Bio

Martha Sweezy is an assistant professor, part time, in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a program consultant and supervisor at Cambridge Health Alliance, and a psychotherapist in private practice in Northampton, MA.

After using psychodynamic psychotherapy, DBT, and EMDR with severely traumatized individuals in community mental health at Cambridge Health Alliance for more than 18 years, she discovered internal family systems therapy (IFS). After going through all the levels of IFS training on offer, she began to write about her clinical experiences. First, she published the two articles on IFS in peer reviewed journals in 2010. Then, with Ellen Ziskind, she edited two volumes on various applications of the IFS model. After this, she teamed up with Toni Herbine-Blank and Donna Kerpelman to write a book on the IFS couple therapy Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO). In 2018, she co-authored a manual on IFS with Frank Anderson and Richard Schwartz. In 2019, she co-authored a 2nd edition of Dr. Schwartz’s first book on IFS, Internal Family Systems Therapy, 2nd edition. In 2021, she published a co-authored manual on IFIO (IFS couple therapy) with Toni Herbine-Blank. In 2023, she published a co-authored manual on IFS for treating addictive processes with Cece Sykes, and wrote a book on IFS for shame and guilt.

Martha grew up with wonderfully interesting parents in Cambridge, MA. Her mother, Nancy Sweezy, was instrumental at the legendary folk music venue Club 47, revived and managed Jugtown Pottery in North Carolina, wrote Raised in Clay and several other books, founded Refugee Arts Group to work with refugees from Southeast Asia and was finally awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the NEA for her work in traditional arts. Her father, Paul Sweezy, the founder of Monthly Review magazine and press, and the author (with Paul Baran) of Monopoly Capital and numerous other books.

 

Education and Training

  • IFS Levels 1, 2, 3
  • IFS Program assistant in Levels 1, 2, 3
  • IFIO Couple therapy Levels 1 & 2 
  • Also trained in: DBT, EMDR, IFS, IFIO
  • Ph.D. Smith College School for Social Work, August 1997
  • Master of Social Work, Smith College School for Social Work, August 1990
  • Master of Creative Writing, Boston University, 1983