Who Is Eliezer T. Margolis, PhD, ABPP, and What Was His Clinical Specialty?

Eliezer T. Margolis, PhD, ABPP, is a rehabilitation psychologist who maintained an independent practice in Evanston, Illinois, from October 1, 1992, to July 1, 2013. His clinical specialty was a collaborative, existential psychotherapeutic approach to adults coping with chronic and/or serious medical illness, trauma, physical disability, sexual difficulty, or death and dying. Within that practice, he held a subspecialty in working with people and their families whose central nervous systems were "different" because of brain injury or other neurological problems.

The Clinical Approach

Margolis described his orientation as collaborative and existential. In practice, that means therapy was framed as a shared undertaking with the patient rather than a set of instructions delivered from outside, and it centered on the patient's own confrontation with mortality, illness, disability, and other limits. The page does not detail session formats or treatment protocols, so the description above is limited to how he characterized the work.

Who the practice served

The stated client population was adults facing:

• Chronic and/or serious medical illness
• Trauma
• Physical disability
• Sexual difficulty
• Death and dying

A distinct subspecialty covered individuals and families affected by brain injury or other neurological conditions—work he grounded in subspecialty training and clinical experience.

Credentials and Practice Facts

The ABPP designation indicates board certification; the site presents it as part of his professional identity but does not list the specific board or certification date.

What He Has Done Since Retiring

Since leaving active practice, Margolis has split his efforts between two areas:

• Rehabilitation in the carceral context. In October 2025 he joined the board of directors of the Harm To Healing Collaborative, which has provided rehabilitation programming in San Quentin State Prison (as the Transformative Justice Institute) for more than 20 years and facilitates restorative justice dialogues, circles, and structured programs for people who have been harmed, people who have caused harm, and parties in conflict. He also began volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in the Spring 2022 semester and continued for another five semesters; that experience led him to spearhead the Redirected Lives project, for which a pitch document is linked on the site.
• Philanthropy. He has directed The Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund, a donor-advised fund administered by the Jewish Communal Fund of New York, since 1994. Its early objectives were supporting American Indian education and environmental organizations; since 2016 its chief mission has been supporting "peace camp" organizations.

How to Use This Information

If you arrived at etmargolis.com looking for a clinician, note that the practice closed in 2013 and the site does not offer appointments, fees, or insurance details—it functions as a professional and project overview. If your interest is in his current work, the site points to the Harm To Healing Collaborative at harmtohealingcollaborative.org and to the Redirected Lives pitch document; those are the appropriate next stops rather than the contact section for clinical inquiries.