Barry Stevens (therapist): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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{{Short description|American Gestalt therapist (1902–1985)}}
'''Barry Stevens''' (1902–1985) was aan American writer and [[Gestalt therapy|Gestalt therapist]]. She developed her own form of [[Gestalt therapy]] body work, based on the [[awareness]] of body processes. For the [[Human Potential Movement]] of the 1970s, she became a kind of "star", but she always refused to accept that role.
She worked with, among others, the psychotherapists [[Fritz Perls]] and [[Carl Rogers]]. [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[Aldous Huxley]] were among her friends. [[Fritz Perls]] described Barry Stevens as "a natural born therapist."<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.gestalt.org/Journal.pdf In Memory of Barry Stevens] gestalt.org</ref>
==Life==
Stevens was born '''Mildred Fox.''' She later changed her name from "Mildred" to "Barry." She was married to the pediatrician Albert Mason Stevens,<ref name="kranz">Kranz, D. (2011): [http://www.gestalt.de/kranz_stevens_leben.html Barry Stevens: Leben Gestalten]. In: Gestaltkritik, 2/2011, p. 4-11.</ref> who co-discovered [[Stevens–Johnson syndrome]].
Barry Stevens was a self-described "High School drop-out, 1918, because what she wanted to know, she couldn't learn in school."<ref>Source: About the Authors, ''Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human'', by [[Carl Rogers]] and Barry Stevens, with contributions from [[Eugene Gendlin]], John M. Shlien, and Wilson Van Dusen, Real People Press, 1967, ISBN 0-911226-01-X (paper) and ISBN 0-911226-00-1 (cloth).</ref> She and her husband moved to Hawai'i in 1934. After Albert Mason Stevens's death in 1945, Barry moved to California. From 1948 to 1951 she was an administrative aide at [[Deep Springs College]], near Big Pine, California. She later worked as an editor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then relocated to California.▼
▲Barry Stevens was a self-described "High School drop-out, 1918, because what she wanted to know, she couldn't learn in school."<ref>Source: About the Authors, ''Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human'', by [[Carl Rogers]] and Barry Stevens, with contributions from [[Eugene Gendlin]], John M. Shlien, and Wilson Van Dusen, Real People Press, 1967, {{ISBN |0-911226-01-X}} (paper) and {{ISBN |0-911226-00-1}} (cloth).</ref> She and her husband moved to Hawai'i in 1934. AfterBefore Albert Mason Stevens's death in 1945, Barry moved to Californiathe mainland. FromShe worked at Orme Ranch School near Prescott, AZ, and from 1948 to 1951 she was an administrative aide at [[Deep Springs College]], near Big Pine, California. She later worked as an editor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then relocated to California.
[[Fritz Perls]] described Barry Stevens as "a natural born therapist."<ref name=autogenerated1>http://www.gestalt.org/Journal.pdf</ref>
Barry Stevens is the mother of Judith Sande Stevens (1925-2011) and John O. Stevens (19371935-2018) who iswas also a writer, Gestalt therapist and NLP-trainer., known as [[Steve Andreas]].▼
==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.▼
▲==Publications==
In addition she explored [[Zen Buddhism]], the philosophy of [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], and [[Indian American]] 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."<ref>''Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human'', by [[Carl Rogers]] and Barry Stevens, 1967.</ref> Alternating with episodes from her earlier days, it became a "best-seller" in the circles of humanistic psychology.<ref name=autogenerated1 />▼
▲Her publications include ''Don't Push the River (It Flows by Itself)'', a first-person account of Stevens' investigations of [[Gestalt Therapy|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., Thusthus creating a vivid image of Perls in the last months of his life.
▲In addition she explored [[Zen Buddhism]], the philosophy of [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], and [[Indian American]] religious practices in an effort "to deepen and expand personal experience and work through difficulties." Alternating with episodes from her earlier days, it became a "best-seller" in the circles of humanistic psychology.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> "We have to turn ourselves upside down and reverse our approach to life."<ref>''Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human'', by [[Carl Rogers]] and Barry Stevens, 1967.</ref> Alternating with episodes from her earlier days, it became a "best-seller" in the circles of humanistic psychology.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
Her earliest published work is "Hideaway Island" a loosely autobiographical novel about a woman on the far end of Long Island.▼
▲Her earliest published work iswas "HideawayHide-away Island" (1934) a loosely autobiographical novel about a woman on the far end of Long Island.
She met Nakata Yoshimatsu, a former valet of [[Jack London]], in Hawaii in the 1930s, and helped him to write down his recollections.<ref>Nakata and Stevens Papers. North Bay Regional & Special Collections, University Library, Sonoma State University; [http://dsc.calstate.edu/1462?r=cam]</ref> And she wrote an article about Nakata that was published posthumously in 2000.<ref>"Nakata - Son of Jack London", in: Jack London Journal, No 7, 2000, p. 9 - 25</ref>▼
▲She met Nakata Yoshimatsu, a former valet of [[Jack London]], in HawaiiHawai'i in the 1930s, and helped him to write down his recollections.<ref>Nakata and Stevens Papers. North Bay Regional & Special Collections, University Library, Sonoma State University; [http://dsc.calstate.edu/1462?r=cam]</ref> AndShe shealso wrote an article about Nakata that was published posthumously in 2000.<ref>"Nakata - Son of Jack London", in: Jack London Journal, No 7, 2000, p. 9 - 25</ref>
==Personal life==
▲Barry Stevens is the mother of Judith Sande Stevens (1925-2011) and John O. Stevens (1937-) 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 1960s. And he is also the editor of the 1973 book ''Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of Tai Chi'' by [[Chungliang Al Huang]], to which he and Barry Stevens wrote the preface. He later changed his name to [[Steve Andreas]].<ref name=autogenerated1 />
==Bibliography==
*''Hide-away Island'', Barry Fox. New York, Greenberg, 1934.
*''Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human'', by [[Carl Rogers]] and Barry Stevens, with contributions from [[Eugene Gendlin]], John M. Shlien, and Wilson Van Dusen, Real People Press, 1967, {{ISBN |0-911226-01-X}} (paper) and {{ISBN |0-911226-00-1}} (cloth).
*''Don't Push the River (It Flows by Itself)'', Real People Press, 1970.
* ''Body Work'', in: ''Gestalt is'', John O. Stevens ed., Real People Press, 1975, p. 157 - 184, {{ISBN |0-911226-15-X}} pbk.
* ''Burst Out Laughing'', Barry Stevens, Celestrial Arts, 1985.
*''Nakata - Son of Jack London'', in: Jack London Journal, No 7, 2000, p. 9 - 25. (published posthumously)
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* [http://www.gestalt.org/barry.htm "Memories of Barry Stevens"] at The Gestalt Therapy Page
* [http://www.detlev-kranz.privat.t-online.de/bs.html Web site of Detlev Kranz], with pages on Barry Stevens and Gestalt therapy (in German, with short abstract in English, and bibliography of Barry Stevens' books and articles including translations into German)
* [http://www.gestalt.org/Journal.pdf Memorial by Joe Wysong founder of ''The Gestalt Journal'']
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[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:Gestalt therapists]]
[[Category:Gestalt therapy]]