Maria Gomori

She died in Winnipeg on December 10, 2021, at the age of 101.

Gomori established an international reputation as a workshop leader, teaching, demonstrating and applying her interpretation of the Satir model. She conducted workshops throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Australia. She co-authored with Virginia Satir et al. The Satir Approach to Communication and The Satir Model: Family Therapy and Beyond; the latter book was chosen by the AAMFT Foundation for the 1994 Satir Education and Research Prize. Gomori worked tirelessly in her international lectures and seminars, and was instrumental in establishing Satir Institutes in Winnipeg, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Australia. She integrated Virginia Satir's approach with her learnings from other teachers combined with her own experiences.

Gomori was a family therapist in private practice, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Medicine. Gomori was also a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor with AAMFT, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. She worked intensively with Virginia Satir for over 20 years and was a faculty member and advanced trainer in Satir's Avanta International Training Organization from 1981. Gomori was also a certified practitioner and Master Programmer in Neuro-linguistic programming.

After enduring the Nazi incursion in her native Budapest in the 1940s, she completed her education and rose quickly in the Hungarian Government's department of Economics. She fled Hungary with her husband and young son in 1956 in the midst of the Hungarian Revolution without money or possessions. They moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where she studied social work. Her life focus was on freedom. She received numerous honours and citations.

Maria Gomori (May 25, 1920 – December 10, 2021) was a Hungarian-born Canadian pioneer in the field of systems family therapy. She contributed to the fields of psychiatric and social work training, and designed numerous training programs. She was a proponent of the Satir Method for Family Therapy. In 2004, she was named "Woman of Distinction" for the field of Health and Wellness by the City of Winnipeg. In the same year Winnipeg's Saint Boniface Hospital Research Centre established a lectureship in her name to honour her long and varied contributions to the health system and the people who use it.