Judith M. Pilla, PhD, is a psychotherapist in private practice with over two decades of experience successfully treating individuals, couples, families, and groups. For the past ten years, she has focused her study, research, and clinical practice on understanding the problems engendered by shame. She contributes as an international presenter and workshop leader on the subject for professional clinicians and the public in countries as diverse as Sweden, Canada, Israel, England, and across the United States. Her expertise as a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry, a clinical social worker, and director of qualitative research for a global healthcare company, grounds her commitment to scientific research, evidence-based knowledge, and the use of clinically proven methods in her practice. She is the winner of the Joan Sall Rivitz fellowship award for her doctoral research at Bryn Mawr College and is a charter member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University. She and her husband live outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to her clinical practice and her writing, she devotes time to being the proud mother of two adult children with their wonderful families.