Dr. Nilgün Türkcan Ataoglu BCT, RDT
I am a Creative Arts Therapist, a Registered Drama Therapist - RDT, a Board-Certified Trainer - BCT, a supervisor and I am the founder and the director of Creative Arts Therapy Center…
As board certified creative arts therapist, I have over 22 years of experience in promoting growth and healing through engagement in the arts.
Becoming a creative arts therapist has been a long, extremely exciting and rewarding journey for me. Since I was a child, I was often expressing my thoughts and feelings through art, storytelling, role playing and writing poems, which made me discover the healing power of arts at a very early age. In 1999, when I found out about the Creative Arts Therapies MA Program at Concordia University, in Canada and I was accepted to the Master’s studies, my biggest dream came true. During my two years of internships at McGill University Hospital, I became aware of my abilities to listen and have empathy towards others' suffering. After graduating and having 11 years of clinical experience, my motivation and curiosity about the field led me to start my PhD study in Expressive Therapies Program at Lesley University, in Boston.
"During my twenty-two years of clinical experience, I have been privileged to help and witness so many people discover the meaning of their shattered life, and be empowered by creating and rewriting their life stories through drama, art, dance and music. Having the honor of being entrusted with deepest secrets or overwhelming experiences while ''holding'' another human being through the process of healing, and transformation is the greatest reward one can experience."
Education & Training & Social Projects
I received my Master's degree in Creative Arts Therapies from Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada and my PhD Degree in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University, in Boston, USA. Being a pioneer in the development of creative arts therapies in Turkey, I founded the first Creative Arts Therapies Center in 2010.
Mainly in Canada, with more than two decades of professional & clinical experience, I have worked with outpatient psychiatric children, adults and elders, couples, (and) families in individual and group settings at several centers, and hospitals – including McGill University hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital and in private practice. I taught undergraduate, graduate, and extension courses at the psychology departments on Applied and Theoretical Clinical Creative Arts Therapy courses in several academic institutions such as Psychology Department of University of UQAM (University of Quebec a Montreal), Ozyegin University, Isik University and many others. I am still continuing my clinical work and teaching & giving supervision internationally for training therapists in several countries including Canada, USA and Turkey. I have also made presentations and given many workshops in Turkey, Canada, Greece, Germany and the US. I am a member of the North America Drama Therapy Association, the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association-OEATA.
Some of the other social projects were with women with difficulties, called “Mirror mirror tell me who is the most beautiful woman in the entire world” supported by Atasehir Municipality and Creative Arts Therapy workshops also carried out with the elderly people in collaboration with Darüşşafaka Society. The other developmental drama project was "Building Bridges" (2005). In this eight-week project we used a technique called developmental drama to build interaction and promote understanding between elementary school children and Centre for the Arts in Human Development participants who were adults with developmental disabilities. The process of overcoming stigmatized attitudes was captivatingly illustrated in a video documentary of the experience titled "Building Bridges".
My Approach
In my clinical multimodal arts therapies approach (drama, art, dance movement and music)-You do not need to have any artistic skills at all!!!, I incorporate a humanist and a result-oriented approach integrated multimodal arts therapy approaches specialized in the fields of adverse childhood experiences (especially physical/emotional/sexual abuse & physical / emotional neglect), attachment problems, depression, anxiety disorders (phobias and panic attack),life changing difficulties (divorce, migration, job loss, illness, etc.), and eating disorders, trauma, pains of unknown cause, relationship issues and personal development.
As a therapist, my focus is on understanding my clients' unique experiences and needs. While diagnoses can be helpful in certain situations, they are not the end-all-be-all in mental health treatment. By taking a more individualized and holistic approach, I can better support my clients in their journey towards recovery.
I focus on helping to uncover my clients’ inner strengths and develop life-long skills. We all have innate strengths, but we are not always aware of them and they are difficult to access when we are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed, insecure, out of control of our life, or just overall feeling “lost.” I work with my clients to understand the barriers that are keeping them from living the life them want, and help them to learn and improve on coping strategies or skills that will help them to address those barriers in effective and meaningful ways. I will also help my clients to identify and to work towards achieving real and attainable goals.
My interaction with a client is conversational and creative. I am both passionate about and fascinated with the relationship between the mind and the body, and our work together with a client reflects that passion and knowledge.