Therapists

Didem Altay graduated from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada with a BA in psychology and a minor in systems engineering. Then, she obtained her masters degree in clinical psychology with honors and currently pursuing her doctoral study in counseling psychology at Marmara University focusing her research on early childhood trauma, especially medical trauma/chronic illnesses and its relation to anxiety and depression later in life.

After her graduation from Simon Fraser University, while attending workshops and trainings to become psychotherapist, she became part of volunteering groups in order to help and support children & adolescents who had attention deficit disorder, learning disability, social problems and trauma.

Altay has a special interest in the impact of early childhood trauma and its treatment, which lead her pursue further training in Certificate of Traumatic Stress at The Trauma Center directed by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk and his team in Boston, USA.

Besides her certificate in traumatic stress, she is trained in EMDR therapy, Level I in London by Sandi Richman and in Level II by DBE in Istanbul. While working with traumatized individuals, she uses EMDR as a therapeutic approach along with cognitive behavioral therapy which she received her training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from Beck Institute, PA, USA.

Besides working with adults, Didem Altay also works with children and adolescents where she uses play therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy as main models of therapy.She completed 200 hours of theoretical and supervised training in play therapy and child psychotherapy at Canadian Association of Play Therapy (CACPT) in Toronto, Canada. In addition to her certificate of child psychotherapy and play therapy, she received further training and obtained certificate in Child Centered Play Therapy and Filial Therapy, which promotes enhancement of child-family relationships at Family Enhancement and Play Therapy Center by the founder, Dr. Rise Van Fleet in Boiling Springs, PA, USA.

In her 10 years of experience, she has been providing counseling and psychotherapy to children & adolescents and their families.Her clinical area includes but not limited to psychological trauma, medical trauma and chronic illness, traumatic grief, bereavement, depression, anxiety disorders (panic attack, social phobia, school anxiety, separation anxiety, health anxiety, etc), parent-child relationship, child centered family counseling, anger management, eating disorders and behavioral disorders.

With adults, she works with early childhood trauma, grief, traumatic grief, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, anger problems, eating disorders, with issues of self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness and incompetency.

Altay has been teaching part-time at various universities in psychology and counseling psychology departments since 2014. Besides teaching, she is also working as a psychotherapist with children, adolescents and adults at DBE.

She is a member of Turkish Psychological Association (TPD), EMDR-TR, and Association of Play Therapy (APT). She can provide counseling and psychotherapy in English.