Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg has grown up from Gestalt Therapy Center of St. Petersburg, which was found in 1994. In January 1996 our Institute was officially registered as a non-governmental educational institution of additional training "St. Petersburg Institute of rising the level of specialists' skills and vocational training in Gestalt approach", short name - Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg.

There are several organizations which train gestalt in Russia, but our Institute is the only one which has a State License for performing the additional training in gestalt approach in Saint -Petersburg.

During FORGE Congress (International Federation of Gestalt Training Organizations) in 1997 the training programs of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg were discussed, they were declared to correspond the international standards and our Institute became the member of FORGE (the only one in St. Petersburg).

In 2001 Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg «legalized» it's membership in EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy) became the only Russian organization which in the Full Member of EAGT.

In 2001 Natalia Lebedeva and Elena Ivanova (president and vise-president of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg) became the first Russian Gestalt therapists who were honored with the European Certificate of Psychotherapist on the grand-parenting line.

Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg has the authority in the international society of Gestalt therapists. In 2002 president of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg was elected as a General Secretary and the member of the International Board of FORGE.

From 2001 Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg has started to hold all-Russian conference "St. Petersburg Meeting" which includes not only workshops (as in other conferences of the familiar institutes) but also theoretical reports and discussions, round tables, penals, Balint sessions and master-classes. Top-level Russian Gestalt therapists, foreign Gestalt therapists and beginners at Gestalt therapy take part in this conference.

Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg tries to make the achievement of Russian Gestalt therapists and Gestalt counselors known abroad. In particular, in 2002 we fulfilled the requirement of the International Gestalt Journal which has published an article of N. Lebedeva and E. Ivanova about Gestalt in modern Russia.

In 2004 Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg together with three Moscow gestalt institutes has founded the Association of Russian Gestalt Institutes.

This year is also memorable due to N. Lebedeva and E. Ivanova have published the first Russian monograph about Gestalt therapy "Journey to Gestalt: Theory and Practice".

Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg is the only organization in Russia which was honored to hold the 11-th FORGE Congress in May, 2005 in St. Petersburg.

In 2006 the Institute had organized first for Russian Gestalt community international program for education in supervision in Gestalt approach in which most of Institute trainers take part. In the same year Natalia Lebedeva - the Institute president - had been elected as a President of Association "Federation of Russian speaking Gestalt Institutes" (ARGI).

In 2007 The Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg became the only Russian Gestalt Institute which has been accredited in EAGT and EAP as Training institute according to the level of EAGT and EAP. In 2008 The Gestalt Institute of Saint-Petersburg got a right of straight (easy) procedure for its graduates who successfully finished the 3-d level program to receive the ECP (European Certificate of Psychotherapist).

In 2009 N. Lebedeva and A. Lebedeva have published the first Russian monograph about Gestalt approach in coaching, work with busyness groups and organizational consulting.

Stuff members of our Institute were the scientific editors of the Russian editions of the famous books of S. Ginger and A. Ginger "Gestalt - Therapy of Contact" (1999 and 2001) and S. Ginger "Gestalt: Art of Contact"(2002).

Stuff members of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg were trained by the experienced specialists from Europe and the USA in Russia and abroad, in particular, in Denmark, France Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA. All members of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg have International Certificates as Gestalt-Practice, and the top-level trainers have International Certificates of training Gestalt therapists. Our practical experience in individual and group therapy, counseling, training and coaching is over 25 years.
Quantity of ECP holders is 5 people among the stuff members.

Trainers of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg are regularly making educational workshops not only in Russia but also in France, Norway and other European counties.

The graduates of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg have established several new Gestalt training organizations - Ural Institute of Gestalt and Contemporary Psychology and (Ekaterinburg), "Russian School of Gestalt" in Taganrog, Consulting company "Trumpel and partners" (Moscow), Ural Centre for Psychology and Counseling "Personality" (Chelyabinsk), Mother School "Kangaroo" (Ekaterinburg) and some others. Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg will help to spread Gestalt in Russia, to develop new Gestalt societies and organizations.

We really have an opportunity to use methods recognized all over the world and our own technologies adapted to Russian conditions. In Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg we train specialists in psychotherapy, counseling, organizational consulting and couching.

Trainers from our Institute worked with such organizations as World-wide Bank of Reconstruction and Development, Promstroy Bank, Gasprom, Avtovaz, Ilim-Pulp Enterprise, Aviation Institute of Samara, took part in the reconstruction program of St. Petersburg historical center, and many others.

Training programs of Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg were developed with participation and under the direction of FORGE president and Ecole Parisienne de Gestalt (EPG) president S. Ginger, they are approved and recognized by FORGE and EAGT being corresponded to the international requirements. This fact entitles to give our graduates the diploma which has not only Russian status, but also the international one.

