Gestalt Awareness Practice

Gestalt Awareness practice grew out of the work and service of Dick Price, founder and director of Esalen Institute. Eighteen months of involuntary hospitalization fueled Dick’s commitment to create an environment where human experience, whether ordinary or extraordinary, could be explored without suppression, coercion or violation. Combining his interest in Buddhist practice with his Taoist approach to life, Dick adapted the Gestalt Therapy he learned from Fritz Perls, creating a method, which many of us continue to follow and teach. At Esalen, and around the world, a new generation of students have found inspiration in the processes and principles he formulated Christine Stewart Price has continued and expanded Dick's teachings since his death 25 years ago.

Gestalt Awareness Practice (GAP) is a form of art, of sport and a spiritual practice. As an art, rather than a science, we value not knowing where the process is going while developing the skill to follow the unfolding experience. Like a sport, this approach is playful and combines pleasure with mastery through practice. As a spiritual practice, it is a course of study, a long term exploration of what it is to be a human being and live a life. This process may sometimes be therapeutic but this is not therapy. Personal problems may be addressed, but this is not a problem solving or self-improvement approach. It is a practice of awareness and being with “what is” in a spirit of inquiry, kindness and openness (aloha). The intended result is a greater ability to be awake and clearly in touch with all of our self and our environment.

For more information about GAP and GAP programs see Christine Stewart Price-www.tribalground.com