Budapest Gestalt Institute
Our goal
The Budapest Gestalt Institute was founded in 2017 with the aim to train professionally qualified, credible and responsible Gestalt therapists, and through this to promote individual and social well-being in Hungary.
The Gestalt therapy training in Budapest in its present form, in professional cooperation with the Norwegian Gestalt Institute, was established between 2010-18 by the Hungarian Gestalt Association.
In 2018, the Budapest Gestalt Institute took over the organisation of the training from the Association, and the Norwegian Gestalt Institute took over the professional implementation of the training, to an increasing extent.
Our activities
- We train EAGT-accredited Gestalt therapists
- We cooperate with national and international professional organisations working with Gestalt
and other approaches. - We participate in research and publications.
- We work for the awareness and increasing acceptance of Gestalt therapy.
Professional staff of Budapest Gestalt Institute
The professionals working at the Institute are Gestalt therapists accredited by EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy) and EAP (European Association for Psychotherapy), as well as trained therapy teachers and supervisors.
Tamás Avar
trainer
I first encountered Gestalt more than a decade ago. He grabbed me immediately, and then I fell in love with him. Until then, I didn’t really know how much I experience the world and my own existence in it through the filter of my thoughts and judgments. How little I am really present in it and to ‘what is’.
Through Gestalt, another world was revealed, which of course had always been there. The world of direct sensory experience, primary experiences coming through my body and non-judgmental curiosity towards them. That changed everything. Softened and strengthened. It made it real and alive.
The world of Gestalt is a wonder. A simple but great miracle of existence and connection. In my professional work, just like in other areas of life, it provides an invaluable perspective and a practical toolkit.
I am currently participating in the life of the Institute as a trainer. This gives me the opportunity to contribute to spreading the beloved methodology and modality as widely as possible, and also to remain a student forever.
Judit Bence
trainer, founder
Since 2005, I have been applying the Gestalt approach in various situations and roles: in domestic and international organizational contexts, as an organizational developer in change projects, working with managers as a coach, and in individual therapeutic work and supervision.
What I like about the Gestalt approach is that there is no one-size-fits-all recipe or good solution, that we accept multiple realities and imperfection in our relationships, that we encourage diversity and the recognition of our own needs, and that we believe in change, not change.
It is important for me to pass on the “Gestalt experience” – I was a member of the board of the Hungarian Gestalt Association for six years, I am currently a member of the Hungarian Faculty of Therapy Training and a co-founder of the Budapest Gestalt Institute.
Dia Bozsogi
trainer, founder
I started studying Gestalt in 2003, and although before that I encountered many trends in psychology, that’s when I felt that I had found home. I like that in Gestalt therapy the focus is on curiosity, the relationship lived in the here-and-now, and experimentation, and I enjoy the liberating power that I experience with my clients.
After my Gestalt therapist qualification, I also started working as a therapy trainer so that I could pass all of this on to others. I use the Gestalt approach in individual and couple therapy, as a supervisor, in leading groups, and in my organizational development and coaching work. I am one of the founding owners and co-managers of the Budapest Gestalt Institute.
Edit Moldován
I started as a teacher, committed to the development and teaching of people. It was a very long, difficult, but incredibly exciting journey that led me to the point where, as a Gordon instructor, trainer, and then coach, I trusted the resources and wisdom of those who came to me. The experience of joint creation and real journey together as a partner was brought about by psychodrama leadership, organizational development, and then the Gestalt approach. Since then, I have been trying to “infect” the world with the Gestalt approach as an OD consultant, as an individual, couple and group therapist, as well as a supervisor. I am one of the founding owners, a trainer and one of the professional leaders of the Budapest Gestalt Institute.
My strengths are creativity, energy, playfulness, humor, trust, and the ability to give security.
In the course of my work, I support everyone taking more responsibility for themselves, their decisions, and their choices in their own lives. I started from the point that my job is to support others to change. Today I know that I can best support them so that they can be who they really are and do it with pleasure and love.
Kinga Sáfrány
trainer
I first encountered the Gestalt methodology in 2000, in America. Since then, I know that this is what I have always been looking for. It taught me to be in the present and accept what is. And boldly letting go of what no longer supports you. As a trainer, coach, therapist and therapy trainer, I enjoy following my curiosity. I like to experiment, aim for profound changes, and marvel at new possibilities together.
Orsolya Viga
trainer, founder
I am a psychologist and Gestalt therapist. I teach therapy here at the Budapest Gestalt Institute, and I am also a co-founder and one of the managing directors of the institute. I moved to the Netherlands with my family in the summer of 2019, and I currently work as a therapist in The Hague.
I love diversity, freedom, clear talk and living life to the fullest.
Gestalt made me feel more at home in my own skin, I can feel and think in many different ways, even contradictory ones. I am more accepting of the different parts of me and have more compassion for the vulnerabilty of myself and others.
Rita Jókay
I am an OD consultant, coach, therapist, couple therapist and supervisor. In all areas of life, I am interested in how I can create change, how I can support development. My work is often driven by natural interest and curiosity. I can mobilize a lot of energy and a lot of courage to make something come alive or change. I strive to work together in a liberated, creative way, and to look at each other again and again with the intention of discovery.
At the Budapest Gestalt Institute, I support the professional development of students as a supervisor.
Árpád Mondok
supervisor
As a Gestalt therapist, personal experience and its awareness, with the right intention and form, are truly constructive for me. When we meet, we go on a journey together to experience what is right for you, even if it involves exploring unknown territories. I’ve worked with many different people in different situations, and I’ve come to the point a long time ago that being in a really good relationship is about finding a common path and goal. Not as a leader and not as a leader. Together and my own. This insight changed my life and turned me into a Gestalt therapist.
