Staff Bios
Kelly Yi, Ph.D. - Founder
Dr. Kelly Yi is the founder of The Mindful Center for Individual, Couple and Family Therapy. He has over 15 years of clinical experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups at numerous bay area agencies. Currently, he is a clinical supervisor at The Pacific Graduate School of Psychology/Stanford’s empirically-based Gronowski clinic where he trains graduate student clinicians. He is also the Associate Chair of the Psy.D. program at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia 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. Dr. Yi feels honored to work with people with their deepest life concerns and passions.
John Carey, Ph.D. - Licensed Psychologist
John Carey, PhD has been a licensed psychologist since 2007. John’s educational background includes a Master’s degree in Existential Phenomenological Psychology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, and a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. His training included a strong emphasis on work with clients with substance abuse / dependence issues, primarily using harm reduction and motivational interviewing approaches. John has also been trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy approaches and has maintained a specific interest in understanding characterological issues from a psychodynamic perspective. In addition, John also has had training in Jungian psychotherapy, psychodrama, and gestalt, and has an interest in mindfulness-based therapies such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. His doctoral research focused on the concept of “spiritual bypass”, a phenemonon whereby spiritual practitioners use a spiritual belief or practice to avoid facing psychological issues or developmental tasks. For the past four and a half years, John has worked as a clinical psychologist for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His personal interests and hobbies include skiing, playing guitar in a band, meditating, and reading about and discussing the intersection of philosophy, psychology and spirituality.