Dr. Merve Umay Candaş Demir

Dr. Merve Umay Candaş Demir was born in Istanbul in 1990. At Maltepe University she took a double major, studying Psychology on a full scholarship and Philosophy on a partial scholarship (2013–2014), and finished her bachelor's degree as top graduate of the Philosophy department. She became a specialist in January 2017 on completing a thesis-track master's degree in Clinical Psychology at Işık University.

Clinical training

As an undergraduate she interned at the Family Courts of the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse, at the French Lape Hospital, at the Neuropsychology Laboratory of Istanbul University's Çapa Faculty of Medicine under Prof. Dr. Öget Öktem Tanör, and at the Multiple Sclerosis and Myelin Disorders Outpatient Clinic. Her master's placements were in the psychosis ward of Bakırköy Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders and in the AMATEM (addiction treatment) and psychosis wards of Erenköy Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders.

During the master's program she also spent a year providing psychotherapy at the Işık University Psychological Counseling Center, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. İrem Akduman. Her master's thesis, "Assessment of Cognitive Functions in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Undergoing Treatment," was supervised by Prof. Dr. Feryal Çam Çelikel and carried out with the guidance of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kürtüncü at the Multiple Sclerosis and Myelin Disorders Outpatient Clinic of Istanbul University Çapa Faculty of Medicine.

She later earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with the dissertation "The Mediating Effect of Interoception on the Relationship Between Childhood Traumas and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder."

Professional experience

After her first degree she worked as a school psychologist at a private institution. Following her master's, she was a specialist psychologist at the Yedikule Private Neuropsychiatry Medical Center and at the Multiple Sclerosis and Myelin Disorders Outpatient Clinic of Istanbul University's Çapa Faculty of Medicine. She has been a clinical psychologist at NPİSTANBUL Hospital since January 2018.

Alongside her academic work, Dr. Candaş Demir practises Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She also brings body-oriented techniques into therapy, drawing on a 200-hour Trauma-Informed Yoga training certified by the International Yoga Alliance.