseller published in 27 countries. The Secret Life has changed the pregnancy and childbirth experience for millions of mothers and fathers.

In 1983 Verny founded the Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Association of North America (PPPANA, renamed APPPAH—Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health – in 1995), and served as its president for eight years. In 1986 he launched the APPPAH Journal – the Journal of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (JAPPAH) (Human Sciences Press, New York), which he edited from its inception until 1990. In 2013 he became once again Editor-In-Chief of the JAPPPAH. In 1987, Verny edited Pre- and Perinatal Psychology: An Introduction, published by Human Sciences Press. Verny's next two books were Parenting Your Unborn Child (Doubleday 1988), and Nurturing the Unborn Child with Pamela Weintraub, Delacorte Press 1991, and Dell 1992. Pre-Parenting: Nurturing Your Child from Conception, with Pamela Weintraub, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2003 followed. The book explores the implications of recent discoveries in the brain sciences and Prenatal Psychology for early human development, personality and parenting. Pre-Parenting is now available in Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese.

In a departure from his previous scientific writings, in 1982 Verny wrote a weekly column, Lifelines, in The Toronto Star, and edited an anthology of short stories and poems about fathers and grandfathers entitled Gifts of Our Fathers (Crossing Press 1994). He is also a published poet. His poetry has appeared in Everyman, A Men's Journal (Paterson Literary Review, issue 23), Beyond Lament (ed. Marguerite M. Striar, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL); Marking Humanity (ed. Shlomit Kriger, Soul Inscription Press, Toronto; Archetypal Review of Culture. Vol. 1, no. 1, Paterson Literary Review, issue 39, Letters and Pictures from the Old Suitcase, ed. Lil Bloom, Pinking Shears Publications and Humanist Perspectives, issue 179. Over the years, Verny’s short stories and poems have appeared in many literary journals. His collected poems were published as Cordless in 2014. In 1998 he collaborated with Sandra Collier on creating Love Chords, a compilation of classical music for pregnancy published by The Childrens Group, Pickering, ON Canada.

His most recent book, The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies, was published by Pegasus, New York and Oxford in 2021 continues his exploration of very early memory and the mind. In this work, Verny sets out to redefine our concept of the mind and consciousness, compiling for the first time,  research that points to the mind’s ties to every part of the body and the intelligence of cells. The mind, Verny holds, is fluid and adaptable, embodied but not enskulled.

He has participated in more than 250 newspaper, radio and TV interviews, including appearances with Donahue, Merv Griffin, Oprah, Sally Jessy Raphael, Barbara Walters, and Unsolved Mysteries. Vision TV, Toronto, Canada, produced a 15-minute special on Verny and his book, Gifts of Our Fathers, in 1996.

Verny's books, professional publications and founding of the PPPANA and the Pre- and Perinatal Journal, have established him as one of the world's leading authorities on the effect of the prenatal and early postnatal environment on personality development. He has lectured and given workshops on Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. In 2004 Mothering Magazine, in recognition of Verny’s contributions to the field of parenting and child rearing, named him one of their “living treasures.” In 2005 the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute bestowed on Verny a Doctorate of Humane Letters (DHL). 

Dr. Verny is a member of the Ontario Review Board (ORB) and Associate Editor of the Journal of the Association for Pre- and Peri-natal Psychology and Health (JAPPPAH).

Verny lives with his wife in Stratford, ON, Canada.