The Power of Presence, Possibility, and the Paradoxical Theory of Change in Therapy

Instructor
Dr. Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D.

Save the Date!
1-day in-person Seminar
Saturday, December 6, 2025
9:30am – 2:30pm

Location
The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training
6401 Ruby Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90042

5 CEs offered for qualifying professionals.

Registration Link Coming Soon.

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. This workshop invites clinicians 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.

Through a blend of didactic presentation, group discussion, experiential exercises, and potential demonstration work, 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. 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. Dr. Lynne Jacobs will guide participants through an immersive gestalt experience that illuminates the subtle interplay between therapist presence and client possibility. 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.

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

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When Therapy Gets Spicy: Navigating Sex, Alt. Relationships, and Gender in the Therapy Room