Ela Ari, Istanbul, Türkiye
Could you please tell us a little about you and your background?
I am Dr. Ela Ari from Istanbul, Turkey. I am a full-time faculty in psychology department in Istanbul Medipol University. I am also an ACT therapist and co-founder of “Resilience Akademi”. My research and teaching is mostly on Organizational Psychology and Resilience.
How did you become interested in CBS?
Early in 2017-18 I started to do behavioral research on mindfulness and self-compassion. Then, I encountered the use of ACT model in organizational psychology. During Covid, I got my clinical psychology master’s degree. Then, I became an ACBS member and got more familiar with CBS. Recently, I integrated some ACT principles/exercises in the resilience programs to employees and communities that I am working with.
Could you tell us about your research and application interests?
I established a Resilience Lab in my university. Currently, we are working with implicit emotion regulation and its relationship with psychological symptoms, developing a multifactorial resilience scale. Recently, we published a research article on how we disenfranchise for others and self-disenfranchise grief and loss. We are planning to include compassion interventions to take this research to another level. We are also experimenting on time perception and psychological flexibility. Currently, we are working on a mobile application for end users to build mental resilience. I would like to collaborate with different CBS researchers in these areas and/or cross-cultural aspects.
Could you tell us about your experience at the World Conference this year?
It was a wonderful experience for my academic, research and practice purposes. Meeting my former friends and hanging out in San Francisco was lovely. Meeting with new people was also exciting. I had an ignite talk where I tap danced to show how to regulate emotions between therapy sessions. This might be the most joyful talk that I’ve ever given with all audience tap dancing with me. I also had a poster presentation about “Retrospective Time Perception: The influence of heart rate on time estimation on Anxiety and Mindfulness”. The questions and comments for the study were very lifting.
Was there anything that stood out to you about the CBS community?
Definitely yes. First, it was an inspiring experience in terms of research applications that are conducted around the World. On the other hand, I learned a lot in terms of clinical practice. I enjoyed every moment of all three days that I was there.
What did you take back from your experience that has been helpful to you?
I had a chance to meet famous CBS researchers in person and was surprised to see how approachable, humble, and helping they were. I want to try to come again or join online. It was very nurturing.
Do you have anything else that you would like to share with the community?
I have been in many conferences throughout my academic life. This was the best experience I have ever had, including Follies Night!
