Dr. Trafford R. Cole was born in Germany to an American military family and then spent his childhood and adolescence in various localities in the States. He attended Brigham Young University on a scholarship for two years and then went to Italy for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Fascinated by the Italian culture he returned to Italy, pursued his studies in clinical psychology, and met and married his wife, Fernanda.
After five years of studies and a dissertation, he received his degree as a Doctor of Psychology at the University of Padua, one of the oldest universities in the world. He interned at a local family counseling center as he continued his studies in Relationship and Sex therapy. Once he received his advanced degree, he opened his private practice and worked mostly with victims of childhood sexual abuse and trauma.

His career took a new direction when he was selected to teach psychology courses for the University of Maryland for the US military and their dependents in bases throughout Italy. He enjoyed immensely teaching the soldiers and their family members and continued this career for 25 years. He also worked for the Army Family Advocacy program for a few years, teaching the military and their families parenting courses, stress and time management, and a myriad of other courses.

He became interested in Italian history and genealogy through Fernanda’s family research and he began helping others to find their Italian roots. As a result, he published his first book on Italian Genealogical Records in 1995.

This was followed by two books: one on relationships -Becoming Celestial Soulmates,  and one on – Achieving Success the Lord’s Way. Now that he has retired, he is dedicating his time to writing books on happiness and how to obtain it, starting with “Happiness Begins Today”, and then his book, “You Deserve to Be Happy; How to Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success and Happiness and Find the Joy of Living