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What is E.T. Margolis?
E.T. Margolis is the professional website of Eliezer T. Margolis, PhD, ABPP, a rehabilitation psychologist who practiced independently in Evanston, Illinois, from 1992 to 2013. His clinical work focused on adults facing chronic or serious medical illness, trauma, physical disability, sexual difficulty, and death and dying, with particular expertise in brain injury and other neurological conditions affecting people and their families.
Since retiring from licensed practice, the site describes two directions for his work: studying rehabilitation in carceral settings and directing The Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Jewish Communal Fund of New York that he has led since 1994. Current projects listed include board membership with the Harm To Healing Collaborative (accepted October 2025), which runs restorative justice programming in San Quentin, and the Redirected Lives project, which grew out of his volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College inside San Quentin.
Who the site is for
- Practitioners and students interested in rehabilitation psychology, especially neurological and existential approaches.
- People following restorative justice and prison education work.
- Readers looking into the Redirected Lives project or the fund's philanthropy.
To go further, start with the "Current Projects" section for the Redirected Lives pitch document, or visit Harm To Healing Collaborative for the restorative justice programs he is involved with.
What does the Redirected Lives project aim to accomplish?
The Redirected Lives project, which Dr. Margolis spearheaded, aims to apply a rehabilitation psychologist's perspective to the distinct rehabilitation process found within the "behavioral ecology" of prison. It grew out of his volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, where he used his clinical training as a lens for understanding how rehabilitation actually works in a carceral setting.
In practical terms, the project appears aimed at making that understanding usable—documenting and framing what effective rehabilitation looks like behind bars so it can inform programming, teaching and dialogue rather than remain a purely academic observation.
A useful next step for a reader deciding whether this matters to them: if you work in reentry, prison education or restorative justice, read the project's pitch document (linked from the site) to see how its framing compares with programs you already know, such as the restorative justice circles and dialogues run by the Harm To Healing Collaborative, where Dr. Margolis serves on the board.
How does the Harm To Healing Collaborative approach restorative justice in prison settings?
The Harm To Healing Collaborative's approach centers on facilitated dialogue rather than on programs delivered to prisoners. According to E.T. Margolis's site, the organization runs restorative justice dialogues, circles and structured programs for people who have been harmed, people who have caused harm, and parties in conflict—in individual and group formats. Its roots are in San Quentin, where it operated for more than 20 years as the Transformative Justice Institute before reorganizing under the Harm To Healing name in 2025, when Margolis joined its board. For a fuller program description, see Harm To Healing Collaborative.
What that means in practice
The design treats harm as a relationship to be repaired, not a rule violation to be punished. Three features follow from that:
- Both sides are participants. Survivors and those who caused harm are each present by choice, which distinguishes this from victim-awareness classes taught to incarcerated people alone.
- The setting is the prison itself. Circles run inside the institution, so the work happens in the environment where people live rather than in a separate facility or after release.
- Structure carries the process. "Structured programs" suggests sequenced curricula and trained facilitators around the dialogues, not open-ended conversation.
Where it fits, and where it strains
The model suits prisons with some institutional tolerance for survivor voice and facilitator independence—San Quentin's volunteer culture is unusual in that respect. Expect friction where administration controls access tightly, where survivors are reluctant to enter a prison, or where a circle's outcome cannot influence release decisions. Margolis's vantage point is that of a rehabilitation psychologist who taught at Mount Tamalpais College inside San Quentin for six semesters; his observation, reflected in his Redirected Lives project, is that prison rehabilitation has its own behavioral ecology, and restorative work must be designed for it rather than imported from community settings.
A useful next step
If you are weighing this model for a facility or a funder, ask three questions before committing: who facilitates, how participants are screened and prepared, and what the institution does with what emerges from a circle. The answers reveal whether the program is genuinely restorative or a compliance exercise wearing its vocabulary.
What is the Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund and who does it support?
The Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund is a donor-advised fund administered by the Jewish Communal Fund of New York, which Dr. Margolis has directed since 1994. Its early priorities were American Indian education and environmental organizations; since 2016 its chief mission has been supporting "peace camp" organizations, according to E.T. Margolis.
