it takes one to know one.
It took me years of personal and professional experience to understand how emotions work and can be utilized for our benefit.
As a daughter of immigrants,
I had no context for mental health.
In fact, I had internalized so much stigma around feeling my uncomfortable emotions. The way I grew up did not prepare me for taking care of my mental health as a multicultural being - straddling multiple cultural worlds at once. It didn’t prepare me for the multilayered and complex world of relationships.
I now believe that feelings are powerful messengers full of vital information. They can help us navigate our lives with more authenticity, joy, and peace. They can lead us to where we have unfinished work.
But, like the radio, we need to be tuned in to the right frequency to go from hearing noise that disrupts our day to hearing melodies that have us break out into song and dance. Once we pair a fine tuned emotional sensor with a sound mind and clarified values, the world is our oyster and life can be meaningful ... and fun!
In order to decipher and use what they are saying to your benefit you need the support of a perceptive, nonjudgmental, caring, and competent guide.
our mission:
To equip you not just to deal with the “problems” of today, but also to develop an entirely different orientation and approach to life.
Once you have this understanding and framework, you can address any new issue with more sophistication.
Once you have a deep sense of how your past impacts you today, you have greater clarity for navigating the future.
The goal is to ultimately work ourselves out of a job and to have you more deeply trust in yourself and your natural, intuitive wisdom - the wisdom of your ancestors that is waiting for you to reclaim it.
Our work is adapted to you rather than squeezing you into a rigid way of working.
Your time and energy are valuable. Stop pushing thoughts and feelings aside, knowing their resurgence is around the corner.
Stop scratching your head and spinning your wheels trying to figure it out all on your own.
Stop wondering whether therapy could help or receiving support from spaces that don’t attend to your cultural identities and leave you feeling unseen.
Take an active step toward living the life that speaks to you by seeking the support of a professional who gets it.
ca + ny licensed
I am a psychologist licensed in both California and New York who helps individuals and couples live emotionally-attuned, relationally, connected, and empowered lives.
I help motivated individuals and couples navigate the many competing needs of family life, career, relationships, and self-care with more clarity, ease, and competence.
dr. Pauline Yeghnazar Peck
where I really thrive:
My specialties include working with the unique experiences, needs, and challenges of the children of immigrants and intercultural couples, as well as with trauma in all of its forms and flavors.
My style? Warm, practical, nonjudgmental, open-minded, playful, deep, and engaged.
My techniques? Eclectic, including using talk therapy (drawing on the orientations most suited to you and your needs), EMDR (a modality for integrating distressing experiences), hypnosis, and a variety of culturally-attuned practices (from the spiritual to the traditional).
you have a whole village:
While there is only one of me, there is so much need for this kind of work, so I started Noor Therapy + Wellness to develop a team of professionals who can meet the diversity of people and needs with a diversity of supports. Check out the team and their particualr below.
meet the team:
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The Founder and Owner of Noor Therapy + Wellness; Licensed Psychologist CA: PSY 30478, NY: 023693, Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher, EMDR and Hypnosis Trained
With over a decade of experience working with diverse individuals and couples, she brings a culturally-informed and personally customized approach to each and every client she sees. Thus, she pulls from a very eclectic toolkit to support clients in their goals. She uses psychodynamic therapy, third wave behavioral approaches, spirituality and religious practices, positive psychology, neurobiology, and more to address clients concerns and work within their cultural beliefs, values, and norms. She has advanced training in Attachment-Focused EMDR, trauma-informed yoga, and hypnosis – all helpful ways to address the body and complete healing beyond what talk therapy can do.
She is the daughter of immigrants (1.5 generation – born in Iran and moved to the US at the age of 4), a Middle-Eastern woman (Persian-Armenian), in an intercultural marriage (married to an Italian-American man), and mother of two littles. Each of these identity pieces supports and frames her work with diverse clients from a variety of backgrounds.
When she’s not in session, you can catch her in the kitchen whipping up a healthy meal from scratch, squeezing in a workout in between playing with the kids, enjoying the beautiful outdoors in Santa Barbara, or on Instagram Live talking about the latest book in the book club.
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In-person Santa Barbara as well as telehealth sessions for CA and NY residents.
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Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, AMFT #137748
Talia has lived in Santa Barbara for 10+ years and is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. She is 3rd generation in the U.S., as her grandparents immigrated from Greece to escape communism in the 1960s. She is also a 4th generation Scottish and Irish. She has a background in the tech industry and a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University.
Talia’s approach is warm, compassionate, creative, collaborative, and non-judgmental. She meets clients where they are -- therapy isn't one size fits all! She will works with them to explore their inner world through creative engagement. She works from an integrative lens of person-centered, psychodynamic, and feminist theory and is Internal Family Systems (IFS) and trauma-informed. She believes that it's valuable to consider how systemic issues impact mental health.
Together with clients, Talia will explore their relationship to themselves and others, as well as identify their deepest values, strengths, and obstacles. She helps clients become more attuned and aligned with their authentic selves in order to live their most inspired life. She helps clients identify the ways they have learned to protect themselves that are no longer serving them. She is committed to helping clients move through fear, insecurities, and sadness to make lasting and impactful changes in their lives.
Talia is open to and affirming of all ages, genders, sexualities, and cultures but particularly loves working with women, LGBTQ+ folks, and young adults.
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Telehealth sessions for CA residents.
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Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, AMFT#138621
Marjan draws from her personal, academic, and clinical experiences to understand your needs better. She is a 1.5 generation, Iranian immigrant, only-child who knows what it feels like to have to figure it all out on your own and be/do the first of many things in the family!
She has a Master’s degree from California State University, Northridge. With experience of working with humans of all ages, from 3 months old to 69 years old, she truly believes that change is possible if clients are wanting and willing to make a difference in their lives. She brings authenticity, humor, and relatability to the virtual therapy room.
Marjan’s goal is to create a sacred and safe space for clients to feel comfortable and vulnerable because from there, they can actually get to the heart of the matter, asking and answering the hard questions that give them the results they need. She collaborates with clients to do this work of discovery and create lasting change in finding their most authentic selves.
Her clients may feel anxious, overwhelmed, and struggle in different areas of their life like their relationships or work/school because they find them to be unfulfilling despite their best efforts to keep up. They pride themselves in being responsible and able to handle a lot in the different roles they play. They often show up for others but have difficulty showing up for themselves.
Marjan sees adult individuals and couples.
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Telehealth sessions for CA residents.
More on the name ‘Noor’
May the light + pomegranate and everything that ‘Noor’ represents help you find your way.
Find your light, Live bright.
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The more I work with all the dark and difficult things, the more I believe in the truth, the potency, and the healing power of light. Light refers to love, to the body and spirit’s natural capacity for healing, to resilience through softness, to connection and belonging. When we can sit with the dark winters of our psyches and our lives, we can savor the feeling of the warmth of the sun on our skin that much more.
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The pomegranate, other than being my favorite fruit, is a national symbol for fertility, life, and abundance. Armenian lore holds that a perfectly mature pomegranate is 365 kernels, one for each day of the year. The idea of many parts within one whole speaks to me as a psychologist and multicultural woman who knows we are all made of different parts. Recognizing and returning to our wholeness while honoring the many parts of the overall mosaic that makes each of us unique is what I love most about the transformation process.
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My dad, like many immigrant parents, showed his love through preparing fruit. Still to this day, he will sit for hours, carefully peeling each pomegranate kernel to keep it intact. There are many things my parents didn’t give me, like most parents, and yet, the image of my father preparing pomegranate for me is evidence that I am deeply, deeply loved.