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In Person

When Therapy Stalls: Working with Resistance

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Information

Date & Time

Location

  • 6251 Mango Tree Rd
    Columbia, Maryland 21044

Description

This presentation explores how therapists can understand and respond when therapy becomes "stuck". It presents resistance as a creative adaptation rather than simply client unwillingness, encouraging therapists to explore its purpose and recognize where contact is interrupted. The presentation emphasizes present-moment awareness, therapist-client connection, and experiential techniques to increase flexibility and help therapy move forward.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is for participants to rethink resistance as an opportunity to identify interruptions in therapist-client contact, and apply present-moment awareness and experiential techniques to strengthen therapeutic connection, increase flexibility, and facilitate movement in the therapeutic process.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least four common patterns of therapeutic impasse and consider resistance as a form of creative adaptation

  • Examine how interruptions in contact contribute to therapeutic stalling, including the therapist's participation in the relational process.

  • Apply at least two Gestalt-experiential principles to increase present-moment awareness and facilitate movement when therapy becomes stuck

Target Audience

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

Presenters

Arielle Seidler is a licensed clinical social worker based in Maryland who specializes in supporting individuals and couples navigating addiction, attachment trauma, and relational challenges. She brings over a decade of experience to her work, offering a grounded, experiential approach to healing that helps clients deepen self-awareness, shift long-standing patterns, and build more connected relationships. Her work is relational, non-pathologizing, and grounded in the belief that meaningful change happens through connection, curiosity, and compassionate challenge. Arielle earned her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice in 2013. She went on to complete a three-year intensive training at the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Philadelphia (GTIP), which continues to inform her relational, present-centered style. She also draws on techniques from experiential therapy and psychodrama to support embodied insight and emotional processing. In her work with couples, Arielle integrates tools from Relational Life Therapy (RLT) and Imago Therapy while always anchoring her approach in the moment-to-moment dynamics of the relationship. Her clinical work is particularly attuned to the ways addiction and early attachment wounds impact emotional regulation, intimacy, and trust. Arielle’s background includes leadership roles in addiction treatment settings, where she helped develop and run family therapy programming and supervised clinical teams. Today, she provides therapy and clinical supervision at (Re)Connect Therapy Center, where she also supports day-to-day operations.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Alpas Wellness