Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, #152067
Certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist
Founder of Palomares Therapy
I am drawn to work that has layers. Most of the people who find their way to me are carrying more than one thing at once: trauma, attachment wounds, neurodivergence, chronic illness, the tender places around intimacy and identity, or simply the ache of wanting closer, safer connection. What they’re looking for is a therapist who can hold the whole of who they are without rushing to simplify or fix them. None of it is too big to bring here.
I’m Danielle Palomares, a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in Pasadena, CA and a Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist. I specialize in working with couples and individuals who want to move beyond insight and into meaningful relational change.
AT A GLANCE
Areas of Specialty
Trauma & Attachment
Neurodivergence
Intimacy & Sexuality
Complex Relationships
Neurodivergence
Intimacy & Sexuality
Complex Relationships
Modalities
Emotionally Focused Therapy
EMDR
Parts Work
Existential
Narrative
EMDR
Parts Work
Existential
Narrative
Sessions
In-Person in Pasadena
Telehealth throughout California
Telehealth throughout California
My Approach
I am an active, engaged, and deeply accepting therapist. I pay close attention to what is happening moment to moment: the shifts in your body, what goes unsaid, the places you move toward, and the places you instinctively protect.
I show up as an attuned, honest, emotionally present human in the room— not a blank screen, not a distant expert, and not someone who disappears when things get complicated. As an attachment-focused therapist, I believe the connection between us is not just a nice extra; it is part of the work that makes lasting change possible. I care deeply about the interventions I offer, and I care just as much about how they are offered: with warmth, steadiness, curiosity, and respect for your pace.
I do not avoid conflict, rupture, or repair. If something difficult happens between us, we can work with it. For many clients, therapy becomes not only a place to understand their patterns, but a place to experience something different: being met with care, honesty, and emotional presence in the very moments they may have learned to expect distance, judgment, or disconnection.
I work with individuals, couples, and relationships navigating trauma, identity, intimacy, sexuality, attachment, and the places where these experiences overlap. My approach is integrative and depth-oriented, drawing from EFT, EMDR, IFS parts work, somatic therapy, and Narrative Therapy. These modalities are woven together in whatever way best serves the work— never applied as a rigid protocol from the outside.
My work is collaborative, non-pathologizing, and deeply respectful of your lived experience. I bring real relational expertise to the room, but I do not see myself as the expert on your life. My role is to accompany you with honesty, care, and deep acceptance into the parts of yourself, your history, or your relationships that may not have felt safe enough to bring into a room before.
This work moves at your pace. Sometimes that means slowing down to build the foundation lasting change requires. Sometimes it means moving more directly into the heart of what hurts. We find the rhythm together.
At heart, I believe many of us heal through relationship. Therapy can become a place to practice being met differently, to feel emotion alongside another person, and to build a kind of relational safety that slowly begins to reshape how you connect— with yourself, your partners, your friendships, and your family.
I am a Pasadena therapist, proud to serve my local community and clients across California through online therapy.
Background & Training
- → PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
- → EDUCATION & TRAINING
Danielle was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, and it is now her great privilege to serve her community as a trauma, attachment, and sex therapist. Her expertise lies in areas such as C-PTSD, relational issues, sexual and domestic violence, and addressing LGBTQIA+ concerns, including topics like consensual non-monogamy, sexuality, gender, and identity. With over 16 years of experience as an educator and musician, she found her path to psychotherapy through providing emotion-focused music education to clients of all ages. Through this work, she discovered the therapeutic potential of somatic, body-based practices, such as music, for processing difficult emotions, life experiences, and trauma.
Danielle’s therapeutic approach is integrative and client-centered. She customizes each session to suit the unique needs of her clients, honoring that they are the experts of their lives. She believes that at their core, humans crave safety and connection, and her work often revolves around exploring attachment dynamics.
It’s common for people to wrestle with conflicting feelings or competing “parts” that can be challenging to untangle. To assist her clients in navigating these intricate inner landscapes, Danielle utilizes the Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective. This approach helps clients orchestrate their internal voices and uncover the underlying needs of various aspects of their personality. They often delve into her client’s childhood experiences, which often contribute to the development of narratives that they wish to unpack and ultimately, reauthor. These narratives often contain deeply ingrained beliefs concerning gender, ethnicity, identity, sexuality, relationship structures, boundaries, and tradition.
In addition to talk therapy, Danielle offers attachment-focused EMDR, music interventions, grounding practices, havening, and guided meditations during her sessions. When working with families, couples, and polycules, she uses Emotionally Focused Therapy to highlight attachment dynamics and aid in rebuilding connections, vulnerability, and intimacy.
