Judith Margolin, PhD

Judith Margolin, PhD, is a Certified Advanced Schema Therapist and Supervisor of Schema Therapy, currently in private practice. She is a member of the Visiting Faculty at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, New Jersey. Dr. Margolin is a Clinical Supervisor and member of the Medical Staff at Penn Medicine Princeton Health, Princeton House Behavioral Health, where she was the former Clinical Director of the Women’s Trauma Program. Specializing in the treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, she has presented nationally and internationally on a Schema Therapy-informed approach to Complex Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dr. Margolin is also the author of one of the earliest books on group therapy for sexual abuse, Breaking the Silence: Group Therapy for Childhood Sexual Abuse, A Practitioner’s Manual (Haworth,1999), as well as her recently published book, Group Therapy for Complex Trauma: A Schema-Informed Approach (Routledge, 2025).

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Thursday Dec 4th

SCHEMA THERAPY FOR COMPLEX TRAUMA – SPECIAL TOPICS IN INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP TREATMENT

Lasting recovery from complex trauma depends on two essential elements: strengthening the Healthy Adult and building a genuine limited reparenting relationship. This session explores the core challenges that block both, offering clear, practical strategies for working through resistance, mistrust, and emotional disconnection.

In individual therapy, many clients struggle to engage with their Vulnerable Child mode, often responding with judgment or avoidance. Others carry deep schemas of Emotional Deprivation, Mistrust, or Subjugation that make it hard to trust the therapist’s care. Through vivid clinical examples, participants will learn how to repair these ruptures, foster safety, and nurture authentic healing.

The presentation also introduces a group-based Schema Therapy model for complex trauma. Attendees will see how to integrate mode work, experiential methods, and Healthy Adult modeling within a group to address shame, dissociation, and survival modes, transforming peer interactions into opportunities for reparenting and repair.