"I aim to be a catalyst for creating hope, purpose, and meaning in a person's life."

Cécile Lyons

Cécile Lyons

As a deep-listener who is drawn to others, I have always had a desire to resolve human problems. I am a licensed psychologist in the Santa Barbara area. I'm also a certified money coach and seminary-trained spiritual director.

My philosophy of wellbeing is a holistic one, with recognition of individual, social, political, and economic forces. I help people to expand their consciousness and seek wholeness through the integration of mind, body, and soul so they can have the capacity to live more meaningfully. I believe learning and growing are lifelong endeavors that can be accelerated by adversity and crises.

My practice is to honor my clients with respectful attention, positive energy, and contemplative curiosity. I strive to create opportunities for people to feel hopeful, see possibility, construct meaning, deepen their understanding, integrate conflicting ideas, resolve dissonance, and reduce anxiety.

How I'm Qualified

The route I journeyed in pursuit of licensing in psychology may have been unconventional, but it enriched the work I do today. I completed my undergraduate studies and my first master's degree in Education at Stanford University. As an undergraduate, I chose to study English because I wanted to understand the psyche through the lens of literature. I complimented my liberal arts studies with classes in psychology but was less interested in laboratory research because I found the naturalistic classroom of life more relevant to my goal of being a professional practitioner. Today, I incorporate discoveries from cutting-edge exploration in neurobiology, as well as teachings derived from behavioral research, to assist people along their path of greater fulfillment, strength, and understanding in their lives.

In my return to graduate studies, I first completed a Masters in Theological Studies from Pacific School of Religion, a member seminary of the Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley, California. I also earned a postgraduate diploma in the Arts of Spiritual Direction from San Francisco Theological Seminary.

After completing relevant master's level work, I was qualified to pursue the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and chose to attend Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California, which is what brought me to the Santa Barbara area. My research focus was the Subjective Experience of Money. In conjunction with this area of inquiry, I earned post-professional certificates to become a Money Coach® and a Certified Financial Behavior Specialist®.

My Theoretical Orientation

I do not believe in a 'one size fits all' method of therapy. I work collaboratively with people to ensure that their needs are being heard, understood, and addressed in ways that make sense and feel right. Through my work, I strive to honor the imagination, the intellect, the emotional core of experience, and the concentric circles of context and influence. I respect the intersections of the unconscious and consciousness and the mystery in the transpersonal interplay.