The recipient of the Rollo May Award for Pursuit of New Frontiers - APA Division 32 (2006)
Is one of four recipients in the first "Living Legends in Psychotherapy "by the APA's Division of Psychotherapy (2002).
Has received the Award for Excellence in Research in 1992 from the University of Ottawa.
In 1989, Al Mahrer wrote:
"We spend our entire lives in continuous resistance to the encroaching deeper potential. The person who discovers that the way out is through the very doorway he has desperately avoided in each critical moment has entered a whole new world of exhilarating freedom and self-determination."
Mahrer on Experiential Psychotherapy
Experiential psychotherapy does not aim at reducing or resolving problems. It's directions of change include the washing away of bad feelings of pain, hurt, suffering; the ending of scenes of bad feelings; no longer does the person behave in ways that construct and use the situational context to undergo painful experiencing accompanied with bad feelings.
The Complete Guide to Experiential Psychotherapy (1996) P.102.
Dr.Mahrer's current books are:
Transformation: A Glimpse Into The Future Of How Change Will Come About Howard Gontovnick Publications (2010)
The Origin Of A Person Howard Gontovnick Publications (2010)
What Is Psychotherapy For? An Alternative To The Profession Of Psychotherapy Howard Gontovnick Publications (2010) The Optimal Person Howard Gontovnick Publications (2009)
The Manual of Optimal Behaviors Howard Gontovnick Publications (2008)
How Psychotherapy Can Become A Science Howard Gontovnick Publications (2007)
A thought or two - By Howard Gontovnick
In March 1996, Al Mahrer wrote a brief but memorable comment in my copy of "The Complete Guide to Experiential Psychotherapy." The inscription says - "I hope you and I can talk much more about this therapy - and that you take it further than I have."
In hindsight, his words have always served as a kind of challenge and source of inspiration not just to learn and practice his experiential psychotherapy - but more so as a creative platform from which to go further. I like to think of his words as a challenge to consider the wider implications to bring about powerful revolutionary changes in what I do and essential what I can be.
This web site will serve as a focal point for Dr.Mahrer's work and at the same time - an invitation for one to seriously consider stepping outside their usual perceptions and beliefs with the goal of discovering that which is deeper within each one of us. Whether as a psychotherapist, teacher or individual, each one of us has the ability to transform from what we are - and move toward what one can be. As such, I think we should consider Mahrer's work as an important platform to embark on that inner journey to become all that one can become.
Howard Gontovnick Ph.D. / 2006.
Montreal, Qc, Canada
PLEASE NOTE
This web site is maintained by Howard Gontovnick in association with Dr. Alvin R. Mahrer. The contents of the web site is continuously updated with new and current information. Please send all questions or comments with regard to this web site to Howard Gontonvick.
The books mentioned above can be ordered through Howard Gontovnick Publications - simply send a request listing your choice or choices and aPaypal invoicewill be sent. Follow the easy instructions on the secure Paypal web site.
