What Is the SWEET Institute

“I’ve taken so many courses,” she said, quietly. “Why do I still feel like nothing is changing?”

She wasn’t uneducated.
She was overeducated, and under-transformed.

This is one of the most common experiences among professionals, leaders, clinicians, and lifelong learners today. Studies reveal what many people feel intuitively: information alone does not change behavior (Merriam & Bierema, 2014; Knowles et al., 2020).

Yet most education systems are still designed as if it does.

The Gap Between Knowing and Becoming

Adult learning science has long established that adults do not learn the way children do. Adults bring:

• Prior identity
• Lived experience
• Emotional history
• Values
• Resistance
• Responsibility

When education ignores these factors, learning becomes superficial, no matter how “advanced” the content (Mezirow, 2000).

At SWEET, this gap is our starting point.

A Conversation That Happens Often at SWEET

Learner: “So what’s the right answer?”
Facilitator: “Before we go there—tell me what you notice”
(Pause.)
Learner: “No one has ever asked me that in a course before.”

That pause is not accidental.

It is pedagogical.

Research on transformative learning shows that change occurs when learners are guided to examine assumptions, not just absorb content (Mezirow, 2000; Taylor & Cranton, 2012).

SWEET Is Built on How Adults Actually Change

Neuroscience helps explain this phenomenon. Durable learning requires:

• Emotional engagement
• Meaning-making
• Active participation
• Repeated application across contexts

Passive learning activates recognition memory, but not behavioral circuitry (Immordino-Yang, 2016; Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

This is why SWEET does not prioritize speed, volume, or performance.

We prioritize depth, coherence, and integration.

A Case Example: Same Content, Different Outcome

Two clinicians attend a trauma training.

Both hear the same material.

• One leaves inspired—but untransformed.
• The other leaves unsettled, reflective, and begins practicing differently.

What made the difference?

The difference was not explained by intelligence, or motivation, or method.

At SWEET, learning environments are intentionally designed to:

• Slow thinking down
• Invite reflection
• Encourage dialogue
• Translate insight into lived behavior

This aligns with evidence showing that active, reflective, socially mediated learning leads to deeper retention and transfer (Kolb, 2015; Lave & Wenger, 1991).

The SWEET Paradigm

SWEET integrates:

• Socratic inquiry
• Guided discovery
• Collective learning
• Critical thinking
• Mastery under real-world conditions

We move learners:

• From external authority → internal clarity
• From intellectual insight → embodied capacity
• From doing more → seeing differently

One Philosophy, Many Pathways

Whether through:

• One-hour series
• Two-hour seminars
• Certificate programs
• Weekend intensives
• Self-study
• Bibliotherapy
• Community membership
• Supervision and coaching

…the underlying learning architecture remains the same.

Because consistency is what builds capacity.

The Invitation

• If you are ready for learning that:
• Respects your intelligence
• Challenges your assumptions
• Strengthens your internal compass
• Translates directly into life and work

Then SWEET is not just something you attend.

It’s something you practice.

Scientific References

• Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Harvard UP, 2014.
• Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen. Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience. W. W. Norton, 2016.
• Knowles, Malcolm S., Elwood F. Holton III, and Richard A. Swanson. The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 9th ed., Routledge, 2020.
• Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. 2nd ed., Pearson Education, 2015.
• Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge UP, 1991.
• Merriam, Sharan B., and Laura L. Bierema. Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice. Jossey-Bass, 2014.
• Mezirow, Jack. Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. Jossey-Bass, 2000.
• Taylor, Edward W., and Patricia Cranton, editors. The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice. Jossey-Bass, 2012.