ESALEN ORIGIN STORIES

 the price house

“Trust process. Follow process. Get out of the way. In other words, allow the space for what is happening without suppression, and with trust.”
— Dick Price, Co-Founder of Esalen Institute

The Price House was first referred to as the Little House, and served as the residence of Esalen co-founder Dick Price and his family. Dick and Chris moved in just before their daughter, Jenny, was born in 1974. The three lived in the Little House, which was “Gestalt Central,’ until Dick’s passing in 1985.

David, Dick’s son, lived there intermittently, and later served as Esalen’s general manager from 1995–2003. Chris and Jenny left the Little House in 1988, and Chris continued to teach there, passing on the gestalt tradition to her daughter, Rudi. David continued to work at Esalen until he moved his family to Poland in 2006.

* Photo, top: The Price House, 2025. Credit: Sam Stern