William Schutz

In the 1950s, he was part of the peer-group at the University of Chicago's Counseling Center that included Carl Rogers, Thomas Gordon, Abraham Maslow and Elias Porter.

As a body therapist he led encounter group workshops focussing on the underlying causes of illnesses and developing alternative body-centered cures.

He also worked with Paul Lazarsfeld, the well-known sociologist and methodologist and Elvin Semrad, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and clinical director in charge of psychiatric residency training at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.

An avid student, Schutz also learned T-group methodology ("T" for training) at the National Training Laboratories (NTL) at Bethel, Maine, psychosynthesis, a spiritually oriented technique involving imagery, devised by an Italian contemporary of Freud named Roberto Assagioli, psychodrama with Hannah Weiner, bioenergetics with Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos, Rolfing with Ida Rolf, and Gestalt Therapy with Paul Goodman.

In his own words, "I tried everything physical, psychological, and spiritual—all diets, all therapies, all body methods, jogging, meditating, visiting a guru in India, and fasting for thirty-four days on water.