Türkiye Dissemination Activities 2025 - Virtual attendance

Güler Arslantas

Could you please tell us a little about you and your background?

My name is Güler and I'm a Master's student from Istanbul Turkey. I completed my course year in 2025 and am writing my thesis on loneliness among international students and how FAP based group activities may help improve their wellbeing. I completed my undergraduate at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia as a recipient of Deakin International Scholarship. I did my honours at Australian Catholic University and my thesis was related rACC volume and impulsivity in cannabis users and non-using controls. I was selected for Dean's Commendation.

How did you become interested in CBS?

My first introduction to CBS was through ACT. When I was an honours student, I had the opportunity to take a class on psychological interventions. ACT was the school of therapy to which I felt closest due to its emphasis on acceptance, which I used to (and still do sometimes) struggle at the time. The hexagon enabled me to reframe my own life and mindset and help me point out what it was with which I was truly struggling. It helped me create a roadmap for myself. And while reading resources about ACT, I felt this immense joy which made me grateful to be in the field that I am. I think it made me fall in love with research and the vast potential of clinical psychology.

Could you tell us about your research and application interests?

Currently, I am more interested in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy as its flexibility is what speaks to me the most. I want to be able to more in tune with the clues that appear within the therapy session and have the courage to act on them. I have been taking supervision for about a year now (ACT and psychodynamic therapy) and I noticed that I had some inhibitions acting upon some instincts that appear during the therapeutic process. I wanted to become better verse in FAP and its rationale to help me be more courageous. And it definitely helped me get to know myself better and view my relationships in a different light. It added so much to the intimacy and I started to feel more at ease with being more active in my relationships.

I want to further my studies in the field of substance use in the future, starting from my doctorate. I would like to be able to contribute to research which aims to better the conditions of in-patients and how I can improve the therapeutic process for them. At the moment I am more interested in the practical side of the therapeutic process but for the last few months upon familiarising myself more with the verbal behaviour and its functions, I have started to develop an interest in the function of language mainly in pathology but also in different contexts such as how would RFT relate to sign language and idiosyncratic sign language dialects among minorities.

Could you tell us about your experience at the World Conference this year?

I did not attend the World Conference in person but I was offered a scholarship for one of the virtual workshops. It was titled, Now What? Moving Beyond the Basics and Increasing your Fluency in ACT, Miranda Morris, Ph.D., Shawn Costello Whooley, Psy.D. and Holly Yates, Ms., MA, LCMHC.

First and foremost, all instructors were so open and approachable. They were not reluctant to share their professional experience which to a green psychotherapist candidate like myself was priceless. They offered detailed explanations about which theoretical foundations ACT stood on and how therapists could approach a problem with the psychological flexibility model. With their examples and the fantastic roleplays, I gained a deeper understanding of how to be more flexible myself as a therapist. During the roleplays, for example, I imagined myself in the therapist's shoes and when I started to feel at unease, the instructors introduced another path which enabled the therapy to flow into directions I was blind to prior. Sometimes they were themselves in the roleplays, meaning they were being human. It had never occurred to me in those moments to use my inner reflections as an intervention. The reassuring aspect of it was that it seemed to work. It motivated me a lot to be in the therapy room as a practitioner and eased my nerves about getting my professional career started.

Was there anything that stood out to you about the CBS community?

The solidarity and helpfulness. CBS community is the most helpful professional community I ever had the chance to be a part in. The members I spoke to are so honest about their own stories that it completely erases any discomfort one may have about meeting new people. They are very supportive and not reluctant to share professional guidance and this makes the experience of learning so much more joyful. The vastness of available resources in different languages and the correspondence going over SIG lists offer a very enriching development.

What did you take back from your experience that has been helpful to you?

This may not be closely related to my development as a therapist but the workshop motivated me to work harder and become someone who could give to the community like the instructors. I wanted to educate myself thoroughly in topics that interested me and equip myself well in the school that I felt close to (CBS based interventions) so that I could also motivate younger generations of practitioners and help them overcome their own nervousness like me.

Apart from this, they introduced me to great scholars like Mark Dixon and research on why clinical work works and why it matters. These expanded my horizon and although it made me feel a bit intimidated with how much more to learn there was, I noticed that there were so many areas that I could spend the rest of my life exploring.