The Power of Presence, Possibility, and the Paradoxical Theory of Change in Therapy
Instructor
Dr. Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D.
Date and Time
1-day in-person Seminar
Saturday, December 13, 2025
9:00am – 3:00pm
Location
The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training
6401 Ruby Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90042
CEs
5 CEs for qualifying professionals
Registration
Early Bird Rate, EXTENDED! Now until Dec. 3
$250 licensed / $175 unlicensed & students
Late Registration, Dec 4 - 13
$275 licensed / $200 unlicensed & students
In the intricate dance of therapeutic relationship, transformation emerges not from our efforts to change our clients, but paradoxically, from our capacity to fully meet them where they are. This experiential workshop explores the profound intersection of relational psychoanalytic understanding and gestalt principles, examining how our authentic presence becomes the crucible for healing.
At the heart of this exploration lies the paradoxical theory of change—the revolutionary understanding that change occurs when one becomes what one is, not when one tries to become what one is not. Clinicians are invited to deepen their appreciation of how our willingness to inhabit the present moment with our clients, including our own countertransferential responses, creates the fertile ground from which genuine transformation can emerge.
The workshop will blend didactic presentation, group discussion, experiential exercises, and supervision demonstration. Participants will explore how countertransference serves not merely as diagnostic information, but as a living dimension of the therapeutic encounter that, when skillfully engaged, deepens intimacy and facilitates growth.
Dr. Lynne Jacobs will illuminate the subtle interplay between therapist presence and client possibility.
We will investigate how our own emotional responses, bodily sensations, and relational pulls provide essential data about the client's internal world and relational patterns. We will examine how our capacity to stay present with difficult material—both the client's and our own—opens pathways that our interpretive minds alone cannot access.
Lunch and refreshments included.
Schedule
9:00 – 9:20am Welcome / Coffee & Tea
9:20 – 11:00 Session 1: Intertwining IST and Gestalt
11:00 – 11:10 Break
11:10 – 12:45 Session 2: Supervision Vignettes
12:45 – 1:20pm Lunch (provided on site)
1:20 – 3:00 Session 3: Questions and Deepening
Instructor Credentials
Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D., has long been interested in the relational dimension of psychotherapy, and in integrating humanistic theories with contemporary psychoanalytic theories. She is also interested in what it means to practice as a white therapist in culturally diverse environments. Both a gestalt therapist and a psychoanalyst, she is a co-founder of the Pacific Gestalt Therapy Institute and training and faculty analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in Los Angeles. She teaches at ICP, and teaches gestalt therapists locally, nationally, and internationally. She has published two books (with Rich Hycner) as well as numerous articles in both gestalt and psychoanalytic journals.
For more information or questions contact us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com
Refund policy: Participants seeking a refund can email us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com at least 15 days before the first meeting. Refunds requested 15 days or earlier will receive 100% refund. 14-7 days prior, participants are eligible for a 50% refund. No refund will be provided 6 days prior or less.
Course attendance certificates awarded within 21 days of end of course.
Course meets the qualifications for 5 hours of continuing education credit for PhD, LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the American Psychological Association and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training is a dba of Michelle Harwell Therapy. Michelle Harwell Therapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Michelle Harwell Therapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
No known conflict of interest or commercial support for Michelle Harwell Therapy, The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training, or the instructor.
Contact Us
To request accommodations for special needs, obtain the grievance policy, report a grievance, request a refund, request more information about the course, or if you have general questions, please email us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com