An Interview with Etta Ehrlich

Etta Ehrlich is one of the very few people still alive who first met Charlotte Selver in the 1950s. I had the pleasure of speaking with her in her home in Leonia, New Jersey, on December 8, 2016. 

Etta had just attended a workshop with me in New York, where she was the oldest participant - in years but not in spirit! At 85, Etta is full of life, engaged and curious, a joy to be with. Our conversation touched such topics as,

• Are what is happening and what is needed the same?

• Learning from Alan Watts

• Studying with Charlotte Selver and Betty Keane 

• Sensory Awareness in Psychotherapy

• Meditation as therapy

• Growing up in an enclosed Jewish community in New York (Etta's father was a rabbi)

– and about engraved glass bottles. That's when Etta took me on a tour through her house, where her artwork is on display everywhere. Glass vessels of all shapes and sizes, engraved with insightful and playful words, such as, "Meditation is not a vacation from irritation", or "Can WAR be civil?"

Listen to excerpts and the full interview below.