Axel Gudmundsson

With a college degree in arts, and several years of psychotherapy training, I have a wide background in human development and creative industries, including graphic design, TV, and motion pictures. 

In my early twenties, shortly after graduation, I set up my first company, Mannraektin (Human Potential) in my native Iceland, offering a variety of human development courses, primarily focusing on workshops and products developed by myself for treating eating disorders, inspired by the internationally successful 12-step self-help programme of Overeaters Anonymous. 

After a few years working in film, TV and graphic design, my next significant project was to co-found the publishing company Voxtur (Growth) for publishing human potential books. The first task of the new company was to translate and publish the international best-seller "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" by the American relationship expert Dr John Gray PhD. This book broke new ground in Icelandic book-publishing history by being the first self-help book to compete in the Icelandic general best-seller list. It went straight to number one on the overall national best-seller list in Iceland 1995. The next project was to translate and publish the tiny life-transforming book "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" by the internationally renowned spiritual guide Deepak Chopra. This was also a significant success, achieving number four on the overall best-seller list in 1996.

This is when I left Iceland to study humanistic psychotherapy at Spectrum in London, where I completed the Spectrum Counselling Course and graduated from the One Year Course in Psychotherapy. After completing three years of intensive psychotherapy training, I remained a member of the Spectrum post-graduate continued education programme, as well as being a member of an on-going Men's Group and a couples' Group at Spectrum, until late 2008 when I moved to Cape Town, SA. 

While training at Spectrum, I also trained and qualified as a Davis dyslexia facilitator in 2002, and then successfully introduced the Davis methods in my native Iceland. 

In 2004 I founded Gifted Dyslexic, which now operates in the UK, Iceland and South Africa,  including offering online Davis programmes worldwide via Zoom video-link.  

in 2010 I became a director and shareholder in Capella House, a small progressive school on the outkirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Along with a few other dedicated families, we built up the school until 2018 when we passed it onto the current owner – a diligent principal who has worked her way up the ranks within the school. This school is now doing very well under her leadership.

In 2012 I founded Davis Dyslexia Association  Africa, offering training and quality control of Davis facilitators throughout  Africa.

Curriculum Vitae