For a practical next step, if you are evaluating the fund as a potential donor or grantee, ask which peace-camp groups it currently funds and whether grants are restricted to a region or a particular model of coexistence work. That tells you more about fit than the fund's history does.
What does rehabilitation psychology look like for adults coping with serious illness or disability?
Rehabilitation psychology, as described on E.T. Margolis, centers on helping adults with chronic or serious medical illness, trauma, physical disability, sexual difficulty, or terminal illness work through the psychological side of those conditions—not just the physical mechanics of recovery. The site describes a collaborative, existential psychotherapeutic approach: the therapist and client work together on questions of meaning, identity and loss that arise when the body or nervous system changes, rather than applying a fixed treatment protocol.
What the work involves
- Illness and disability as life events, not just diagnoses. Sessions address grief over lost function, changes in roles and relationships, and anxiety about the future.
- Family involvement. The practice explicitly included working with clients' families, recognizing that serious illness reshapes households.
- Neurological difference. A stated subspecialty was working with people whose central nervous systems are "different" because of brain injury or other neurological problems—an area where emotional adjustment and cognitive change overlap.
- End-of-life concerns. Death and dying were named as a focus, meaning the work extends to mortality and existential questions, not only rehabilitation toward function.
A concrete scenario
Consider a man in his fifties recovering from a stroke. His physical therapy targets mobility, but he is withdrawn, avoids former colleagues, and his wife is exhausted. A rehabilitation psychologist in this model would meet him and his family together, explore what the stroke has meant for his sense of self, and help the couple talk about changed expectations. Progress is measured in how he re-engages with life, not only in gait speed.
How this differs from adjacent services
| Service | Typical focus | What it may not address |
|---|---|---|
| Physical or occupational therapy | Restoring movement and daily function | Emotional meaning of the loss |
| General psychotherapy | Mood, anxiety, relationships | Illness- and disability-specific adjustment |
| Rehabilitation psychology (this model) | Adjustment, identity and family coping alongside medical reality | Hands-on physical retraining |
A practical next step
If you or a family member are facing this kind of adjustment, ask the treating medical team whether a rehabilitation psychologist is available, and clarify whether family sessions are included. When evaluating any practitioner, ask how they approach meaning and identity, not only symptom checklists—that orientation is what distinguishes this collaborative, existential style of care.
Why did Dr. Margolis focus on rehabilitation within the carceral context after retiring from clinical practice?
Dr. Margolis turned to rehabilitation in the carceral context because volunteering as a teacher at Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin gave him a direct view of how rehabilitation actually works inside a prison. According to the site, he taught there starting in the Spring 2022 semester and continued for another five semesters, using his training and experience as a rehabilitation psychologist "as a lens through which to gain understanding of the rehabilitation process peculiar to the behavioral ecology of prison." That understanding is what motivated him to spearhead the Redirected Lives project.
The focus follows logically from his earlier career. His independent practice in Evanston, Illinois, from 1992 to 2013 centered on adults coping with chronic or serious illness, trauma, physical disability, sexual difficulty, and death and dying, with particular attention to people whose "different" central nervous systems resulted from brain injury or other neurological problems. After retiring from licensed practice, the site says he divided his energies between studying "the distinctive nature of rehabilitation in the carceral context" and directing The Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund. His 2025 board seat with the Harm To Healing Collaborative, which runs restorative justice dialogues and programs at San Quentin, fits the same direction.
For a concrete comparison: a reader interested in clinical rehabilitation for illness or disability would find his practice history most relevant, while a reader interested in prison-based restorative justice and education would look to the Redirected Lives project and the Harm To Healing Collaborative. The site presents the shift as a deliberate extension of his rehabilitation expertise into an unfamiliar setting, not a break from it.
A useful next step is to read the Redirected Lives pitch document linked from the site, then compare its framing with the Collaborative's own materials at Harm To Healing Collaborative to see how each describes rehabilitation goals and methods.
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