Barry Stevens Burst Out Laughing
As I was thinking about what to write about tonight, I kept gazing at a book still unread called “Burst OUt Laughing” by Barry Stevens. I went to see if it is still in print…used copies are on Amazon.
I did find some files on her by Joe Wysong from the Gestalt Journal. Google Barry Stevens and you’ll find his PDF’s and remembrances. Long ago, when I was a young college student, I read “Don’t Push the River”. I believe an old history teacher told me about that. Inspired by Gestalt therapy and Barry’s writings, I hitchiked across Canada and landed on Vacouver Island at Cocitan (Sp?) Lake. I was accepted into a 3 month training program. During my time there I met a woman who was a friend of Barry Stevens. Later when I was in San Francisco, she asked if I would like to meet her.
In a relatively short visit before dinner, we talked about a lot of things while also doing a basic tai chi pose. We also talked about writing. Somehow I had “grace” enough to just be there with her.
If you have never read her works, I highly encourage you to do so. Warning: you may burst out laughing. Read on.
Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Stevens_(therapist)#LifeStevens was a self-described “High School drop-out, 1918, because what she wanted to know, she couldn’t learn in school.”[1]
Fritz Perls described Barry Stevens as “a natural born therapist.”[2]
[edit] Publications
Her publications include Don’t Push the River (It Flows by Itself), a first-person account of Stevens’ investigations of Gestalt Therapy. It shows the author during a period of several months in association with Fritz Perls at Perls’ Gestalt Institute of Canada at Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island, in 1969. Barry Stevens describes both Gestalt therapy theory and practice and her relationship with Fritz Perls in a sensitive way. Thus creating a vivid image of Perls in the last months of his life.
In addition she explored Zen Buddhism, the philosophy of J. Krishnamurti, and American Indian religious practices in an effort “to deepen and expand personal experience and work through difficulties.” “We have to turn ourselves upside down and reverse our approach to life.”[3] Alternating with episodes from her earlier days, it became a “best-seller” in the circles of humanistic psychology.[2]
[edit] Personal life
She is the mother of John O. Stevens who is also a writer, Gestalt therapist and NLP-trainer. John O. “Steve” Stevens founded Real People Press, a publisher of works on psychology and personal change in 1967, in order to publish a book by Carl Rogers and Barry Stevens entitled “Person to Person”. He published books on Gestalt therapy; he was responsible for the compilation of Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, the media event that brought Gestalt therapy to public attention in the late 1960’s. And he is also the editor of Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of Tai Chi by Al Huang, to which he and Barry Stevens wrote the preface. He later changed his name to Steve Andreas.[2]
[edit] Bibliography
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