Daria Halprin trained since early childhood as a dancer and performance artist and toured internationally in the Dancers' Workshop Company. She has appeared in several films, most noteably in Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. She studied with Fritz Perls, the originator of Gestalt therapy, which led to her interest in psychology. In 1978 she co-founded the Tamalpa Institute, the first training center for movement-based expressive arts therapy, where she developed and codified her approach. She holds a Masters degree in psychology, is a Gestalt therapist and a registered expressive arts therapist. She conducts trainings at the Tamalpa Institute, teaches internationally and has a private practice in Marin County, California.