Barry Stevens

Barry Stevens (* 1902 ; † 1985 ) was an American psychotherapist.

She achieved greater popularity in the USA in 1970 with her book Don't Push the River , in which she describes her personal experiences in the Gestalt community founded by Fritz Perls in 1969 on Lake Cowichan, on Vancouver Island, Canada. At the same time, she gives a sensitive insight into how gestalt therapy works and into the person of Fritz Perls, who died a short time later. With this book she achieved a kind of cult status, especially in the human potential movement of the 1970s, from which she, however, distanced herself personally, as any kind of "star" worship was alien to her. The book has been translated into several languages.

The months at Lake Cowichan represented her training in Gestalt therapy. Later, she became the first in the history of Gestalt therapy to develop a form of Gestalt therapy bodywork. Her approach remained holistic, taking into account the unity of body, mind and soul. She called her way of working de-controlling .

In their formative therapeutic work her focus was on "awareness" ( awareness ), one of the pillars of Gestalt therapy. Again and again she stressed the importance of being aware of rules; especially in her body work, which was not done schematically.

In 1967, the year she first met Fritz Perls, Barry Stevens finished a joint book project with another eminent psychotherapist: Carl Rogers . However, there were difficulties in finding a publisher. Barry Stevens' son John O. "Steve" Stevens decided to publish the book himself and founded the publishing house " Real People Press ". The book was published under the title Person to Person (German: "Von Mensch zu Mensch"). In the course gave Real People Press , so Steve Stevens, and in this case with the assistance of Barry Stevens, one of the most famous books of Fritz Perls out: Gestalt Therapy Verbatim ; German title: "Gestalt Therapy in Action" (1969). This was followed by Fritz Perls' autobiography In and Out the Garbage Pail ; German title: “Gestalt-Perception. Discarded and found things from my garbage can ”(1969). "Steve" Stevens later changed his name to Steve Andreas .

In 1976, Barry Stevens played an important role in founding the first American trade journal for Gestalt therapy, the Gestalt Journal .

Shortly before her death in 1985, Barry Stevens saw the publication of her last book, Burst Out Laughing , which is strongly autobiographical.

Barry Stevens was u. a. friends with Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley .

Works

• with C. Rogers: Person to Person . Real People Press, 1967; German: From person to person. Opportunities to meet yourself and others . Junfermann, Paderborn 1984; Republished: Peter Hammer Verlag, Cologne 2001.
• Don't push the river . Real People Press, Lafayette, Cal. 1970; German: Don't Push The River. Gestalt therapy at its roots . Peter Hammer Verlag, Cologne 2000.
• Body work . In: JO Stevens (Ed.): Gestalt is . Real People Press, Moab, Utah 1975, pp. 157-184; German: Gestalt body work . In: Gestalt criticism. Journal of Gestalt Therapy . 2/2000, pp. 18-47 (GIK).
• Voids, Voids, Voids, - Noddings! . In: JO Stevens (Ed.): Gestalt is . Real People Press, Moab, Utah 1975, pp. 185-200; German: Life does not take place in the head . In: Gestalt criticism. Journal of Gestalt Therapy . 1/2000, 42-49 (GIK).
• Burst Out Laughing . Celestial Arts, Berkeley, Cal. 1985.

literature

• J. Wysong: Barry Stevens. In Remembrance . In: The Gestalt Journal ., No. 1, 1986, pp. 71-75.
• D. Kranz: Barry Stevens - Attempt on an irregular life . In: Gestalt therapy . Issue 2, 1998, pp. 3–14, (Edition Humanistische Psychologie).
• D.Kranz: Barry Stevens: Shape Life . In: Gestaltkritik , 2/2011, pp. 4–11.