Judit Stefany-Tóth
supervisor
Throughout my life, I have dealt with people and researched the reasons and laws behind human functioning. My first straw is a lawyer. In the course of my legal work, I have noticed that most of the cases behind the clients who come to me are unresolved
human conflicts lie, so my interest turned more and more towards psychology. I started studying supervision at Károli Gáspár University, and then I got to know Gestalt at the Flow Coaching School. I was impressed by its humanistic, liberating power. I obtained an EAGT accredited Gestalt therapist and supervisor degree from the Norwegian Gestalt Institute College.
I have been working as a coach, supervisor and Gestalt therapist for ten years with top and middle managers as well as private individuals. The approach of Gestalt therapy makes thinking exciting, creative and powerful for me, it gives me new insights every day, and opens up new dimensions in my work and life.
I believe that we all have the ability to become more and more aware of ourselves, our relationships and our environment. I believe that through the growth of awareness and the power of presence, the freedom of choice and decision increases, through which we can live a more complete life. I believe it’s all up to us.
Ila Erős
Ila Erős was our co-founder in establishing Budapest Gestalt Institute, between 2017 and 2020 – as long as her illness allowed – she also worked as a trainer.
She started studying Gestalt therapy in the 2000s, and the introduction of Gestalt Therapy Training to Hungary is largely linked to her name. She was also a founding member and president of the Hungarian Gestalt Association. Her professional publications can be read in the journal Psychotherapy, of which he was a member of the editorial board until his death in 2020.
Professional staff of the Norwegian Gestalt Institute (Norsk Gestalt Institute)
The professionals working at the Institute are Gestalt therapists accredited by EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy) and EAP (European Association for Psychotherapy), as well as trained therapist teachers and supervisors.
Daan van Baalen
trainer
Daan was a founding member of Norwegian Gestaltinstitutt in 1986 and is currently co-owner of NGI AS. He was principal and still has professional responsibility, and in addition is Gestalt therapist, supervisor and teacher at the institute. He holds the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP).
Daan is an MD (1971 in the Netherlands), Gestalt therapist (1975 in the Netherlands), Group Analyst (1983) and psycho-therapist (1981 in London). He has 10 years experience in general practice as a physician and psychotherapist. From 1987 he worked with the research project “Cancer and Psychotherapy” at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, where he among other things had psychotherapeutic work with chronically ill patients. In the period of 1979 to 1995 he was director and teacher at the Hollandsk-Belgian Gestaltinstitutt Multi-di-Mens.
Ann Kunish
Ann Kunish (born 1964) is an internationally approved Gestalt psychotherapist (NGI 2019) as well as a Gestalt coach (NGI 2016) and supervisor (NGI 2021). She has also completed the Institute’s two-year advanced study for therapists (International Training Programme, 2020) and is currently studying psychopathology and development with Margherita Spanguolo Lobb at the Istituto di Gestalt in Italy (2019-2023). She also has master’s degrees in philosophy (East Asian linguistics/Chinese) from the University of Oslo (2011) and music performance from the Norwegian Music Academy (1991).
Ann teaches at the Norwegian Gestalt Institute and is in private practice in Oslo where she sees individuals and couples. Ann is especially interested in psychopathology seen in a Gestalt perspective.
Gro Skottun
trainer
Gro is a social worker, gestalt therapist, MSc, PhD, co-founder (1986) and co-owner of Norsk Gestaltinstitutt – Høyskole (NGI), Oslo, where she works as a trainer, supervisor and researcher. She has also been supervising and teaching international for many years and work since 2010 in Budapest in the gestalt therapy training program created by NGI for the Hungarian Gestalt Association (HuG) and now for Budapest Gestalt Institute (BGI). She is co-author of a Norwegian text-book about gestalt therapy, has published several articles and is the editor of Norsk Gestalttidsskrift. She has been the president of an international organisation for gestalttherapy, FORGE, for five years and a member of the complaint committee for EAGT six years.
Matthew Swedberg
trainer
Authorized clinical psychologist, with education from Norway and the USA.
Internationally approved gestalt psychotherapist. (NGI 2000-2004 + 2-Years Post Education Program at NGI)
Matthew has a broad experience with diagnosis and treatment of mild-, as well as complex mental disorders, existential questions of life, anxiety and depression disorders. He also offered treatment for people with load over time, such as chronic pain problems, low self-esteem and marital crisis. He has many years of experience with individual therapy, couple / family conversations and group therapy. His background is from the specialist (general psychiatric outpatient clinic) and private practice in Norway, as well as private and public treatment center in the United States.
Vibeke Visnes
trainer
Vibeke Visnes has a Master in Gestalt (2012) from Metanoia Institute, London and is presently undertaking a Dr. Psych by Professional studies at the same institute. She is researching couple’s therapy in a Gestalt framework. She is also a certified clinical couple´s therapist from Metanoia Institute.
Vibeke is an internationally approved Gestalt Psychotherapist (NGI, 2002 – 2009 (including maternity leave)), has done Advanced Gestalt training (NGI, 2012-2014), Gestalt Supervision training (NGI, 2015- 2016), Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy Advanced training with Ruella Frank (2014 – 2016) and is presently doing Supervision training with Marghuerita Spagnuolo-Lobb. She has her own practice in Oslo and teaches at the Norwegian Gestalt Institute.
Her main focus in Gestalt is the phenomenological perspective, relation and contact. She is attentive to how Gestalt can be in dialogue with other psychotherapeutic modalities and psychological theory without loosing the aestethics and uniqueness of the phenomenological method.
