Gestalt practice

Richard "Dick" Price

Gestalt practice is a contemporary form of personal exploration and integration developed by Dick Price at the Esalen Institute.[1][2] The objective of the practice is to become more fully aware of the process of living within a unified field of body, mind, relationship, earth and spirit.[2][3]

The term gestalt comes from the psychological theory of the same name, which stressed that human perception was based on patterns. Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman later applied the term to a type of therapy which focused on experience and context. Dick Price's Gestalt practice was partially based on the Gestalt therapy which Perls and others created.[1]

Alan Watts, who was a mentor of Price, suggested combining practices from the cultures of East and West.[4] Price took the writings of Nyanaponika Thera[5] and Zen Roshi Shunryū Suzuki, abbot of the nearby Tassajara Zen Mountain Center,[6] as sources of Buddhist meditation practice. Gestalt practice was the term Price used to describe his combination of these Eastern and Western traditions. This term distinguished the practice Price taught from both Gestalt therapy and Buddhist practice.[7]

  1. ^ a b Goldman (2012).
  2. ^ a b Kripal (2007).
  3. ^ Goldman (2012), pp. 176ff, "Gestalt Practice exercise".
  4. ^ Watts (1961).
  5. ^ Thera (1954).
  6. ^ Suzuki (1971).
  7. ^ Kripal (2007), p. 172.