Our Team

Özlem Kaleli completed high school at Istanbul Erkek High School (1990) and her undergraduate education at Boğaziçi University (1995), Department of Economics. She started her career in human resource management, corporate training, and performance management fields. In the institutional field, she worked as a trainer and manager at Intercon, Boyner Holding, and Lufthansa Airlines. As a trainer and consultant, she took part in the establishment, design, and implementation stages of coaching and employee support programs at the Institute for Behavioral Sciences. “Changing attitudes towards work: Satisfaction and motivation” was the subject of research during her MBA. During her training at Harrow Business School in England, she specialized in professional coaching. In line with personal curiosity, she met with dance and movement therapy. She completed her basic training in dance and movement therapy at Birckbeck College and Laban Center (2001). Her personal curiosity in this field continued with her professional training process in parallel with her corporate coaching and training activities. She was trained by Professor Helen Payne as a group leader of the Authentic Movement (2006-2009). She started to carry out dance and movement therapy methods, especially authentic movement, in parallel with psychotherapy processes, with individual and group sessions and training and workshops for professionals in Istanbul, Athens, and London.

She continues to apply and research the healing and transformative potential of working with the body in different fields, especially in development-oriented coaching. She has “The Bodymind Approach” (TBMA) group leader (Hertfordshire University, 2013), TBMA trainer (Pathways2wellbeing, 2016), and “Embodied Facilitation” (Integration Training, 2016) trainer formation and certificates. She continues her doctoral studies in the field of "Somatic coaching for chronic pain and symptoms in the workplace", which she started in 2014 under the supervision of Professor Helen Payne at the University of Hertfordshire. She teaches as a visiting lecturer and conducts research projects on "Somatic coaching for coping with stress" at the Hertfordshire School of Business. As a corporate trainer and coach, her main areas of expertise are emotional adaptation and resilience, coping with stress, work-private life balance, relationship management, and coaching skills.

Professional trainings in body-oriented studies:

    Energy Therapies (John Hartung, Bodymind Institute, 2006)

    Dance and Movement Therapy – Chace method (Linni Diehl, New York, 2007)

    Dance and Movement Therapy – Primitive Expression (France Schott-Billman, Athens, 2011)

    Methods to Work with Body for Therapists, Coaches, and Trainers (Mark Walsh, Istanbul, London, 2016)

    Methods to Work with Body for Therapists, Coaches, and Trainers (Paul Linden, 2015, 2016)

    Trauma Intervention Methods When Working with the Body (Mark Walsh, Miche Tetley, London, 2016)

    Body-Focused Coaching in Leadership Development (Wendy Palmer, UK, 2016)

Other academic activities she attended:

    Energy Therapies Congress (Heidelberg , 2017 – participant)

    Dance and Movement Therapy Congress (Athens, 2012 – organizer, coordinator, and speaker)

    International Congress of Dance and Movement Therapy (Riga, 2013 – participant)

    'The BodyMind Approach' Research Project for Somatization and Depression in Women (British Academy Newton Mobility Grant research fund, 2015-2017 – Project manager, TBMA group leader)

    International Coaching Psychology Congress (London, 2016, poster presentation)

    International Trauma and Attachment Models: Body and Mind Healing and Resilience Congress (London, 2017- participant)