Peregrine Kavros, PhD
Vice President
A career built at the intersection of science, meaning, and human complexity, with the depth of preparation to match.
Most clinicians arrive at their practice through a single door. Peregrine Kavros walked through several, and the path she took explains the therapist she became.
Before her career in Schema Therapy, Peregrine spent years at the intersection of medicine, neuroscience, and human suffering in its most acute form.
In 1990, as Senior Research Associate in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University, Peregrine contributed to the development of what would become the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center, now one of the leading programs of its kind in the world. The work brought her into close contact with patients and families navigating a chronic progressive illness, people for whom the clinical and the existential were not separate questions. That experience left a mark. The integration of science, meaning, and human complexity has been the thread running through everything she has done since.
Peregrine training reflects that same instinct toward depth and breadth.
Peregrine holds a PhD in Psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where her dissertation examined the ways brain functioning shapes cognition, memory, and behavior. Postgraduate training continued in neuropsychology at Columbia University and in human sexuality at New York University Langone Medical Center, where she later held a staff position. Her degrees also include a Master of Science in Clinical Counseling, a Master of Business Administration, and a Master of Divinity. These are not parallel credentials assembled for professional effect. They are the record of someone who has spent decades taking seriously the full range of what it means to be a human being in difficulty.
Peregrine is the Director of the Schema Therapy Institute of the Southeast and an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Trainer, and Supervisor in both individual and couples work.
Her contributions to the field extend beyond clinical practice into the theoretical development of the model itself. As a licensed psychologist in North Carolina, a National Registered Health Psychologist, and a Sex Therapist certified by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, Peregrine is recognized among colleagues for her work in clinician education and mentoring. Her professional reach extends globally through the Global Psychology Alliance of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. She has contributed chapters to major reference works, published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and spoken as an invited presenter on topics ranging from the treatment of challenging couples to mindfulness, spirituality, and interpersonal complexity in the workplace.
From 2018 to 2025, Peregrine chaired ISST's Ethics and Conflict Resolution Committee.
The role requires the kind of steady, principled judgment that cannot be taught in a workshop. These are not honorary titles. They are the infrastructure of a field, and she has spent years helping hold it together. Peregrine also contributed to the Couples Special Interest Group and served as a member of the Training Development Subcommittee, which mentored foundational metrics of ISST Schema Therapy Training Centers worldwide. Currently she serves as Chair of the ISST Training Directors Committee for North America. In the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, she serves as a Ministry Associate at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, and formerly as Priest in Charge of parishes in transition, roles she describes as a privilege.