In addition to Ecole Parisienne de Gestalt (EPG, Paris, France), with whom our Institute has a really close friendship for many years, we also maintain close contacts with Institut fur GT Organisationsberatung (IGOR, Frankfurt, Germany), Instituto Gestalt Firenze (IGF, Italy), Riga Gestalt Institute (RGI, Latvia), Vilnius Gestalt Institute (Lithuania), Gestalt Psychotherapy Institute (GPTI, Malta), Integro (Guadalajara, Mexico), Norsk Gestaltinstitutt (Oslo, Norway), Instytut Terapii Gestalt (Krakow, Poland), Gestalt Academy of Scandinavia, Gestalt Associates Training of Los Angeles (GALTA, the USA) and Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (the USA), Gestalt Centre (OAHACA Mexico), Centre for Gestalt Therapy ( Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil),), Gestalt Institute of Puglia (Italia), etс. This gives us the opportunity to invite the top-level foreign specialists for regular additional training process with our students.

Gestalt Institute of St. Petersburg run training programs in St. Petersburg and in other cities in Russia and near-abroad. Since our start we have graduated 100 courses of students (about 2000 persons) who got the training in Gestalt therapy. We can be proud that S. Ginger (FORGE president and president of EPG) attended at the diploma performance of our graduates. To his opinion, professional training of the Institute graduates doesn't yield to the level of the students from EPG!

In 2009 N. Lebedeva and A. Lebedeva have published the first Russian monograph about Gestalt approach in individual business consulting (coaching), work with groups and organizational consulting.

It is too long continue to list events year by year. We turn to a larger scale: over the past 10 years.
The Institute acquired its own comfortable room in 1999, and in 2012 it acquires a second room, since the Institute is growing.

In St. Petersburg 7 professional development programs and 2 professional retraining programs have been held every year for many years.

When all the conditions are met, the Institute issues diplomas of professional retrain in the field of psychological counseling in gestalt approach and gestalt approach in organizational consulting.

SPIG holds seminars and carries out consulting activities on the psychological aspects of business.

SPIG publishes its own specialized print edition - the Almanac, publishing in it kindly provided materials from leading Russian and foreign experts. The Institute also constantly invites its graduates to participate in the Almanac.

The staff of SPIG enjoy the respect and great prestige of the psychological community of St. Petersburg. A number of them are part of the Supervisory Board St. Petersburg Guild of Psychotherapy and Training (GPT). The president of the Institute - N.M. Lebedeva - is a member of the Presidium of the Coordination Council of the St. Petersburg Psychological Society.

SPIG gained prestige in the international community of gestaltists. In 2002, the Rector of the Institute, Natalya Lebedeva, was elected General Secretary and a member of the FORGE Council of the International Federation of Organizations Teaching Gestalt. Since 2018, she has been Vice-President of FORGE. In 2011-2015 Natalya Lebedeva is the official representative of Russia in the European Association for Gestalt Therapy, a member of the expanded board of the EAGT. She was repeatedly elected president of the Association of Russian-speaking Gestalt Institutes (ARGI) either.

The Institute maintains permanent links with related organizations in Würzburg, Guadalajara, Cleveland, Krakow, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Florence, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Riga, Vilnius, Oaxaca (Mexico), Arlesano Lecce (Italy) and others. In this regard, the organization of thematic seminars and supervisory groups of foreign gestalt therapists in St. Petersburg continues. To-date, they held a few dozen.

During its existence the Institute has issued 14 publications directly by the authors of the Institute or edited by the staff.

SPIG continues to cooperate with the Faculty of Psychology of the St. Petersburg State University, the Faculty of Economics and Management of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, and the Faculty of Psychology and Pedagogy of Herzen State Pedagogical University, Institute of Practical Psychology "Imaton", Institute of Psychotherapy and Counseling "Harmony", Moscow Gestalt Institute, Moscow Institute of Gestalt and Psychodrama, Moscow Institute of Gestalt Therapy and Consulting, St. Petersburg Psychological Society, St. Petersburg Guild for Psychotherapy and Training

Permanent foreign partners of the Institute remain the Paris School of Gestalt, the Würzburg Institute of Integrative Therapy, the Frankfurt Institute of Gestalt-Oriented Counseling, the Norwegian Institute of Gestalt, the Rome Institute of Psychotherapy, Vilnius Gestalt Institute (Lithuania), the Institute of Gestalt Therapy of Malta, the Institute of Integro (Guadaraharar, the Bearers of the Gestalt Institute), the Gestalt Institute of Riga, Gestalt Academy of Scandinavia, GALTA (Los Angeles) and the Cleveland Gestalt Institute, Gestalt Therapy Center in Rio de Janeiro, Gestalt Institute that Florence, Gestalt Institute of Puglia (Italy), the Gestalt Center in Oaxaca (Mexico) and others.