The Power of the Whole and Esalen's Gestalt Course for Staff

For decades, Esalen has been a leader in the application of the Gestalt psychology model to lifelong personal growth, integral education and community life.

In August of this year, Esalen’s Staff Education Committee brought to life a Gestalt course for staff led by longtime Esalen faculty Steven Harper, whose work on Gestalt, mindfulness, somatic practices and wild nature as a pathway for awakening, have produced significant ripple effects for individuals near and far.

“I’ve always felt that the more people that are taught this modality—not that they have to use it or become Gestalt therapists—the better our communication gets,” says Esalen Programs Specialist Kai Harper, who helped spearhead the Gestalt course.

“And the better we understand each other, that kind of group learning brings us closer together as a community.”

It also allows individuals in a group setting, whether it be familial, socially or in work environments, to understand themselves and one another on an entirely new level.

Gestalt Therapy’s rich history at Esalen began in 1964 when German-born psychotherapist Fritz Perls arrived and passionately taught here for five years. Esalen co-founder Dick Price, influenced by Fritz's work, eventually added dimensions from other traditions to create his own unique Gestalt Practice, which is now deeply embedded in Esalen's DNA.

The Gestalt model, with its emphasis on personal responsibility and being in the present moment, was also unique in that it helped establish that our perception and understanding of the world is an active, constructive process, deeply conditioned by emotion, expectation, embodiment, relationships and culture.

This means our experience of the world is somewhat fluid—always experimental, always an interpretive process, always open to larger and deeper perspectives and understandings.

Classic/traditional behaviorist models at the time Gestalt blossomed primarily revolved around basic stimulus-response or reward conditions. Gestalt offered another possibility—to realize and experience that our behavior is determined by our individual and shared meaning-making. As a result, deeper awareness, contact and dialogue with self and others offered outlets for something transformational.

“This was the first program that Esalen’s Staff Education Committee put on,” says Kai, who is also the son of Steve Harper. “The effort was to bring back a culture of student-ship amongst the staff that if they want to learn, there are very few boundaries in the way of having them learn and have access to a tradition that has supported this community for decades.”

Kai also likes to point out what he feels are the “three jewels of Gestalt," which can be attributed to Dick Price: awareness, choice and trust.

“In my understanding, the only way to make a conscious choice and actually have change, is to be aware, so we have to build up this muscle of awareness,” he says. “Without awareness there is no opportunity to make a conscious choice. Without awareness, we are ruled by our patterns. We are ruled by our traumas. We are ruled by our regular ways of navigating the world. But if we bring the awareness tool in, we get to see what the patterns are and that leads into choice.”

Individuals then have the opportunity, as conscious beings, to choose to go down the road of old patterning or go down a different way. “Choice is not always easy,” Kai adds. “And that’s important to understand in this process. Because patterns have momentum.”

During the six-week process, Steven led staff through the Gestalt modality, which begins with awareness itself—awareness of self, awareness of others, awareness of relationship and support in the shared experiential field. In this framework, individuals are each responsible for the meanings and experiences they create—and at the same time co-responsible for the conditions of safety and support for others to engage in deeper awareness and communications practice.

Gestalt-informed dialogue, communication based on inquiry, transparency and a shared commitment to understanding each communication from others “from the inside,” was also part of the curriculum.

Imagine, then, what’s possible among one’s team members when the goal of dialogue is not to overcome in debate, but to evolve one’s perspective toward greater inclusiveness and complexity. Meaning … owning our own fears, projections, and assumptions as they are challenged, and as they come into awareness.

To that end, staff experienced a collaborative process that not only shed light onto their own inner worlds but allowed them to hear others in new ways and, perhaps, communicate even more effectively.

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