Her passion lies in working with clients of all ages and backgrounds. She often finds herself alongside neurodivergent clients, artists, deep thinkers, creatives, couples and polycules, survivors, and medical professionals and their families.
Danielle is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, LMFT #152067, currently offering in-person and telehealth sessions in Pasadena at Palomares Therapy.
TRAINING
- Ongoing | Individual Consultation in EMDR with Laurie Colson-Young, LMFT
- On Track for Completion of Certification in 2026
- Ongoing | Individual Supervision in EFT with Haleigh Butler, LMFT
- Ongoing | Group EFT Supervision with Michael Barnett, LPCC
- 2026 | Supervisor’s Reboot | Supervision course for EFT Supervisor Certification
Dr. Lisa Palmer-Olsen, Psy.D. - 2026 | Broken Bonds: Healing Relationship Betrayals with Emotionally Focused Therapy
With Dr. Lisa Palmer-Olsen, Psy.D. and Jim Furrow, Ph.D. - 2025 | Volunteer Team Member, EFT Externship
Dr. Silvina Irwin & Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - 2025 | Certification in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
- 2025 | Consensual Non-Monogamy Level 1: Clinical Skills & Interventions
Martha Kauppi, LMFT | Institute of Relational Intimacy - 2025 | EMDR with Complex Trauma & Dissociative Personality Structure
Jim Knipe, Ph.D | BeaconLive & EMDRIA - 2025 | Working with ADHD-Impacted Couples
Orange County Community for EFT, Grazel Garcia, LMFT - 2025 | Sex, Sexuality & EFT Couples Therapy
EFT Center LA, Dr. Lisa Blum & Dr. Silvina Irwin - 2025 | Working with Dissociative Identity Disorders, Pt. 1
Cristina Mardirossian, LMFT | Pasadena Trauma Therapy - 2025 | Intimacy Issues & Desire Dilemmas, Facing the First Session
Martha Kauppi, LMFT - 2024 | Volunteer Team Member, EFT Externship
Dr. Silvina Irwin & Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - 2024 | EFIT Essentials: Emotionally Focused Individual Training
Ali Barbosa Calderon & EFT Center LA - 2024 | Group Consultation in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - 2024 | Sexual Attitude Reassessment with Dr. Stephanie Buehler
- 2023- 2024 | EFT Core Skills with Dr. Silvina Irwin & Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC
- 2023 | Externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy
ICEEFT, Robin Williams Blake & Kathryn de Bruin - 2023 | Fundamentals of Emotionally Focused Therapy
ICEEFT, Dr. Silvina Irwin & Dr. Senem Zeytinoğlu Saydam - 2023 | Working With Adult Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors A Structural Dissociation Perspective (“parts work”)
Cristina Mardirossian, LMFT | Pasadena Trauma Therapy - 2023 | EMDR Basic Training with EMDR Consulting (EMDRIA Approved)
EMDR Consulting, Laurie Colson-Young, LMFT, LPCC - 2023 | IFS: Step-By-Step Procedures for Healing Traumatic Wounds and Alleviating Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Addiction and More
Alexia D. Rothman, Ph.D. - 2021 | 70-Hour Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Counselor Advocate Training
Peace Over Violence
EDUCATION
- Comprehensive Sexology Program, The Buehler Institute (In-progress)
- Master of Arts, Marriage & Family Therapy (Summa Cum Laude)
Touro University Worldwide (2022) - Master of Music
The University of California, Los Angeles (2014) - Bachelor of Music
The University of California, Irvine (2011)
ASSOCIATIONS
- EFT Center of Los Angeles Member
- International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT), Member
- American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, Early Career Member
- American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Member Early
- California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Pre-Licensed Member
Beyond Therapy
I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, moving between Arcadia, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, and Temple City, in a blended Mexican and Italian family.
Before becoming a therapist, I spent many years in the world of music. I am the co-owner of Innovation Music Studio, Inc., and have worked as a private vocal & piano coach and educator since 2008. That work, and the deep relational nature of teaching, ultimately led me toward becoming a therapist.
Music remains an important part of my life. For more than two decades I was immersed in the opera world, performing regionally, competing, and training in conservatory environments. Those years shaped my appreciation for academic rigor, emotional depth, and the power of storytelling about the human experience.
Outside of my clinical work, my ADHD brain keeps life interesting. I love exploring new creative outlets and have accumulated a rotating collection of hobbies including baking, painting, mixed media art, beading, learning Spanish, website design, hiking, strength training, sewing, crochet, knitting, gaming, photography, songwriting, and hosting elaborately themed murder mystery parties.
In other words, I rarely experience boredom.
Therapy is deeply personal work, and the relationship between therapist and client matters. If something about my approach resonates with you, I invite you to reach out for a consultation.
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