When Worlds Collide: Integrating Body-Based and Relational Depth in Therapy

In-person Workshop

Instructors
Michelle Harwell, LMFT, PsyD
Jessica Richards, MS, LCSW

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

CEs
2 CEs for qualifying professionals

Fee
Early Registration, Until November 5
$60 licensed / $40 unlicensed & students

Late Registration, Nov 5 - Nov 15
$75 licensed / $50 unlicensed & students

Course Description
"Worlds are colliding!"
George Costanza's panic echoed through that iconic Seinfeld episode—his carefully compartmentalized life threatening to implode. Keep Relationship George separate from Independent George. Never let the worlds touch. Sound familiar?

How often we therapists do the same; keeping body-based, bottom-up approaches in one corner and relational psychoanalytic work in another. But what if, unlike George, we embraced the collision?

Join Jessica Richards, MS, LCSW, and Michelle Harwell, LMFT, PsyD, as they demonstrate why these seemingly disparate approaches should not just coexist—they need each other. Framed by a case presentation, Richards will respond through the lens of the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF), and Harwell through a relational psychoanalytic approach. We will see how the NRF accesses the nervous system's wisdom through sensation, movement, and implicit memory while the psychoanalytic illuminate meaning-making, attachment patterns, and the co-created therapeutic relationship. Both will reveal how a dysregulated nervous system can't access insight, and how insight without embodiment remains an abstract concept.

Watch as Richards tracks the nervous system's underground rivers while Harwell illuminates the relational currents flowing between therapist and client. A body that feels safe enough to settle can finally access the insights waiting beneath, and psychoanalytic depth without somatic grounding leaves clients stranded in their heads. Together, we will see how these approaches don’t just complement the other, they complete each other.

Rather than keeping these worlds apart, Richards and Harwell will show how integration results in a more powerful and holistic therapeutic approach, enriching your practice and the healing of your patients and clients.

Instructor Credentials

Jessica Richards, MS, MSW, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in providing therapeutic services to young children and families. With over fifteen years of clinical experience, advanced knowledge in using the NeuroRelational Framework as well as Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Jessica has a deep expertise in both top-down (thinking and feeling) and bottom-up (sensorimotor) work with individuals and families. Jessica holds a unique dual Masters in Clinical Social Work and Child Development. She is endorsed in California as an Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist and Reflective Practice Facilitator II. Her diverse experiences range from Inpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to community mental health in South Central Los Angeles. Jessica was the lead therapist for the child welfare court team pilot program Fostering Family Partnerships in Los Angeles. With over 200 speaking engagements locally and internationally, she has enlightened countless child welfare, legal, mental health, and education professionals. She has been a keynote speaker and presented at Zero to Three and the World Association for Infant Mental Health.

Michelle Harwell, PsyD, LMFT #50732 is the founder of The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training. She is an expert trainer, respected speaker, and licensed therapist in trauma, development, and attachment. She is noted for her specialization in areas of development, attachment, trauma, and neuroscience, and her ability to communicate complex topics with clarity and humor. Michelle completed her doctorate in Psychoanalysis from The Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. She received her BA in English Literature from University of Oklahoma, MA in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology.