Supervision

WHEN PEOPLE TALK, LISTEN COMPLETELY. MOST PEOPLE NEVER LISTEN. -ERNEST HEMINGWAY

I think listening well is an art. Muriel Dimen PhD, a brilliant listener and psychoanalytic writer, quotes Emily Dickison,“Tell it slant.” But she says instead, “Listen slant.” In other words, listen for the space in between, the place where reality seems air tight, zipped up, vacuum sealed.  It is in that space, we can truly begin to see anew. As a relational psychoanalyst and supervisor, I see my primary task as helping clinicians learn to listen from the inside out, to listen for what is evoked in the mind and body. This requires an apprenticeship of one's own interior, to learn to roam about internally with a promiscuity, to let our imaginations reign free in service of the client. It is a practice that must be cultivated and continually refined.

As a relational psychoanalyst with over a thousands of hours clocked working with parents and children, I bring a unique blend of theoretical depth and lived experience to the consulting room. I am also an expert trainer in DIR/Floortime and the Neuro-Relational Framework. I provide supervision and case consultation to individuals and groups.

Michelle Harwell, PsyD, LMFT (50732) is an expert trainer, respected speaker, and licensed therapist in trauma, development, and attachment. She is a certified yoga instructor and seeks to help her clients better understand how the body is often the first speaker to life's experiences: joy, stress, or even trauma. 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 has worked extensively with adults and children with severe disruptions in early life-care.  This includes foster and adoptive families, attachment issues, child development, and healthy parenting. She is an infant mental health consultant for a variety of non-profits and community mental health teams. She is the co-author of Floortime Strategies to Promote Development in Children and Teens: A User’s Guide to the DIR® Model, a curriculum for parents and professionals to help young people with social, emotional, and cognitive challenges.

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.