The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training

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The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training

Bringing back talk therapy
Keeping Eagle Rock & Highland Park weird
➰

Our team of warm and experienced therapists provide psychotherapy services for children, adolescents, adults, families, and couples looking to strengthen their relationships and lead fulfilling lives. Michelle Harwell founded the practice in 2011 to support families in the process of adoption through counseling, trainings, and consultation services. Since then, the practice has grown to serve wide

range of clients seeking growth and restored relationships. Located in Eagle Rock neighborhood, we serve the residents in Northeast LA, Pasadena, and surrounding neighborhoods.

04/08/2026

Sunday, June 7, 2026
10:00–12:00pm PST

Location
Online Course.

Drawing from Lacan and Freud’s teaching, this course will explore the concepts of transference and countertransference. We will put emphasis on how Lacan extended transference beyond an emotional projection of the patient’s internal world and described the symbolic phenomenon and attribution of knowledge. We will discuss how the mobilization of the patient’s unconscious desire is a necessary “lure” that allows for the analysis of their subjective reality. We will also explore how countertransference is considered to be the projection of the analyst’s own prejudices, passions, and obstacles and it should not be used as an interpretative tool.

This course offers an introduction or refresher on Lacanian concepts for clinicians at all levels of training. Reading material will be shared with registrants before the course to deepen discussion.

Bibliography:

Fink, B. (1997) A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lacan, Jacques. ( 2017). Transference. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Oxford, England: Polity Press.

03/18/2026

We parent from somewhere. And until we know where, our children often carry what we haven’t yet faced.

This is a familiar idea in theory and a surprisingly difficult one to work with in practice. Parent work is where many of us feel least sure of ourselves: uncertain how to engage what a parent brings without either managing it or getting lost in it, unsure how to be useful without becoming directive, and quietly aware that what the parent stirs in us is itself clinical information we don’t always know how to use. Many of us were trained to work with the child. The parent, their history, their blind spots, and their grief is often where our confidence runs out.

This workshop is for those clinicians.

Join psychoanalyst and educator Eileen Paris, Ph.D. for a full-day experiential workshop exploring the relational foundations of parenting and what gets in the way. Drawing on contemporary psychoanalytic theory, somatic awareness, and decades of clinical experience, Dr. Paris guides clinicians through the dynamics that most profoundly organize the parent-child relationship: intergenerational transmission, projective identification, somatic enactment, and the unconscious ways a parent’s own developmental history shapes what they perceive in their child...and what they cannot yet see.

At the heart of this work is a problem clinicians encounter constantly but don’t always have language for: a parent who cannot quite see their child. Not because they don’t love them, but because their own history is in the way; filtering their child’s behavior through the lens of their own unresolved experience, and making it genuinely difficult to distinguish what the child needs from what the parent fears, expects, or cannot bear. Learning to recognize this dynamic and to open a genuine reflective dialogue with parents about it is among the most transformative skills a child clinician can develop.

03/05/2026

We’re back baby! Shrinks & Drinks is back. 🥂

Three evenings. Three analysts. Three conversations worth having.

Mar 13 — Holly Han on what substance use knows before language does
Mar 27 — Gabrielle Taylor on mortality, aliveness, and what we carry into the room
Apr 17 — Tiffaney Hale on gender, sexuality, and holding space for what resists resolution

Come as you are, wherever you are in your training. Tickets $15. All March 13th proceeds benefit The Malama Collective.
Fridays, 4:30–6:30pm @ The Alamo, Highland Park 🔗 Link in bio

11/07/2025

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 and Michelle Harwell 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 lens. 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.

Link in bio

06/12/2025

We are excited to announce our community summer series! In June, July, and August and September we will be hosting four psychoanalysts who will offer a themed case consultation. We will provide the shrinks and the drinks, you bring the appetizing case material!

Friday, June 13th: Consulting Psychoanalyst Dr. Michelle Harwell will offer case consultation on contemporary relational approach to frame and boundary issues.

Friday, July 11th: Consulting Psychoanalyst Dr. Lilly Gallay will offer case consultation on parallel regression.

Friday, August 8th: Consulting Psychoanalyst Dr. Justin Shubert will offer case consultation on repetition compulsion.

Friday, September 12th: Consulting Psychoanalyst Dr. Aimee Martinez wii offer case consultation on the search for self within relational dynamics marked by asymmetry and longing.

For more info or to register, check out the link in our bio!

04/18/2025

Join us for this immersive, in-person seminar where Dr. Philip A. Ringstrom, Ph.D., Psy.D., will guide clinicians through his innovative 6-step approach to relational psychoanalytic work with couples. This all-day intensive workshop combines theoretical foundations with practical applications, case presentations, and collaborative discussion.

