Workshop Details

In The Feeling of What Happens, Antonio Damasio defines the human organism as "really a sense of self about one moment—now—and about one place—here." This has been the Gestalt point of departure at Esalen for more than forty years.
Using the three E's of Gestalt: Experiment, Experience, and the Existential, you can access the here-and-now as a personal foundation for deepening strength and self-supports in the uncertain present. In effect, we can increase stability as we face an equally uncertain future. This process involves recognizing and experimenting with self as a breathing mechanism within a structure of fixed patterns of behavior. We work toward as much deconstruction of these patterns (fixed gestalts) as possible to allow deeper and truer contact with self and with group members who, in all honesty, are representative of family and others in our lives.
In addition to intrapersonal and interpersonal processes, we address issues of body defenses (armor). We can explore this rebuilding of self-supports together. The new and the unexpected in our lives can then become creative opportunities rooted in our compassionate presence. There will be appropriate didactic work.

LCSW in Connecticut; please see leader.