Faculty and Administrative Members

Dr. Gürmen graduated summa cum laude from Bogazici University with a BA in Psychology in 2010. She obtained her Masters and PhD in in Marriage and Family Therapy from University of Connecticut in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Currently, she is an assistant professor in Psychology department at Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey. She and her colleagues started a master’s program in the field of Marriage and Family Therapy in the same university. She is teaching both undergraduate and graduate classes and supervising MFT trainees. Her research on Marriage and Family Therapy field focuses mostly on issues around co-parenting, divorce, and high-conflict therapy. In light of the findings from her research, Dr. Gürmen also develops various therapy modalities and parent education programs that target decreased conflict and increased cooperation among high-conflict co-parents. In addition to divorce and co-parenting, she is interested in technology and relationships. She conducts studies on the effects of social media and smartphones on romantic relationships as well as parent-child relationships in the digital age. She develops intervention strategies and workshops on these issues. Dr. Gürmen conducts therapy with individuals, couples, and families. She is an expert on couple communication issues, LGBTQI+ couples, divorced families, co-parenting, sexual problems, infidelity and trust issues, and remarried families. She is also working with expats and immigrants on their adjustment-related issues. In addition to her clinical experiences, she is an AAMFT approved supervisor and providing individual and group supervision for clinicians.

Dr. Saydam received her BA in psychology from Koç University in 2005. She completed her masters at Columbia University in psychological counseling. After completing post graduate training in family therapy (Ackerman Institute, NY), she completed her PhD in couple and family therapy at Drexel University and was the recipient of Ivan Boszomenyi-Nagy Social Justice Award. Her doctoral dissertation was on couples’ experiences when raising their children born with cleft lip and/or palate. Dr. Saydam's research focuses on couples and families coping with illness, emotionally focused couple therapy, medical family therapy applications and experiences of coping with trauma. Dr. Saydam became the first and only The International Center of Excellence in Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy (ICEEFT) approved Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy supervisor of Turkey and became the trainer of the “Aponte Training Institute Person of the Therapist” model. In addition to all of these, she is an AAMFT approved supervisor and providing individual and group supervision for clinicians.

Dr. Yumbul graduated from Koç University, Department of Psychology. She received her MA in Couple and Family Therapy from Northwestern University and her PhD in the same field from the University of Minnesota. In this process, she examined the effects of social traumas on family relations, and worked on trauma and family-oriented psychotherapy with substance abuse and disadvantaged groups in various clinics. In 2014, she worked as the project coordinator of the "Afetlerde Psikososyal Hizmetler Birliği" (APHB), which was constituted to provide on-site psychosocial support to families affected by the Soma mine massacre. She takes part in the studies carried out in the Trauma, Disaster and Crisis Intervention Unit of the Turkish Psychological Association (TPD) and takes part in the psychosocial support teams formed to intervene in social traumas. Dr. Yumbul continues her psychotherapy studies at the Bude Psychotherapy Center. She works especially with individual and social traumas, post-traumatic stress disorder and complex trauma, depression, anxiety disorders and couple-family problems.

Yıldız completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and her master's degree in Couple and Family Therapy at Özyeğin University. She gained various internship experiences during her undergraduate and graduate years and voluntarily took part in social responsibility projects. She was the education coordinator of the Cognitive Skills Social Responsibility Project, which was carried out when she was working in Mind + More Psychological Counseling Center. Through the project, in various NGOs; she carried out activities to enhance the cognitive, emotional and social skills of socioeconomically disadvantaged children, organized workshop programs for children and parents, and took an active role in the education and fieldwork processes of psychology students who voluntarily contributed to the project. She carried out psychoeducation and psychotherapy studies with the families of children diagnosed with cancer, while she was working as a psychologist at the "Gülmek İyileştirir Derneği". She conducted studies involving play therapy interventions with children undergoing cancer treatment in hygienic play centers affiliated with the association. She works as the administrative manager of Özyeğin University's Couple and Family Center ÖzÜÇAM while she continues her psychotherapy studies with individuals and families.

She received her BA in Economics from Anadolu University in 2013. She continues studying in Marmara University Management and Organization Master's Program. She worked as an assistant at Kariyer Danışmanlık between the years of 1998 and 2000. She worked as a doctor’s assistant at Tanyeri Health Services between the years of 2002 and 2010. Then, she worked as a medical school officer at Faculty of Medicine in Acibadem University between the years of 2010-2014. Saniye İhtiar Sali Ali has been working as the administrative specialist at Özyeğin University's Couple and Family Center ÖzÜÇAM since 2018.