In 1950, Clarita von Trott began studying medicine and, in 1965, wrote her thesis on "the influence of the usual fixers of ultraviolet absorption by serum protein bodies." She then obtained qualifications as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst and practised in Hamburg and Berlin. At the same time, she led the fight to defend the memory of 20 July plot participants and the memory and message of her husband. (Until the 1950s, the widows of the conspirators against Hitler received no state pension, their husbands being listed as "traitors".) She teamed up with Freya von Moltke and Rosemarie Reichwein in order to initiate the International Meeting of Youth Kreisau / Krzyżowa.