Kübra Arıkan

Kübra Arıkan graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University with a full scholarship in the Department of Psychology, as a high honor student and the second-highest-ranking student in her class. Following her undergraduate studies, she began her master’s education in Developmental Psychology at Koç University with a full scholarship and completed her thesis titled “From Parental Control to Child’s Self-Control: The Role of Parental Stress and Well-Being” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ayşe Bilge Selçuk. She then pursued a second master’s degree in the Clinical Psychology program (Child-Adolescent track) at Istanbul Bilgi University and completed her thesis titled “Investigating Mechanisms of Change in Mentalization-Based Treatment for Children (MBT-C): Do Gains in Emotion Regulation Predict Decreases in Internalizing Problems?” under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Halfon.

During her undergraduate years, she completed internships at Ekip Norma Razon and Balıklı Rum Hospital. She volunteered with various non-governmental organizations and associations, including TEGV and World Human Relief (WHR), and contributed to community-based projects focusing on the prevention of violence and trauma through the Bilgi Open Door student club. In 2017, she volunteered with WHR under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayten Zara, providing psychosocial support to children under protection and participating in sustainability-focused community work in Uganda. In 2021, she contributed to psychosocial support efforts for individuals and children affected by the wildfires in Marmaris. More recently, in 2023, she took part in psychosocial support work for earthquake survivors in Kahramanmaraş through the “Earthquake Psychosocial Solidarity Network” (DEPSDA) project initiated by the Turkish Psychological Association.

In addition to her fieldwork, she has worked as a research assistant on various academic projects. Her research interests have led to the publication of several articles in both national and international journals.

She conducted psychotherapy sessions under supervision with children, adolescents, and their families at the Istanbul Bilgi University Psychological Counseling Center, using play and/or talk therapy approaches. She also conducted cognitive and emotional psychological assessments. In addition to individual psychotherapy, she facilitated group programs called Child, Mother, and Father Development Workshops (ÇABA) aimed at improving children’s social skills while simultaneously enhancing parental skills.

As part of her graduate education, she received training in play therapy, psychodynamic case formulation and technique, and psychological assessment of children’s emotional and cognitive functioning. She is also a certified practitioner of Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C), a therapy developed for children with externalizing behaviors such as frequent anger or defiance, trained directly by its founder Tracy Prout.

She has completed the following additional training programs:

“Embodied Interaction Skills for Psychotherapists” by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Çatay, focusing on the use of nonverbal interventions in therapeutic communication,
“DIR Floortime 101” training,
“Parent Consulting for Professionals” by Clinical Psychologists Şeniz Pamuk and Dr. Damla Til Öğüt,
“Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Approaches for Disaster Relief” by Dr. Cathy Malchiodi,
“Mentalization-Based Treatment for Families (MBT-F)” by Dr. Holly Dwyer at the Anna Freud Centre,
“Transference-Focused Psychotherapy” by Prof. Dr. Doğan Şahin.
She is a certified administrator of the MOXO Attention Test and the WISC-IV (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children).

She works with children, adolescents, and their parents who experience emotional, behavioral, and relational difficulties, using a psychodynamic orientation. In her play therapy sessions with children, she incorporates mentalization-based and emotion regulation-focused interventions. She also adopts a psychodynamic approach in her work with adults.