clinical assessment

The Turkish American Mental Health Alliance’s Turkish-language clinical assessment program, Doğru Tanı, İlk Görüşmede Başlar—“Accurate Diagnosis Begins in the First Interview”—is listed to conclude with live online sessions on October 3 and October 4, 2026. The 16-hour program is designed for psychologists and eligible psychology students and centers on a defining stage of mental-health work: the first clinical encounter. TAMHA says the course is intended to help participants observe carefully from the first contact, establish a safe therapeutic setting, consider differential diagnoses and respond appropriately when urgent concerns emerge. The training is conducted entirely in Turkish and is presented by the organization as an opportunity to bring U.S.-based clinical experience and educational standards into a Turkish-language professional learning setting.

Final Sessions Are Listed for October 3 and 4

The course calendar is divided across two weekends, September 26–27 and October 3–4. As of Monday, September 28, the first weekend listed on TAMHA’s course page has passed, while the final two scheduled days remain ahead. TAMHA describes the format as online, live and interactive rather than a self-paced or on-demand program. The organization says session times and access details are sent by email to accepted participants after their registrations are finalized. Its published application deadline was August 31, 2026; the page does not describe a new application window or state that additional places are available after that date.

The live format is central to the program’s participation rules. TAMHA states that there is no absence allowance and that attendance is required at every session across the full 16 hours. A missed session watched later as a recording does not count as attendance, according to the course information. That policy also governs the bilingual certificate: participants receive Turkish- and English-language certificates of participation only after completing the program in full. The published $200 fee covers the complete live training and the certificate, but payment is requested only after a preliminary applicant has been reviewed and accepted.

A First-Interview Curriculum Focused on Recognition and Safety

TAMHA frames the opening interview as more than an administrative intake. In the organization’s description, assessment begins as soon as a client enters the room—or, in an online setting, joins the encounter. The course starts with the initial arrival and introduction, including observation from first contact, creating a safe environment and beginning the therapeutic relationship. That framing places early listening, context and clinical judgment together: the first meeting is presented as the starting point for understanding a person’s concerns, identifying issues that require further exploration and deciding how cautiously and promptly a practitioner should proceed.

The curriculum then moves through several symptom presentations that can be relevant in an initial assessment. TAMHA lists recognizing, questioning and evaluating depression in a first meeting, followed by work on anxiety disorders and how anxiety-related presentations may be differentiated from one another and from other conditions. Another module addresses obsessive-compulsive disorder, including the clinical task of distinguishing obsessions and compulsions from psychotic processes. The program’s emphasis is not simply on attaching a label to a reported symptom; its stated focus is on thinking through distinctions that may affect the questions a clinician asks and the next steps considered after an initial conversation.

Trauma, dissociation, psychosis and crisis response are also explicitly included. TAMHA says participants will examine how to take a trauma history safely in the context of acute trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, and how to recognize PTSD. A separate topic addresses the differential assessment of dissociation and psychotic disorders, which the course page identifies as two clinical pictures that can be confused in practice. The final listed topic concerns approaching a suicide-related message in a crisis, including assessing suicide risk and using a safe, appropriate response. The organization’s description makes clear that these subjects are part of a structured training curriculum for professionals and students, not a general-audience discussion of mental health.

Instruction Is Led by Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Ümit Haluk Yeşilkaya

The instructor is Doç. Dr. Ümit Haluk Yeşilkaya, MD, PhD, whom TAMHA identifies as a psychiatrist and neuroscientist and as the person leading development of the alliance’s education and course programs. According to the organization, Yeşilkaya is a postdoctoral researcher in sleep and circadian neuroscience at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, affiliated with Harvard Medical School. TAMHA also says he previously served as an associate professor of psychiatry at Bakırköy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Mental Health and Neurological Diseases Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul and worked as a researcher in McLean Hospital’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Program.

TAMHA describes Yeşilkaya’s research interests as spanning sleep, the neurobiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and first-episode psychosis. Those areas align with several subjects named in the course outline, particularly the sessions involving psychotic presentations, differential assessment and the challenge of distinguishing overlapping symptoms during an early encounter. The alliance also notes that his work has received a NARSAD Young Investigator Award and multiple ECNP Excellence Awards. The course page presents his combined clinical and research background as part of its effort to offer Turkish-language instruction based on experience associated with U.S. clinical and academic settings.

Participation is limited to psychologists and psychology students, with additional prerequisites for students. TAMHA requires student applicants to have completed coursework in psychopathology, personality theories and clinical psychology. Applicants must submit either a transcript or graduation document in PDF form so the training team can review eligibility. Meeting the stated requirements does not itself guarantee a seat because enrollment is limited, TAMHA says. The sequence described on the page begins with preliminary application and document review, followed by an email response to candidates found suitable; accepted applicants then receive payment information, and registration becomes final after the fee is paid.

Part of TAMHA’s Broader Bilingual Professional Network

The training sits within TAMHA’s broader mission of building a national network of Turkish American mental-health professionals and connecting community members with bilingual, culturally grounded resources. On its main site, the nonprofit says it supports the professional pipeline from students to experienced clinicians through initiatives that include scholarships, internships, clinical supervision, mentorship, peer support, job-placement services and continuing education. TAMHA describes itself as an independent, community-funded 501(c)(3) organization that collaborates with Turkish consulates in the United States while receiving no government funding.

That wider organizational work gives the course a professional-networking context beyond its four scheduled days. TAMHA says its aim is to expand access to culturally competent, bilingual mental-health care and to reduce barriers and stigma affecting Turkish American communities. Its public materials describe programs and services for professionals, students, families and other community members, including bilingual psychoeducation, support groups, referrals, mentorship and supervision. The alliance’s support-group information, for example, describes Turkish- and English-language access, online participation and culturally sensitive care, while its main site emphasizes the need for coordinated referral and support pathways.

For the current clinical-assessment course, the immediate focus remains narrow and practical: the first interview, the information a practitioner notices and gathers, and the distinctions that may need to be considered before a clinical response is determined. TAMHA lists the remaining sessions for October 3 and October 4, 2026, completing the second weekend of the 16-hour schedule. Questions about the training can be directed to education@tamha.us, the contact identified on the program page; TAMHA lists contact@tamha.us for general organizational inquiries.