COUNSELOR'S LOVE OF EDUCATION SERVING HER WELL.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

Barbara Buonassissi is a certified chemical dependency counselor who does guided imaging and biofeedback but is, most of all, a perpetual student.

Now 62, she graduated summa cum laude from Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar nine years ago and is scheduled to graduate this year from Antelope Valley College with her second associate of arts degree. Then she plans to go to a four-year college.

``I love all the varied aspects of my counseling, but school is the most important activity in the world for me,'' Barbara said. ``I didn't decide to go back to school until I was 54, so when I did, I wanted to get everything I could out of it.''

She said all senior citizens need to follow their dreams as she has.

``Nobody has to sit back and do nothing because she thinks she's too old,'' she said. ``Learning doesn't have boundaries.''

Barbara was born April 19, 1936, in Glendale and raised in Littlerock in a family where she was taught that girls didn't need higher education.

``My father chose all my courses in high school because in his world, women were only suited for office work,'' she said. ``That was a proper thing for women to do.''

The secretarial and business courses aided her in getting good office jobs, but she found them relatively unfulfilling until she went to work as office manager for local psychologist Mary Kelso and marriage, family and child counselor Patricia Mouillesseaux.

``They hired me because I was older,'' Barbara said, ``and to me it was a dream job because they were both so nurturing, validating and full of praise. They helped me overcome my insecurities.''

Attending a workshop with Kelso, she assimilated so much information that Kelso called her a sponge and urged her to go for certification as a chemical dependency counselor.

Kelso and Mouillesseaux inspired her to follow her dreams and seek her maximum potential.

``They told me I could do anything I chose to do but that I was the one who had to believe that,'' Barbara said.

Her first two steps were to go back to school, then join the Antelope Valley Sexual Assault Response Service to see for herself if she could bond with people.

Driving home from classes in Sylmar one night, she made a self-analytical discovery.

``All of a sudden I realized that I was defying my father,'' Barbara said, ``and I had to ask myself, Why am I playing his record over in my head?''

The illumination gave her an overwhelming sense of freedom.

``There I was, driving the freeway at 11 o'clock at night and shouting out the window of the car. I won't tell you what I was shouting,'' she said, laughing.

Barbara has been married 25 years to Acton barber Al Buonassissi, and they make their home in Quartz Hill. She knits, crochets, makes Christmas ornaments, takes piano lessons and reads everything she can get her hands on.

She now has her own office in Palmdale, where she counsels and interacts with clients.

``You know, we are all teachers sometimes and students sometimes. There is always a responsive flow between two people,'' she said. ``I have a partner whose favorite saying is, nothing never happens.''

PALMDALE - Seniors interested in card games and fellowship can find them with the Tumbleweed Club on Tuesdays from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Palmdale Senior Center, 1002 E. Ave. Q-12.

In play at present are canasta, cribbage and triple-deck pinochle. Anyone 55 or over is welcome. Members will be glad to teach anyone who wants to learn, said Robert Wagenknecht, public relations chairman.

LANCASTER - Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and Pearblossom have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk for the suggested congregate donation of $2.

Monday: Southwest stew, brussels sprouts, garden salad, cornbread, cookies.

Tuesday: Beef parmigiana, Spanish rice, corn niblets, coleslaw, bananas.

Wednesday: Teriyaki chicken, sweet potatoes, cooked cabbage, tossed salad, pears.

Thursday: Macaroni and cheese with ham, spinach, lettuce-and-tomato salad, juice, tapioca pudding.

Friday: Swedish meatballs, parsleyed noodles, Normandy vegetables, tossed salad, Jell-O with fruit.

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PHOTO Quartz Hill resident Barbara Buonassissi is using her varied education as a counselor at her office in Palmdale for people battling chemical dependency.

Bettie Rencoret/Daily News