Whether you’re an experienced therapist or newer to the field, this seminar offers valuable insights into the complex dimensions of couples counseling through a relational psychoanalytic lens. Dr. Ringstrom will explore essential themes including:

Self-actualization within intimate relationships
The dynamics of mutual recognition
Understanding “the relationship having a mind of its own”
Throughout the day, we’ll examine each of the six interlocking steps of Dr. Ringstrom’s technique and develop a deeper understanding of both symmetrical and asymmetrical approaches to couples work. You’ll leave with fresh perspectives on the transferences at play in couples therapy and renewed curiosity and engagement with your couples clients.

Dr. Ringstrom’s approach fills an important gap in contemporary psychoanalysis by offering a comprehensively relational framework for psychoanalytically oriented couples treatment. His model integrates ideas from numerous relational psychoanalytic thinkers while also drawing from other psychoanalytic traditions and social sciences.

The workshop will explore how developmental histories, gender, culture, and dissociated self-states impact couples dynamics, and provide practical strategies for facilitating self-actualization, mutual recognition, and relationship renegotiation. Dr. Ringstrom will illustrate his approach with rich case material drawn from over thirty years of clinical practice.

01/15/2025

Join us for an intimate and meaningful dialogue about navigating our roles as practicing clinicians while we, too, carry the weight of collective trauma from the Los Angeles fires. This free community conversation will create space for clinicians to explore how we maintain our therapeutic presence while processing our own grief and anxiety, recognizing that our therapeutic encounters are inevitably shaped by this shared moment of community crisis.
Facilitated by Dr. Michelle Harwell in conversation with Dr. George Bermudez, who will share from his lived experience of losing his home to the fires, and Dr. Peter Maduro, whose voice as a fellow Angeleno clinician will help us navigate this tender terrain. This discussion aims to address the complex dynamics of being both a healing presence for others while acknowledging our own vulnerabilities and losses, how our own raw edges and vulnerabilities meet our patients’ suffering, and how these shared experiences of loss reshape the therapeutic relationship in profound and meaningful ways.
Our conversation will explore the parallel process of how our own grief lives alongside our commitment to our patients, and how finding refuge in our professional community becomes essential when collective trauma touches us all. We’ll reflect together on those moments when our own emotional world meets our clinical work - when shared suffering opens new depths in the therapeutic relationship, and when we struggle to hold the delicate balance between being both container and contained. Rather than a didactic presentation, this will be an opportunity for authentic dialogue and shared experience, grounding ourselves in the understanding that healing happens within and through relationships.

Link in bio!

12/31/2023

We hope you had a warm and connected holiday season. And we are wishing you a bright and vitalizing 2024! We look forward to bringing our community some enriching and innovative trainings in the New Year…Stay tuned! - MHT

05/31/2023

It's finally here! This summer Dr. Harwell is facilitating a free conversational online class on relational psychoanalysis.

We believe clinicians are hungry for spaces that offer vitality, complexity, and a deep relationality that makes room for recognition of otherness and belonging; dialogue that sheds the suffocating malaise of moral hierarchy and risks something real and vulnerable to know one another, to feel one another a little more. And we think relational psychoanalysis in its ideals offers us the potential of this kind of authentic encounter.

Dr. Michelle Harwell will be facilitating this FREE online community class on relational psychoanalysis where you will witness honest and vulnerable dialogue with leading contemporary relational thinkers exploring the radical roots of relational psychoanalysis, where it is heading, what it continues to offer a younger generation of therapists, and what we must address to remain relevant.

Trust us, you don’t want to miss this lineup! For more info, click the link in our bio.

04/27/2023

MHT is proud to offer a new in-person consultation group solely for clinicians of color in North East Los Angeles led by Pilar Haile-Damato, LCSW. Our monthly meetings will provide an opportunity for practicing clinicians to gather together to present cases, learn more about psychodynamic theory, process experiences, and most importantly, belong. This offering is for POC clinicians with a current caseload. There is a pre-screening interview prior to joining this group. DM us for more info! Link in bio.

12/26/2022

Wishing you a warm and heartfelt holiday season to all! - the MHT Community

12/23/2022

We are excited to announce that we are hiring! We are seeking engaged and creative clinicians who desire to be a part of our vibrant learning community. If this is you, reach out by by emailing us at info@michelleharwelltherapy.com

A little about us:

We are a group of psychotherapists dedicated to the creativity that life demands to be fully alive and we take our craft seriously. We are committed to deep reflection and deliberate action in the world.

On a daily basis, we engage in top-notch collegial consultation and high quality supervision, which holds and supports the heartbeat of our clinical work. We offer a highly engaged learning community that is like no other you will meet. Our innovative and integrative training program blends contemporary psychoanalytic theory with an interdisciplinary approach that appreciates body-based and brain-based approaches.

Currently we are seeking two licensed therapist to join our community, with specific emphasis on clinicians with experience in child and family and/or couples work. If that's you or you know someone who might be a good fit for our community, reach out! Let's start a conversation.

-M

Address

Los Angeles, CA
90042

Website

http://www.thealamopsychotherapy.com/

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Mary Kay Cocharo, MFT
11500 W. Olympic, Suite 614

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