Prof. Ilgın Gökler Danışman

PROF. DR. ILGIN GÖKLER DANIŞMAN

Prof. Dr. Ilgın Gökler Danışman received her B.A. in Psychology (1998) and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology (2001) from Middle East Technical University (METU), and earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Ankara University in 2008. She completed the International Trauma Studies Program at Columbia University in 2006 and the family therapy training and supervision program at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York in 2007. In 2010, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Invitational Intervention: The ARISE Model training program organized by the LINC Foundation in New York.

During her family therapy training, she had the opportunity to work with internationally renowned scholars and clinicians, including Evan Imber-Black, Peggy Papp, Michael White, Pauline Boss, Judith Landau, Ayşe Yalın, and Hürol Fışıloğlu. In addition to her academic career, she practiced as a family therapist for many years and has provided training and supervision in Systemic Family Therapy.

Since 1998, Prof. Gökler Danışman has been working extensively in the field of psychological trauma. She has been an active member of the Trauma Working Group of the Turkish Psychological Association since 1999 and is a founding member of the Psychosocial Services Association in Disasters. Her academic and fieldwork has addressed a broad spectrum of traumatic experiences, ranging from natural disasters to human-made individual and collective traumas. From the 1999 Marmara Earthquake to the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes, she has played an active role, both as a coordination team member and as a field practitioner, in the planning, coordination, and implementation of psychosocial interventions following numerous mass trauma events, including the 2002 Afyon Earthquake, the 2004 Pakistan Earthquake, the 2003 Istanbul bombings, the 2015 Ankara Train Station Massacre, and the 2016 Merasim Street and Güvenpark terrorist attacks.

In the field of psychological trauma, she has collaborated with numerous national and international organizations, including the Turkish Psychological Association, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Turkish Red Crescent, the World Human Relief Association, and the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM), as well as governmental institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Family and Social Services, the Ministry of National Education, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Within these collaborations, she has delivered training, seminars, supervision, and consultancy services; taught university courses; organized scientific meetings; and served as a researcher in projects funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK).

Prof. Gökler Danışman conducts her academic and professional work from the perspective that clinical psychology should contribute to community mental health. She has served as a researcher, trainer, and consultant in research, educational, and community-based psychosocial intervention projects. She has contributed to numerous initiatives carried out by the Istanbul Women's and Family Health Centers, the Foundation for the Freedom of Children, the Maltepe University Research and Application Center for Street Children, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, the TED University Applied (Clinical) Psychology Unit, and the TED University Psychosocial Support Team (TEDU COPeS).

A member of the Turkish Psychological Association since 1998, she served on its Executive Board between 2000 and 2006, was a member of the Ethics Committee for three years, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Turkish Psychology Bulletin from 2001 to 2006.

Prof. Gökler Danışman has authored scientific publications at both the national and international levels and received the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research Award from the Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health in 2004.

Since the establishment of TED University in 2015, she has been a faculty member in its Department of Psychology and served as Chair of the Department between 2016 and 2025. She is the founding director of the Development-Oriented Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Master's Program, the first graduate program in Türkiye to award a degree in this field. She also led the establishment of the TED University Applied (Clinical) Psychology Unit and the TED University Psychosocial Support Team (TEDU COPeS), and currently serves as the director of both units. In addition, she is a member of the TED University Center for Disaster Resilience.

Her current research and practice interests include psychological trauma, psychotraumatology, intergenerational transmission of trauma, family life cycle and crises, loss and grief, ambiguous loss, child and adolescent mental health, and community-based psychosocial interventions.