Gestalt Practice is a contemporary form of personal exploration and integration developed by Dick Price at the Esalen Institute. 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.
The term gestalt was originally used to describe a theory of psychology 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.
Alan Watts, who was a mentor of Price, suggested combining practices from the cultures of East and West. Price took the writings of Nyanaponika Thera and the nearby presence of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center 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.
Practice, not therapy
Gestalt Practice distinguishes itself as an awareness practice rather than a form of therapy because it does not purport to “cure” any psychological symptoms. Keeping with this distinction, it does not employ the roles of patient and therapist. Instead, it relies upon the interaction between two equal partners, namely an initiator of awareness work and a reflector. As Dick Price conceived of Gestalt Practice, if a "patient" wants to do Gestalt work with a "therapist" then they belong in Gestalt therapy.
However, some aspects of Gestalt Practice are derived from the theory of Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt Practice incorporates some typical Gestalt awareness experiments borrowed from the Gestalt therapy model, along with eclectic techniques of meditation, physical exercise, environmentalism, contemplation, and spiritual practice.
Inception
Gestalt Practice is an amalgam of awareness practices. Lao Tzu was one of the most significant Asian influences on Price. Otherwise, the primary influences on the development of Gestalt Practice were Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich, Alan Watts, Nyanaponika Thera, Shunryu Suzuki, Frederic Spiegelberg, Rajneesh, Joseph Campbell, Gregory Bateson, and Stanislav Grof, as well as many other scholars who were in residence at Esalen Institute during the two decades that Price led the Institute.
Price worked with Perls for approximately four years at Esalen, between 1966 and 1970. Then Perls told Price that it was time for him to start teaching Gestalt on his own. Price was impressed with the similarities between Gestalt and mindfulness meditation, which he used with insights from Eastern religions and altered state research to develop Gestalt Practice.
Modalities
Gestalt practitioners teach mindfulness skills, using a wide variety of methods not limited by the psychotherapeutic model. All Gestalt Practice techniques emphasize experience over analysis. Besides the standard Gestalt exercises that characterized Gestalt therapy, Dick Price widened the approach by incorporating novel techniques from such disciplines as meditation, shamanism, compassion practice, and spiritual contemplation. Thus, Gestalt Practice became a personalized form of consciousness exploration beyond the limits of psychotherapy. A partial list of the modalities used in Gestalt Practice includes the following:
Gestalt Practice work may involve the reporting of present awareness, and the integration of awareness through intrapsychic dialogue between aspects of personality. This kind of work, borrowed from Gestalt therapy, is often practiced as a shared experiment between two partners working together as a "dyad." Phenomenological techniques like these are based upon the belief that subjective experience is worthy of direct attention, without the interference of preexisting ideas or interpretations.
Somatic awareness may be the focus of Gestalt exercises. Awareness of breathing is emphasized because it promotes the immediate experience of the body. Dramatic interventions, typical of body-oriented Reichian therapy or Bioenergetics, generally are not used in Gestalt Practice. However, an initiator’s awareness naturally may be directed toward areas of tension or holding. A scan of body feelings and sensations, similar to forms of Buddhist meditation can enhance awareness practice. And movement exercises such as tai chi, yoga, dance, art, hiking, chanting, singing, and massage may be used to integrate awareness of the body.