Dr. Akan teaches across a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, with a strong emphasis on clinical training. Her teaching portfolio reflects the full breadth of clinical psychology — from foundational concepts to specialist clinical skills.
Undergraduate courses include: Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Child Psychopathology, and Readings and Research in Clinical Psychology, including a dedicated module on Cultural Adaptations in Clinical Psychology.
Postgraduate courses include: Clinical Assessment, Advanced Clinical Psychology, Individual Approaches to Psychotherapy, Diagnostic Evaluation, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Psychopathology, Supervision, and Master's Thesis supervision.
Her clinical courses cover assessment and formulation, individual therapeutic approaches including CBT, psychotherapy, and diagnostic practice, and the supervision of clinical work — giving trainees the skills they need to work as competent and reflective practitioners.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Akan holds several academic leadership and administrative roles, including heading a clinical psychology division and coordinating a master's-level clinical training programme, directing a university student counselling centre, being on the managing board of a psychology research centre, leading a clinical psychology lab, and serving on the advisory board of a psychotherapy research centre. She formerly sat on an ethics committee reviewing research applications.
She has previously served as a mentor for aspiring clinical psychologists from international and minority backgrounds through the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Minorities Group Mentoring Programme and the University of Essex International Trainee Mentor scheme — drawing directly on her own experience of training in the UK as an international student.
Dr. Akan regularly presents her research at national and international conferences. Recent highlights include:
• Preliminary Results from Twin Clinical Trials of Culturally Adapted CBT and DBT-Informed Group Interventions — Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
• Supervising Group Psychotherapies Across International Borders: Trials and Triumphs — BPS Psychotherapy Section Annual Meeting, Bristol, UK, 2025
• Adapting Psychotherapies for People on the Autistic Spectrum — International Social Sciences Congress, 2025, Istanbul, Turkiye
• Presentations at EABCT Congresses (2024, 2025) and EMDR Europe Conference (2024)