[Self-Study] Building Capacity Back Home: Art Therapy Post-Graduate Certificate Program Based in Istanbul (NY-ES217)

Bihter Yasemin Adalı is an expressive arts therapist versed in the practice of Tamalpa Life/Arts Process. As a founding member of Arts Psychotherapies Association founded in Turkey in 2012, she continues to contribute to the growing field of Arts and Healthcare as the chair of the board of directors.

Since 2013, she has been a lecturer/trainer at a pioneering graduate certificate program offered at Istanbul University, Istanbul School of Medicine’s Foundation of the Psychiatry Clinic. The certificate program originated by Nurhan Eren in 2011, trains artists and mental health specialists in the practice of expressive arts therapy with the psychiatric population along with individuals faced with chronic physical health conditions. Bihter Yasemin Adali’s research interests and therapy practices focus on expressive arts therapy with adults, adults with attachment difficulties, and more recently with children going through chronic illnesses such as cancer, allergy asthma, and renal failure, as well as other atypical psychosomatic conditions.

Seyma received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2005. Later on, she received her Master of Arts degree from La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA, in Clinical Counseling Psychology, in 2007; and her Ph.D. degree from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA in Expressive Therapies, in 2020. Her dissertation topic is ‘‘The Experience of Equanimity Expressed Through Art: How Artmaking Facilitates the Practice of Equanimity.’’ Seyma started her career at Central Behavioral Health Center, Norristown, PA, as an individual and group psychological counselor. Ever since she returned to her home country Turkey, she has been working in private practice as a psychotherapist, instructor, and supervisor. She was in the translation committee of several books and published a poetry book. She co-authored a chapter on the basics of art therapy and is currently working on a book on art therapy and inner resources.

Art therapist Aslıhan Özcan Morey got her Sociology and Psychology degree at Koç University in 2005. In 2008, she graduated from Lesley University with a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling and Art Therapy. In 2009, she got licensed as Assistant Licensed Professional Psychological Counselor. She worked with adults suffering from chronic mental illnesses at Tewksbury State Hospital and Riverside Psychiatric Day Treatment Center between 2006 and 2008, and with pediatric patients suffering from physical trauma and chronic illnesses and their families at Kosair Children's Hospital in 2009. In 2010-2011, she went back to Turkey and offered art therapy in three state hospitals for pediatric oncology-hematology services. Between 2011 and 2015, she worked in Psychiatry and Women's Health Clinics at American Hospital in Istanbul. In 2015, she started working with pediatric patients with chronic illnesses and their families at Koç University Hospital and she is still employed in this position. She designed and supervised two arts based volunteer projects targeting pediatric oncology patients. In 2019, she started a child life and expressive therapies program at the hospital named as "Happy Child and Happy Family Program".

Asli Arslanbek is a board-certified art therapist and an assistant professor of art therapy at The University of Tampa. Her research interests and clinical experiences revolve around art therapy with forcibly displaced persons. She is also interested in indigenous and traditional art forms and the implications of such practices in art therapy. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals including Frontiers in Psychology, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association and Canadian Journal of Art Therapy.