Shaped by global experience, personal healing, and a belief in collective care
I'm Deniz, and I'm glad you're here.
When we work together, you won’t just have a therapist—you’ll find an appreciative ally.
I’m an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (#154984), supervised by Tom Andre (LMFT119254), offering virtual therapy across California. I live and work in Los Angeles, on the ancestral lands of the Gabrielino/Tongva people. I provide therapy in English and Turkish and speak Spanish professionally.
Born in Istanbul and shaped across continents—North America, Latin America, South Asia, and the Pacific—I’m white, multiethnic, multicultural and a Third Culture Kid (TCK). I’ve long straddled identities, cultures, and geographies—belonging everywhere yet nowhere at once. Moving through communities with different languages, faiths, and ways of life taught me both the beauty of difference and the pain of exclusion. I learned to listen deeply, notice what goes unsaid, and hold space for the complexity of identity and belonging.
I’ve navigated the realities of serious illness, including cancer. I have been a member of the Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA), a 12-step program. These experiences ground my work in humility, presence, and deep respect for each person’s unique path through suffering and the search for meaning in an often-insensitive world.
I value connection over competition and belonging over conformity.
Before becoming a therapist, I spent over a decade working in global community development. I stood alongside people rebuilding their lives after community violence, displacement, natural disasters, and systemic harm. What stayed with me most were the quiet acts of dignity and the moments of shared connection in the face of loss—moments that ultimately brought me to this work.
I hold master’s degrees in Clinical Psychology (Antioch University Los Angeles) and International Policy, Human Development (Monterey Institute of International Studies).
Outside of therapy, I find joy in nature, poetry, cooking, gardening, and time with my dog, my family and my community.