
Jacqueline Sperling, PhD
Program Director, McLean Anxiety Mastery Program
- Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry
Biography
Jacqueline Sperling, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the co-founder and co-program director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital. She is the author of the young adult nonfiction book “Find Your Fierce: How To Put Social Anxiety in Its Place” and a contributor for Harvard Health Publishing. Dr. Sperling specializes in implementing cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention and working with youth with anxiety disorders and/or obsessive compulsive disorder. She also focuses on caregiver guidance, such as using behavioral parent training, to help families address children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
Dr. Sperling is passionate about disseminating evidence-based information to the community, and she frequently speaks about the impact of social media use on mental health. Moreover, Dr. Sperling is committed to increasing access to care and participates in advocacy at state and federal government levels.
Books

Find Your Fierce
by Jacqueline Sperling, PhD
(Magination Press/American Psychological Association, 2021)
Education & Training
- 2006 BA in Psychology, Duke University
- 2007 MA in Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
- 2010 CPhil in Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
- 2012 PhD in Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
- 2011-2012 Pre-Doctoral Internship, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School
- 2012-2013 Post-Doctoral Fellowship, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
- 2013 Licensed Psychologist, Board of Registration of Psychologists, Commonwealth of Massachusetts