Merve Senalan

About Merve Senalan

Hi! Thank you for your curiosity and visiting my LinkedIn profile. I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor in Illinois and a doctoral student in Counseling Education and Supervision. I love what I do and consider it an incredible privilege, AND I didn’t always know this is where I wanted to be. The story goes… I prepped for Vet-school during undergrad with lots of research, science heavy coursework, and even did some field work with giraffes, zebras, okapi, dolphins, and beluga whales! Then something pretty cool happened. I started growing a tiny human-animal in my body! Pregnancy with all its hardship and glory made me deeply curious about the human mind-body connection. So I took a sharp turn towards the field of mental health. While training to become a counselor, I accepted a role as an elementary school art teacher. Deeply moved by students who processed profound grief using color and brushstrokes, I started to wonder what this would look like in my therapy sessions with clients. Now I often invite clients to engage creatively, while also incorporating tools like immersive reality and biofeedback to draw on my science background. The current chapter is filled with two adorable growing humans, part time clinical work, supervising counselor’s in training, teaching assistantship, the buds of a dissertation proposal, and hoarding of creative volunteer opportunities whenever humanly possible. My research interests are around (1) clinical supervision and (2) using biofeedback to help improve treatment outcomes in refugee communities. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to connect on teaching, research, writing, and/or presenting!

Experience

1. Teaching Assistant

   Denver Seminary

   Mar 2025 — Present

   Child Assessment, Neurological Function and Psychopharmacology in Counseling

Skills

• Animal Husbandry
• Animal Training
• Animal Welfare
• Biology
• Scuba Diving
• Ethology
• Ecological Research
• Wildlife Rehabilitation
• Padi Open Water Scuba Certification
• Environmental Science
• Field Work
• Laboratory Skills
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Outlook
• Redcap
• Epic Systems
• Academic Writing
• Project Coordination
• Project Management
• Training & Development
• Working with Children