Synopsis: A master practice and mentoring class in Esalen's BodyMind Practices for therapists, coaches and anyone who would like to experience this original work in the tradition of Fritz Perls and Charlotte Selver.
Seymour Carter is a Senior Sensory Awareness and Gestalt Teacher at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California.
In first half of the workshop, we will be focusing on Sensory Awareness
Practice. In the second half of the workshop, Seymour will work with
someone
in the group (open seat) and then discuss his choices and philosophies.
He is a
true master of Gestalt and was a student of Fritz Perls and Charlotte
Selver. At age 72, he has over 40 years of experience. Anyone will get
a chance to work and/or observe. Space for this master class is very
limited; please book soon.
Awaken to the Process of Vitality; sense, feel and act in the present, be all here!
"Being present" has been the maxim of body/mind practices at Esalen since the sixties. Gestalt and Sensory Awareness, Esalen's Western versions of ancient mindfulness disciplines, have been established for over four decades. Current medical research (Dan Siegel and Jon Kabat-Zinn) has shown the usefulness of present-centered contemplative practices for dealing effectively with a wide range of physical and emotional problems.
This class, designed for teachers, medical professionals, or lay persons interested in mind/body practices, will introduce participants to various ways to overcome stress and anxiety-related episodes, both in themselves and in their clients.
Gestalt Practice and Sensory Awareness have the same goal; To awaken the senses and allow the person to live more fully in the here and now of the present moment.
Sensory Awareness is a profound practice that helps to reintegrate the many facets of life. The focus of this work is to free us from habitual patterns that restrict movement and cause emotional problems. Working with simple activities, walking, sitting, listening, standing, approaching another person, breathing, we will reconnect with the organism’s innate tendency to balance and heal.Through experiential exercises, we will learn how we have employed effortful habitual patterns that have led us to feel discomfort and fatigue. We will get back in touch with the pull of gravity and our breathing, two forces in a constant interplay that keeps us alive. We will restore our innate wisdom trust in our bodies and processes. Our inherent ability for true experience and understanding is alive and available in every moment we choose to be fully present for anything that captures our interest.
Elsa Gindler and Heinrich Jacoby developed this approach to a more natural way of functioning in Germany in the 1920’s. With their students they explored possibilities to overcome habitual behavior and hindrances in order to allow the person’s inner potential to develop. The focus was on reconnecting with the organism’s innate tendencies to balance, renew and heal.
Many students of Gindler and Jacoby have devoted their lives to this work, teaching in many countries. Thanks to Charlotte Selver, it has become an important daily life practice for many people. She decided to call it “Sensory Awareness”.
Through her work, Charlotte was an important factor in the development of the Human Potential Movement and Humanistic Psychology. People like Eric Fromm, Alan Watts, Fritz Perls and Ida Rolf studied with her.
Gestalt practice is not just another form of psychotherapy. Currently, psychotherapy is a collection of cognitive, behavioral and pharmacological methods for the treatment of carefully diagnosed symptoms.
In contrast, Gestalt practice addresses the suffering that arises from a poverty of being. The distinct advantage of this approach for Gestalt practitioners is that they are liberated from the culture wars of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, as well as the marketing strategies of major pharmaceutical companies.
Gestalt practice is a phenomenological-existential process of self discovery. Basically, Gestalt is an awareness practice in which present sensing, feeling and acting are emphasized over analysis. In Gestalt practice, explanation is considered less reliable than direct experience.
Gestalt focuses on what exists here and now. Clients of Gestalt practitioners are alerted to the difference between talking about what occurred a few minutes ago, or yesterday, or ten years ago, as opposed to experiencing what is happening right now. In Gestalt practice the client learns to discriminate between ideas and experience, between habitual patterns of thought and new ways of being. Gestalt practitioners help their clients understand the ongoing process of being-in-the-world. Gestalt practice teaches a client how to use their internal and external awareness so they can become self-supportive. Through here-and-now experiments, awareness is enhanced, and clients discover their capacity for self-regulation and self-responsibility.
About Seymour Carter
Seymour Carter calls himself "Esalen's resident alien, a secular sceptic in a utopian sub-culture". He has been a Gestalt teacher at Esalen for more than three decades and is a lifelong student of the ever evolving models of personal identity. He teaches Gestalt Practice and Sensory Awareness in the US and Europe. He was a student of Fritz Perls at Esalen in the 60's, and has been a student of Charlotte Selver since 1967 until her death in 2003. He combines studies in family systems theory with Buddhism, Sensory Awareness and other Mind/Body oriented practices.
In 1936, Seymour Carter was born in Spokane, Washington, on the edge of the penetration of Western European culture into the lands of Native American people. Growing up surrounded by Native American people of vastly different ways of life, he was early and deeply moved into the questions of identity.
From 1950 to 1962, his major interest was the study of graphic arts. In 1963 he began his studies of the natural sciences at San Francisco State University, concentrating on Psychology, Cultural Anthropology, and Linguistics.
He participated in and was deeply influenced by the revolutionary student movements of this era of U.S. history. He continues to be fascinated by the political issues of a personal identity and personal development.
Please find more information about Seymour Carter and Gestalt/Sensory Awareness, here.
This workshop will be offered soon again. Please contact us, and you will be added to the wait list.
