Judith Mangelsdorf

About Judith Mangelsdorf

Judith Mangelsdorf is professor for Positive Psychology at the German University of Health and Sports in Berlin. She is director of the German Master’s Program in Applied Positive Psychology and co-founder of the German Society of Positive Psychology. Judith hold’s master’s degrees in mathematics, music, and psychology, and studied positive psychology with Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. As a fellow of the Max-Planck Society, she received her PhD from the Free University Berlin. Her dissertation addressing the question “Does growth require suffering?” won IPPA’s top dissertation award in 2019. Judith’s research focusses on the linkage between post-traumatic and post-ecstatic growth and investigates the question, how life’s best and worst experiences can contribute to human thriving. She works as supervisor for different hospice and palliative care teams to apply positive psychology in the context of end-of-life care and trauma therapy.