Setting Realistic Relationship Goals

Guest Bio: Holly Parker, PhD

Dr. Holly Parker, or Dr. Holly as she’s more playfully known, is a psychologist with a passion for walking alongside people as they invest in their future selves by cultivating a more enriching, vibrant life in the here and now.

She obtained her PhD in Experimental Psychopathology from Harvard University, where she conducted research and was a Karen Stone Fellow and Sackler Scholar. Filled with a fire in her belly to uplift people through human connection too, Dr. Parker re-specialized in Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Presently, she zestfully engages in clinical work, teaching, public education, and writing. She’s a lecturer at Harvard University, where she teaches the popular course, "The Psychology of Close Relationships." She’s also a practicing psychologist and an associate director of training at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.

In her clinical practice, Dr. Parker has worked with people across an array of issues, including thriving relationships, self-esteem, trauma, mood, anxiety, emotion regulation, health and lifestyle, addiction, grief and loss, and those varied spaces in life that are formidable yet ultimately freeing to face.

She is the author of two books... When Reality Bites: How Denial Helps and What to Do When It Hurts (Hazelden Press; August 30, 2016) is a guided tour through the benefits and the pitfalls of denial. If We’re Together, Why Do I Feel So Alone?: How to Build Intimacy with an Emotionally Unavailable Partner (Berkley/NAL; January 3, 2017) accompanies readers, hoping to mend emotional unavailability in their romantic relationship.

She also delves into an assortment of topics on the dappled road of life in her blog and in media interviews through outlets such as SELF Magazine, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Prevention, Chicago Tribune, ABC News, Saturday Evening Post, and Medical Daily.

Dr. Holly lives in Boston with Guille, her extremely cool husband and kindred spirit. She relishes running, studying Spanish, time travel stories, and The Walking Dead, and has no skill whatsoever in pet training.