After graduating from Notre Dame de Sion French Highschool- İstanbul, she got her bachelor’s degree (BA) in ‘Psychology’ from Middle East Technical University (METU) – Ankara. After being qualified for the Fulbright Scholarship, she went to the United States of America (USA) for her higher education. She received her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Drexel University Health Sciences Department- Philadelphia. During her graduate degree studies and after graduation, Atçeken worked for the Philadelphia Heath Care Management System’s (PHMC) Family Therapy Treatment Program and Thomas Jefferson Hospital’s Family Health Center for 3 years. Her main areas of work consisted of substance addiction, trauma and family relationships, and couple relationships. She also took part in weekly group therapy processes on ‘Trauma and Family Relationships’ held with women convicts at Philadelphia Riverside Prison.
After returning to Istanbul, she worked with DBE Institute for Behavioral Studies (Davranış Bilimleri Enstitüsü) with Emre Konuk and Fide Consulting teams with Ümran Korkmazlar for many years. Also, she worked with clients on weight control, emotional eating, and providing support for clients to build resilience into difficulties of weight loss at Yaşasın Hayat Clinic by Osman Müftüoğlu.
In 2012, she founded BATE Institute for Individual and Family Therapies (İstanbul) with Tuba Akyüz. Atçeken moved to Antalya in 2016, co-founded Salt Psychology Institute with Özge Berçin. Although she provides her sessions in Antalya at Salt and online all over the world, she gives trainings, individual and group supervisions in different cities of Turkey, mainly in İstanbul. She also takes part in academical research projects, presents in national and international conferences and works in the field for EMDR- HAP (Humanitarian Assistance Program) when an emergency disaster happens, and early trauma intervention is needed.
Furthermore, she is the consultant of EMDR Europe Accredited, EMDR Trainer candidate and a board member of EMDR Turkey, she participates in EMDR training as a facilitator and practicum consultant. She also gives EMDR Workshops to mental health professionals. Some of the topics she works on; chronic headache treatment with EMDR, performance enhancement in athletes, employees, and actors, psychological traumas, complex traumas, sexual abuse, birth traumas, attachment issues, relational problems, surgery and medical traumas, traumas and physical symptoms that develop after traffic accidents, anger and stress management, aviophobia, phobias, grief process, depression, treatment of anxiety disorders and panic attack, test anxiety in adolescents, couples and family therapy.
Şirin’s main psychotherapy approaches are: EMDR Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Integral Somatic Psychotherapy, Mindfulness, Solution-Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Systemic and Strategic Family Therapy, Gottman Couples Therapy, Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy, Imago Couples Therapy.
As her other professional field of interest is Career Counseling, she was a part of the creative and executive team of the VOLEY (Integrative Method of Vision Formation) Project which was awarded in the World Bank Creative Ideas for Development Competition. This method was created to bring out the professional tendencies of teenagers and increase their personal and internal awareness in life which is supported by the Provincial Directorate for National Education (MEB) and Marmara University. She also worked as a career coach on the insparcus.com team.