Dr. Holly B. Sweet

1415 Beacon St., Suite 303

Brookline, MA 02446

About Me

Because of my interest in how people are influenced by societal factors and my desire to live abroad and understand what it is like to live in a different culture, I studied sociology the University of Sussex, England where I earned my B.A. in 1971.  In 1975 I received my M.Ed. in Counseling from Northeastern University, where I worked with students in the Counseling and Testing Center.  After graduation, I became an Outreach Counselor with troubled youth on the North Shore in Massachusetts where I used a variety of traditional and non-traditional methods to reach out to adolescents with behavioral problems.

 

Drawn to the world of teaching as a way of helping people understand more about themselves and the world around them, I started working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, running a student- centered alternative freshman program, doing informal counseling, running women’s support groups, and teaching seminars with an experiential focus.  Seminars taught included Psychology in Action, Three Approaches to Psychology, Gender and Science, Psychology Looks at the First Year, Composing a Life:  Self-Exploration through Photography, Art and Writing, Psychology of Hope and Fear, Psychology of Emerging Adulthood, and The Art and Science of Happiness.  In 1997, one of seminars I developed with a male colleague (Sex Roles and Relationships) won an award at MIT for the most significant contribution to undergraduate education that year.  This seminar became the foundation of a peer consulting program on improving gender relations at MIT where we helped students become peer trainers and run workshops on topics such as “Flirting 101” and “Getting Along and Getting Ahead:  Sex Roles in the Classroom.”

 

In 1986, I entered the Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology at Boston College. During my time at BC, I  conducted individual therapy at the Cambridgeport Problem Center with clients who were experiencing serious mental health issues,  including substance abuse, trauma, and major depression. I counseled female graduate students at MIT and ran a woman’s group focused on developing assertive behavior.  I worked in a day treatment center for women at the South Shore Mental Health Clinic in Quincy, MA, and did outpatient counseling with clients with a variety of issues, including major depression, anxiety, self-destructive behavior, and trauma histories.  In 1995, I held a two year post-doctoral fellowship at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy.

 

In 1999, I established a private practice in Brookline, MA, where I currently see individuals and couples, with a focus on skill building and practical strategies to cope more effectively with their problems.

 

In addition to my career as a psychotherapist, I co-founded the Cambridge Center for Gender Relations in 1990.  CCGR is a consulting company that specializes in offering non-blaming, gender-balanced and experiential training and workshops for a variety of clientele, including universities, businesses and psychological associations.   I am currently President-Elect of the Division of the Psychology of Men and Masculinities of the American Psychological Association, with my tenure as president starting in January 2017. My main focus is establishing greater collaboration with associations with similar interests, and bringing the awareness of gender issues into the public eye.  I am a member of the American Men's Studies Association and the Massachusetts Psychological Association where I co-founded a special interest group on men’s issues.