“As a woman, you are always out of place,” says psychologist Ece Önder, reflecting on the pressures of her job.
Although women therapists form the backbone of Turkey’s mental health services, they still face obstacles on account of their gender. Önder, who specialises in trauma and disasters, tells Inside Turkey that women are deemed “inexperienced” when they’re young, “strict” when they are older, “soft” when they are compassionate, and “cold” when they are detached.
Berçem Göktürk, a clinical psychologist, shares the same view. Women therapists, she says, are more likely to be treated by clients and colleagues as “incompetent” or “supportive but technically weak”, particularly when they are young.
Misunderstandings with male clients are common. Önder, who often works in disaster zones, says she experiences clients “reading into” her intentions.
“Your attention can be romanticised by male clients, which can go as far as boundaries being violated. You have to be on alert at all times. You start worrying not about how much support you can give, but about how your support is perceived. That in turn overshadows the point of the whole process – that human contact,” she says.
Credit: Her own archive
Some male clients are reluctant to talk about sensitive topics such as sexuality in front of a woman, Önder adds. They are ashamed or worried about upsetting their therapist, she says, which then disrupts the session.
“It’s crucial to set boundaries in these situations but you have to do it without hurting their feelings,” she says. “Culturally, a ‘no’ from a woman is open to question, like, ‘why did she say no?’
No space at the table
Unlike psychiatry, which remains a male-dominated field in Turkey, many women work as psychotherapists. But this still has its drawbacks, says Önder. “We are crowded on the field but absent at the table,” she says. “Equal visibility does not reflect a practical division of power.”
A third therapist, who asked to remain anonymous, says that in her first job she was taken aside by her boss and questioned about her plans for marriage and her family’s financial status.
“They were looking for a wife for one of their sons,” the therapist says. “I tried to politely explain that I did not intend to get married. When I said I wanted an academic career, they told me that careers don’t bring you anything in life and that creating a family is very important. I was so young, I had a hard time understanding what had just happened.”
Credit: Her own archive
Serap Altekin, a psychotherapist and clinical psychologist, says that motherhood also provides an invisible barrier, since women therapists are more likely than men to prioritise childcare over work commitments. “This situation inevitably leaves women behind compared to men; meaning fewer academic publications, fewer working hours, fewer teaching hours, fewer clients, less institutional training, and lower earnings. Single mothers’ lives are particularly difficult in this regard,” she says.
At the same time, adds Önder, women therapists are often expected to do more emotional labour in the workplace itself: to mitigate team conflicts, regulate emotions and even “mellow out” tensions. “Nobody says it outright but everyone expects it,” she says.
Credit: Her own archive
Göktürk echoes this. “Colleagues and clients alike expect women therapists to be more understanding, accessible and supportive. This creates a massive invisible emotional load. This load can blur professional boundaries and exacerbate burnout,” she says.
Research shows women therapists suffer from higher rates of burnout, Göktürk adds. Women carry their professional duties and their caregiving duties at the same time, she notes.
“The mental load is large and the support systems are often lacking. This double load directly impacts mental resilience,” says Göktürk. “Providing a space to protect therapists is important for public health and urgently needed.”
Support needed
The standard way for mental health professionals to maintain good boundaries and deal with the pressures of the job is through supervisions with colleagues, where they talk through their cases. Gender-based supervisions, suggests Önder – where therapists can raise these specific problems – would help mitigate the sexism.
“There is individual solidarity among women therapists but they are not enough unless they turn into a structural support system,” she says.
The woman therapist who asked to remain anonymous has worked for a Turkish municipality for several years. She says the authority has either brushed off or outright rejected requests for support.
“We have been ignored each time we’ve asked for supervisions. We employ external supervision services out of pocket. For a while, we conducted peer supervision, where we could support one another. But our team leader eventually banned our supervision meetings,” she says.
Göktürk says that efforts by women therapists to support each other tend to be informal. “There are very few supervision groups to help with harassment of women therapists, setting boundaries with clients or institutional discrimination,” she says.
According to Altekin, the lack of systematic, accessible and widespread support mechanisms is a major problem and can lead to burnout among therapists. Like Göktürk, she believes more formal networks would help.
For Önder, fixing the problem is a challenge for the entire profession. “It’s men’s responsibility as well as women’s,” she says. “Male therapists must take part in this process, listen to their female colleagues, show solidarity and share the mental load. Because change is only possible together.”