Funda Yilmaz
After obtaining my B.S. degree in Industrial Design, I held my second and last solo art show in Ankara, Turkey, my home town. I focused on work as a management-track designer for the next two years, thought design for another two years. I was discontent most of those years, searching for a way to express myself. Through marriage, moving to the USA the search continued until a near death experience made me realize how precious Life is, that I really hadn't yet contributed much of my gifts to Life yet. Service was the missing piece. So, I went into counseling after getting an M.S. in "Community Agency Counseling". I worked with survivors and perpetrators of violence for 5 years, quickly became known as an expert in child trauma, got compassion fatigue and started working only with adults for the next 10 years. During this time, I consolidated a lot of the wisdom professionals from all disciplines gave to me about neurobiology of stress, human development, disease, health and many other topics. What I share here is the translation of that work into various domains: toys, education systems and apps for child development, leadership training, deception detection, dating, weight loss, pet parenting, child parenting, relaxation and pollution eradication are just a few... I consider myself retired and recovering from a very disruptive few years of health issues today. Being a workaholic, I'm also building many projects so I won't specify details here. If anything, I'd like to leave behind to younger generations the knowledge that you can be many things wearing many hats... Don't pigeon-hole yourself or let others do it to you. What I offer is my personal perspective, doesn't represent the perspectives of organizations or people I worked with throughout the years. They may not fit into your situation exactly, all the time, so take it all with a grain of salt. "Think before you act" as I said to my child clients and "If in doubt, don't do it until you think it over". I hope this wealth of knowledge benefits you as it has helped me and many clients I served.
