Bio

I am a licensed counseling psychologist in private practice in Brookline, Massachusetts. I work with individuals navigating life transitions, relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, trauma, and questions related to identity, belonging, and self-understanding.

I am a Candidate in Psychoanalysis at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI), where I am engaged in advanced training in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. My work is informed by contemporary psychoanalytic thinking and a commitment to creating a thoughtful, collaborative, and emotionally attuned therapeutic relationship. I have a deep interest in understanding psychological suffering in its relational, cultural, and unconscious dimensions, with attention to how identity, migration, and social context shape subjective experience. I also provide therapy in both English and Turkish.

In addition to my private practice, I am a staff psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. I also serve as Associate Director of Psychodynamic Training for the General Psychiatry and Family Medicine Residency Programs.

CV

Education:

2021 PhD             University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA; Counseling Psychology

2014 M.Phil         University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Professional Counseling

2013 MS              University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Counseling and Mental Health Services 

Psychoanalytic Training

2026-present Candidate in Psychoanalysis at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, MA

2020 Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis's One-Year Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Boston, MA

2019 Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute's One-Year Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Boston, MA

Academic Appointments:

2025-present              Associate Director of Psychodynamic Training for the General Psychiatry and Family Medicine Psychiatry Residency Programs

2025 Adjunct professor Boston University Wheelock College

2022- present              Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine

2019-2021          Adjunct Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA

Hospital Appointments or Other Employment:

2024-present Senior Researcher, Laboratory for Early Psychosis (LEAP) Center Signature Project

2024-present Director of Motivational Intervening for Loved Ones (MILO) Clinic, Boston Medical Center Boston, MA

2022-present               Counseling Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, Boston Medical Center, Wellness and Recovery after Psychosis (WRAP) Program, Boston, MA

 2022-2026           Crisis Clinician, Psychiatric Emergency Services, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA

2024-2026 Clinician, Community Behavioral Health Center, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA

 2017-2019           Teaching Assistant, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA

 2016-2017           Research Assistant, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA

Pre-License Training:

2021-2022           Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology, complex PTSD & psychosis track, Boston Medical Center

2017-2019                 Clinical Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Chelsea Healthcare Center, Chelsea, MA

 2018-2019          Assessment Assistant, Massachusetts General Hospital - Asylum Clinic, Boston,   MA                           

2020-2021           Predoctoral Intern, Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology/Boston University Medical Campus, Boston, MA

2015-2016           Psychology Fellow, Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, Milwaukee, WI

2013                     Psychology Fellow, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center-Inpatient Unit, Philadelphia, PA

Invited lectures, conference oral presentations and workshops:

Institutional:     

2026      Invited Talk: Motivational Interviewing for Loved Ones, William James College

2025           Invited Talk: Working with interpreters in Health Setting, New Mexico State University Counseling Psychology Program

2025            Invited Talk: Motivational Interviewing for Loved Ones, Boston Children’s Hospital, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

2024            Invited Talk: Motivational Interviewing for Loved Ones, McLean Hospital Crafting Support Project 2025 Family Webinar Series

2023  Invited Talk: The Application of MI in Family Interventions for Psychosis, Ankara University, Guidance and Counseling Psychology Program

2021 Invited Talk: Multicultural Case Conceptualization: Applying the ADDRESSING Model and Reflective Dialogue, Grand Rounds, BU School of Medicine, Boston, MA

2019 Invited Talk: Pathways to Resilience in the Face of Forced Displacement. Cultural and Social Justice Meeting, Chelsea Behavioral Health Department, Massachusetts

General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

National:            

2017 Emerging Technologies, Communication, Health, and Identity: Beyond Control and Towards Curiosity. Symposium Presentation, American Family Therapy Academy

AnnualConvention, Philadelphia, PA

2018 Multicultural and Psychodynamic Conceptualization of Muslim Therapist and Client Dyads: Case Studies and Clinical Implications. Annual Muslim Mental Health

Conference, Washington, DC

2018            Intergenerational Trauma as Expressed and Experienced by Refugees. Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Annual Spring Meeting, New Orleans, LA

2018            Developing Principles for Clinical Practice from Qualitative Meta-analyses: 2 SQIP Annual Conference on Qualitative Research Methods, Pittsburg, PA

2019           Survivors of War: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. SQIP Annual Conference on Qualitative Research Methods, Boston, MA

2019           Do We Have Consensus about Consensus?: Reconceptualizing Consensus as Epistemic Privilege. Plenary presentation at the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in

Psychology Annual Conference in Boston, MA

2023            Motivational Interviewing for Loved ones: Randomized Controlled Trial of Brief Training for First Episode Psychosis Caregivers. The 11th CTSI Translational Science

Symposium, Boston, MA

2023            Caregivers’ mental health in early course psychosis. Poster presentation at the 3rd Annual Mass-Step Meeting, Boston, MA

2024             Young adult perspectives on treatment engagement and family communication during psychosis.Poster presentation at the 4th Annual Mass-Step Meeting, Boston, MA

International:

2018          Examining How Therapists Navigate Diversity and Culture in Psychotherapy: A Qualitative Meta-analysis, Society for Psychotherapy Research Annual Meeting, Amsterdam,

the Netherlands

2019             Self-Determination and Psychological Adaptation in Refugees and Asylum Seekers. International Communities Organization, London, UK

2019              Post-migration adaptation and self-determination in Syrian Asylum Seekers and Involuntary Migrants: Teachers’ perspectives, The International Psychological Counseling and

Guidance Conference, Antalya, Turkey

2021            We Can Do (No) harm: Building Cultural Responsiveness in Refugee Healthcare Training. Workshop at the North-American Refugee Conference, Toronto, Ontario

2021           A New Agenda for Research on Personalizing Therapy: Findings from an Omnibus Qualitative Meta-analysis of Therapists’ Experience. Society for Psychotherapy Research

Annual Meeting,  Heidelberg, Germany

2022             Analysis of qualitative methodology from the research literature on therapists’ experiences conducting psychotherapy. Symposium presentation at 53rd International Annual

Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR), Denver, Colorado

2023     Young adult perspectives on communication with family and clinical providers during first episode psychosis treatment. Poster presentation at the congress of the

Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS), Toronto, ON, Canada.       

2024          Motivational Interviewing for Loved ones: Randomized Controlled Trial of Brief Training for First Episode Psychosis Caregivers. with family and clinical providers during first

episode psychosis treatment. Oral presentation at the Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS), Florence, Italy.

Original, Peer Reviewed Articles:

  • Rizo, J. , Levitt, H. M., Morrill, Z., Ipekci, B. (2025). A metamethod analysis of qualitative research methodology in studies of psychotherapists’ experiences. Psychotherapy Research Journal

  • Ipekci, B., Thibeau, H., Gibbs, J., Barnard, E., & Kline, E. R. (2025). Young Adult Perspectives on Treatment Engagement and Family Communication During Psychosis. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 19(2), e70006.

  • Ipekci, B., Thibeau, H., Barnard, E., Keshavan, M., Vaswani-Bye, A., Kline, E. R.First Episode Psychosis Caregiver Perspectives on Motivational Interviewing for Loved Ones Training: A Qualitative Study. Early Intervention in Psychiatry,2024:1–8

  • Davis, B., Fenley, A., Sanders, A., Ipekci, B., Thibeau, H., Khan, T., Shashidhar, G., Keshavan, M., Kline, E. Development of the motivational interviewing for loved ones skills assessment (MILO-SA). Early Intervention in Psychiatry. 2023:1-6

  • Kline, E., Thibeau, H., Davis, B., Fenley, A., Sanders, A., Ipekci, B., Oblath, R., Yen, S., & Keshavan, M.S. Motivational interviewing for loved ones: Randomized controlled trial of brief training for first episode psychosis caregivers. Schizophrenia Research, 2022; 250, 43-49

  • Ipekci, B. Predicting PTSD and complex PTSD among Iraqi and Syrian refugees. Community Mental Health Journal. Advance online publication. 2022:1-10

  • Levitt, HM, Collins, KM, Morrill, Z, Gorman, KR, Ipekci, B, Grabowski, L, Karch, J, Kurtz, K, Orduña Picón, R, Reyes, A, Vaswani-Bye, A. Learning clinical and cultural empathy: A call for a multidimensional approach to empathy-focused psychotherapy training. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2022:1-13.

  • Mattar, S., Ipekci, B., Louis, E., Taknint, J. Clinical supervision and training: Implications for refugee serving public healthcare settings. International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation. Advance online publication. 2022:1-10

  • Turan, N, Ipekci, B., Cinalioglu, EA, Yilmaz, MY. Post-migration adaptation and self-determination in Syrian asylum seekers: Teachers’ perspectives. Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research. 2022:17(1):8-27.

  • Levitt, MH, Ipekci, B, Morrill, Z, Rizo, JL. Intersubjective recognition as the methodological enactment of epistemic privilege: A critical basis for consensus and intersubjective confirmation procedures. Journal of Qualitative Psychology. 2021;8(3):407-427.

  • Ipekci, B, Turan, N. Dysfunctional relationship beliefs as gendered predictors of alexithymia in Turkish cultural context. British Journal of Counseling Guidance and Counseling. 2020:1-14. 

  • Turan, N, Ipekci, B, Yilmaz, MY. Self-determination and psychological adaptation in refugees and asylum seekers. New England Journal of Public Policy. 2019;31(2):1-14.

  • Ipekci, B. Complexity of resiliency framework for refugee population: A Letter to the editor regarding Wright et al. (2016). Journal of Immigration and Minority Health. 2018; 20(5):1041.

Professional Service:

2023-Present Reviewer, American Psychological Foundation

2022-Present Reviewer, Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma

2019-2021 APA Division 17, Section for the Advancement of Women, Student Advisory Committee Member

2017-2021 APA Division 5, Ethics Committee Member

2015-2022 Association for Psychological Science (APS), Campus Representative