BT Psychology Services

Dr. Berrin Tutuncuoglu is an EMDR-trained clinician certified as an EMDR child specialist.

 What is EMDR Therapy?

• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences. 

• EMDR therapy may be used within standard talk therapy, as an adjunctive therapy with a different therapist in addition to talk therapy, or as a treatment all by itself.

• A typical EMDR therapy session lasts from 60-90 minutes. 

What is an EMDR session like?

• The therapist works with the client to identify a specific problem as the focus of the treatment session. 

• The client calls to mind the disturbing issue or event, what was seen, felt, heard, thought, etc., and what thoughts and beliefs are currently held about the event. 

• The therapist will begin bilateral stimulation or move their fingers back and forth and ask you to follow these hand motions with your eyes. 

• Gradually, the therapist will guide you to shift your thoughts to more pleasant ones.

How is EMDR therapy different from other therapies?

• EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions.

• EMDR therapy allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.

• EMDR therapy is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain.

• For many clients, EMDR therapy can be completed in fewer sessions than other psychotherapies.

​Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy helps children and adults of all ages. Therapists use EMDR therapy to address a wide range of challenges, such as:

• Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias

• Chronic Illness and medical issues

• Depression and bipolar disorders

• Dissociative disorders

• Grief and loss

• Pain

• PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues

• Sexual assault

• Sleep disturbance

Source: https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/

Dr. Berrin Tutuncuoglu is a provisional Sandplay Practitioner.

What is Sandplay Therapy?

• Sandplay therapy, a unique psychotherapeutic approach, is used for both children and adults. The client uses miniatures and figurines to create three-dimensional scenes in wet or dry sand trays, a process that is both fascinating and beneficial. 

• Imaginative play through figurines and objects helps the client create a scene that is a concrete manifestation of his or her imaginal world in a "free and protected space." This process facilitates the psyche's natural capacity for healing. 

• Sandplay is used adjunctively to talk therapy during therapeutic work (Canadian Association for Sandplay Therapy, C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles).                 

What happens during Sandplay?

• The child, adolescent, or adult is invited to play in the dry or wet sand and to use the materials to create a picture or scene in the tray.

• There is no right or wrong way to use the sand and nothing to strive for.

• The simple materials – sand, water, and miniatures – are like tools of a language that are accessible regardless of the level of development, age, or severity of condition.

• Words may be used, but they are not necessary. (Hence, clients who are not especially verbal have the opportunity to benefit from therapy).

• The therapist supports and contains the creative expression of inner dynamics.

• The sand picture is left intact, allowing the creation to be accepted just as it is.

• After the session ends, the therapist takes a photograph of the sand picture to document the process.

How can Sandplay Therapy be beneficial to your child or adolescent?

• It provides information to assess better the nature and severity of presenting issues.

• It can ease the comfort level of children or adolescents by providing a nonverbal way to express feelings, worries, or difficult issues.

• It helps to develop rapport and build a trusting relationship with the clinician.

• By working things out in the tray, the child or adolescent can concretely externalize the difficulties or stresses they are experiencing, as well as their inner strengths and resiliency;

• Use the sand tray as a safe place to leave behind unresolved issues and tentative resolutions;

• Use the body, along with the mind and the emotions, to make changes and to develop autonomy

• If therapy is ongoing, the sand pictures provide a means to track developments and document changes. 

• The sand pictures can help indicate readiness for service termination and achieving desirable outcomes.