Kelly Yi, Ph.D., LPCore Faculty

Dr. Kelly Yi has over 20 years of clinical experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups at numerous agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in South Korea. He is the Associate Chair of the Psy.D. program at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University. He also is former clinical faculty at Stanford University and Palo Alto University. Dr. Yi has a passion for bringing contemplative healing practices to underserved populations. He has been a practitioner and mentor in various contemplative traditions since 1992. He studied the psychology of religion and comparative religious/spiritual experiences as an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara. In graduate school, he conducted original doctoral research on long-term mindfulness training and well-being, examining the experiences of long-term practitioners and teachers of mindfulness. He is a past post-doctoral Summer Research Fellow of The Mind and Life Institute, as well as a research assistant on the Mind and Life Institute’s leading edge Cultivating Emotional Balance project. He is a certified Cultivating Emotional Balance teacher. He also is certified in: The Realization Process as Meditation teacher, Induced After-Death Communications, Thomas Hubl Practice Group Facilitation; and has extensive training in Internal Family Systems, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, ACT, Psychodrama, Somatics, MBSR, MBCT, Chi Nei Tsang, Depth Hypnosis, Emotion Focused Couples Therapy, and Structural/Strategic Family Therapy among other approaches. Dr. Yi has specializations working with spiritual and religious issues, addictions, trauma, ethnic identity and cultural issues, anxiety, depression, stress, relationships, and meaning of life issues. He is currently writing a book on the integration of Eastern and Western psychologies.

University Email: kelly.yi@sofia.edu

Credentials: PhD Licensed Psychologist

Program: PsyD, MACP, MATP-O

Educational Research:

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow 
  The Mind and Life Institute – Investigated the interface between education, developmental neuroscience, and contemplative practices in facilitating well – being across the lifespan.
• Dissertation Research
  The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology – Explored the nature of long term mindfulness training and its role in well – being. Utilized both qualitative (Heuristic and Narrative) and quantitative methods of data collection, analysis and presentation.

Education:

• PhD, Transpersonal Psychology, Clinical, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, Accredited by WASC, CAPIC member, September
• M.A., CounselingPsychology, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, June 2003
• B.A., Double Major in Psychology and Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, magna cum laude, August 1997