Sinem Gurcay Aker

My professional journey

My enthusiasm for human nature and human relationships is what led me to study psychology. I graduated in Psychology from Middle East Technical University in Ankara with a high honours degree, and went on to complete a master's in Clinical Psychology for Individuals, Families and Organisations at the Università degli Studi di Bergamo, finishing with 110/110 con lode.

Between those two degrees I deliberately took my training across several countries and several branches of the field: clinical and developmental psychology at a psychiatric hospital in Istanbul, organisational and human-resources work in Türkiye, and a career-consulting placement at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, where I worked alongside a psychologist on student guidance and programme development.

Since 2021 I have lived and worked in Munich, where I work daily with young children and their families in bilingual early-years settings. Alongside that I see individual clients online for counselling and coaching, in English and Turkish.

Working with children and families

Working inside a Krippe and Kindergarten rather than only seeing children in a consulting room has shaped how I think about child development. I plan and run an individual settling-in approach for every child who joins my group, observe and document how each one develops, and design the group's daily routine around what the children are actually interested in.

Just as much of the work is with the parents: daily conversations about how their child is doing, appointment-based advice on educational questions, and parent evenings and events. That day-to-day contact means I meet families at the point where a worry is still small and workable — separation anxiety, sleep, tantrums, a child who has stopped speaking in their second language after a move.

Supporting individuals online

I also work online with adults as a psychological counsellor and coach, through the international platforms It's Complicated and TherapyRoute.com. Much of that work is with people living outside their home country, in a language that is not their first, and the themes recur: attachment and family relationships, adjusting to a new culture, self-esteem, and finding a way to feel settled somewhere new.

Sessions are held online, which makes them practical whether you are in Munich, elsewhere in Germany, or abroad.

How I work

My background spans clinical, developmental and organisational psychology, and I draw on all three. I do not begin with a diagnosis; I begin with the context a person lives in — their relationships, their family history, the culture they grew up in and the one they now live in.

Because I work in English and Turkish and live as an expat myself, a good part of my work is with people navigating two cultures at once. That includes bilingual families raising children between languages, where what looks like a developmental concern is often the ordinary friction of growing up in two worlds.