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In Person
Emergence 2026: From Pathology to Possibility

The Alchemy of Leadership

Krista Gilbert, PhD, LMFT
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Date & Time

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least two indicators of misalignment between personal and organizational values in behavioral health and social worker leadership decision-making.

  • Identify at least two evidence-based strategies for maintaining leader emotional self-regulation under organizational stress.

  • Describe at least two depth-psychological approaches for working through internal psychological barriers (e.g., defensive reactivity, shadow material) that constrain leadership effectiveness.

  • Apply depth-psychological self-regulation and ethical discernment frameworks to clinical behavioral health and social work leadership and administrative roles to manage supervisor-supervisee power dynamics and maintain client-centered care quality under organizational stress.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is to help behavioral health leaders, supervisors, and administrators integrate ethical clarity, emotional self-regulation, and depth-psychological self-awareness into their professional practice to transform crucible leadership experiences into mature professional wisdom.

Description

Leadership development is often framed as the acquisition of competencies, yet the most consequential growth in a leader's career arrives through crucible experiences — moments of pressure, failure, loss, and moral conflict that transform the leader from the inside out. Drawing on depth psychology and the alchemical metaphor of turning base material into gold, this session uses four lived leadership narratives — from middle management through the C-suite, including a values rupture with a parent-company executive and being terminated from a senior role — to illuminate how adversity becomes the raw material of leadership maturation.

Participants will examine three interwoven capacities that distinguish leaders who are transformed by difficulty from those who are merely damaged by it: ethical clarity, emotional self-regulation, and the capacity for honest inner work. The session explores how leaders distinguish competence from integrity, discern misalignment between personal and organizational values, and remain grounded under threat to preserve decision quality and relational trust. Additionally, it addresses how unexamined patterns — defensive reactivity, idealization of authority, and disowned "shadow" material — quietly constrain leadership effectiveness and personal wellbeing. These capacities are directly relevant to clinicians who lead teams, supervise, or hold administrative roles. Participants are invited to locate themselves within their developmental arc and engage in the inner work that turns hard experience into wisdom.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Krista Gilbert, PhD, LMFT
Krista Gilbert, PhD, LMFT is a 30-year veteran in behavioral health and the CEO of Growing Edge Consulting LLC, a leading advisory firm that partners with senior executives, growth-stage companies and private equity investors in the behavioral health sector. Known for her ability to bring clarity to complexity, Dr. Gilbert combines deep operational expertise with a passion for developing leaders who can sustainably scale organizations. Throughout her career, she has seen that every business challenge is, at its core, a leadership challenge. This insight fuels her work as an executive coach and strategic advisor, where she helps CEOs, founders, and senior teams strengthen alignment, build resilient cultures, and lead with both courage and conviction. Her coaching focuses on helping leaders access their “growing edge”—the place where personal growth becomes a catalyst for organizational performance. Dr. Gilbert previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Northpoint Recovery Holdings, LLC, overseeing 18 inpatient and outpatient addiction and mental health programs across Idaho, Washington, Colorado, and Nebraska, as well as Imagine by Northpoint, the company’s adolescent division. She also served as CEO of Constellation Behavioral Health; held senior leadership roles with Foundations Recovery Network; and led Michael’s House, Alta Mira Treatment Programs, and Bayside Marin. During her tenure at Foundations, the company increased shareholder value 60X across two private equity owners and ultimately sold to Universal Health Services for $350 million. Across all her roles, Dr. Gilbert has remained steadfast in her commitment to building high-performing teams, strengthening leadership bench depth, and fostering cultures grounded in accountability, trust, and clinical excellence. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and human development - helping organizations scale not just bigger, but better.