Meet Zeynep Biringen

Zeynep Biringen, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado and Professor Emerita at Colorado State University (CSU).  She conducted research on adult-child relationships at CSU for 26 years and trained literally thousands of professionals (researchers, mental health clinicians, speech pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other practitioners) in the evidence-based EA System, which is based on more research than any other observational tool in the field of parent-child relationships (see section on Research).  Inspired by her mentor Robert N. Emde’s conceptualizations of emotional availability and emotions as well as Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory, Zeynep Biringen has spearheaded the understanding of emotional availability (EA) as a rigorous scientific assessment of adult-child relationships, developing and refining the Emotional Availability (EA) System.  Encouraged by Robert N. Emde, Zeynep Biringen began to train professionals in the system well over 30 years ago. 

To describe Zeynep's journey a little bit, her father was originally from the Caucasus region of Russia and from a historically prominent (architectural) family of that region.  However, after significant political persecution in his homeland, including 3 years in a Siberian concentration camp, he fled to Turkiye as a refugee.  There, he met his future Turkish wife, a well-respected teacher of the German language.  He waited many years for the opportunity to immigrate to the US, which he always dreamed of as his destination.  When invited, he joined other family members who had already immigrated to the New York City/New Jersey area.  After a 2-year wait for formalities, Zeynep, her sister, and mother also finally joined him in NYC when she was 8 years old, right in the middle of 4th grade and speaking absolutely no English.  (Her mother had been taking classes from the "English teacher" at her place of employment.)  Zeynep always found school and learning to be not only appealing, but also a refuge and centering influence.  She had a Polish friend she walked home with every day and they barely spoke until Zeynep could learn more English. Zeynep was at the top of her class through the years and even became valedictorian of her high school.  She has always found her multicultural background to be very helpful in understanding and relating to people around the world.  She has also realized that her immigrant background has helped her in relating to individuals from many backgrounds in the US and elsewhere.

Fast forward many many years, she attended Cal-Berkeley for graduate programs and Albert Einstein School of Medicine (Montefiore Hospital, which was "her mother's hospital" in NYC during her later years) for her APA-approved child clinical internship, becoming licensed as a clinical psychologist in 1996.  Here is a look at her c.v: Biringen cv 2025