Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director of Evidence Based Therapy Los Angeles

Dr. Marget Thomas is a licensed clinical psychologist passionate about helping others improve their lives using emotion and social science to understand difficulties, and outcomes-based treatment to change and heal. Throughout her training and career, she has focused on treating complex problems with evidence-based therapy. She earned her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, where her research and clinical training focused on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for suicidal and self-harming adults with borderline personality disorder and adolescents with emotion dysregulation and school refusal, as well as exposure therapy for OCD and related disorders. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Thomas completed post-baccalaureate studies in psychology at Columbia University, where she coordinated research examining rejection sensitivity and other social psychological factors underlying personality disorders. During her APA-accredited pre-doctoral clinical internship at the Veterans Affairs Long Beach Health Care System, Dr. Thomas’s clinical training centered on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal behaviors, anger, insomnia, depression and substance use. There, she also received specialized training in emotionally-focused couples therapy. She completed her APA-accredited post-doctoral fellowship at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, where she taught and supervised evidence-based treatments for adults with a variety of mental health difficulties.  

In addition to DBT, Dr. Thomas specializes in cognitive behavioral therapies for specific problems (e.g., OCD, panic, depression, social anxiety and trauma) as well as third-wave, mindfulness-based CBT. In particular, she provides Unified Protocol for emotional disorders and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help individuals overcome avoidance, heal from trauma and pursue meaningful lives.  

Dr. Thomas has a committed interest in enhancing treatment effectiveness. Her research has focused on factors influencing patient engagement and improving outcomes in DBT and trauma treatment. She teaches and provides training and supervision to graduate students and has delivered DBT workshops to community mental health providers. She regularly presents her research at the International Society for the Implementation and Teaching of DBT, and the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She is the Editor in Chief of the DBT Bulletin, a scholarly DBT journal. 

Dr. Thomas sees adolescents and adults for individual psychotherapy, consults with parents of dysregulated teens, provides couples therapy, and teaches DBT skills group. She is an LGBTQ affirming therapist responsive to diversity considerations.