Selin Basmacı Habip
Gestalt Coach | Expressive Art Therapy Practitioner
Selin integrates Gestalt Coaching with Expressive Arts Therapy in her individual sessions, group sessions, and experiential workshops. She is a guest lecturer and assistant lecturer in the Art Therapy Practitioner Training Program at İstanbul Sanatla Yaşam. Previously, she was part of the Art Therapy team at Fransız Lape Hospital for two years. Selin is also a full member of the Turkish Art Psychotherapies Association.
For Selin, the transformative power of art, much like Gestalt, lies in its ability to illuminate the unseen, the unknown, or the untouched in the “here and now.” In her sessions, she gently guides individuals to explore uncharted emotional territories or through doors they may not even realize exist, enabling the expression of the unspoken, fostering deeper layers of self-awareness and accessing their inner wisdom through countless creative pathways.
Beyond visual arts like painting and sculpture, Selin incorporates movement, poetry, drama, and creative writing into her sessions, ensuring an integrative and fluid approach. She provides a safe space for unfiltered self-expression, allowing each individual to engage with their creative process freely.
Sessions begin with a grounding and warm-up phase, using various techniques to encourage individuals to turn inward, connect with their bodies, and engage their instincts. This process helps them gather internal data that can later be externalized through artistic expression. The individual is then guided through a personalized art-based intervention, uniquely designed by Selin to fit their personal journey or the theme of the session. Following the creative process, the artwork itself becomes a gateway for self-exploration. With Selin’s guidance, a dialogue is established between the artwork and the creator of the artwork, facilitating deep self-awareness and insight.
These sessions require no art skills or technical knowledge. This approach is rooted in the principle of “low skill, high sensitivity”, encouraging individuals to release judgments and embrace the raw, uninhibited expression of their inner world—just like a child would. The artworks that emerge serve as maps leading individuals toward self-discovery and transformation.
Both individual and group sessions last 2 hours. Individual sessions are conducted through the ‘Deep dive’ technique in meetings tailor-made for the individual’s needs.
Private Session
Art Therapy Practitioner | Gestalt Coach | 120 Minutes | Session in Turkish/English
Selin deeply believes in the healing power of art and sees art therapy as a gateway for tapping into one’s inner wisdom and making a gentle contact with the unknown, untouched, unsaid and unreachable parts of one’s self. Selin uses a combination of expressive arts therapy techniques including visual arts such as painting, drawing, sculpting as well as writing and movement. While art on its own is a therapeutic process, focusing on one’s inner-self, making art and then forming a dialog with the artwork by the guidance of an art therapy practitioner cultivating a strong self-awareness is what distinguishes art therapy.
No art skill is needed for these sessions as the aim is being able to express oneself without a filter like a kid. We call it “low skill high sensitivity”