Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Most of the people who find their way to my practice are thoughtful, self-aware people who have already done a great deal of inner work.
They understand their patterns. They have insight into their history.
But in their closest relationships, and often within themselves, something still feels stuck.
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.
My Approach
My style is to get in it with you. I pay close attention to what is happening moment to moment: the shifts in your body, what goes unsaid, and the subtle changes that often reveal the heart of the work.
I bring warmth, precision, and presence to every session. As an attachment therapist, I believe real connection between therapist and client is not just helpful. It is the foundation that allows meaningful change to happen.
Clients often tell me it is the first time they have felt deeply understood and genuinely moved in therapy.
I work with individuals, relationships, and couples navigating trauma, identity, intimacy, and the places where all three intersect. My approach is integrative and depth-oriented, drawing from EFT, EMDR, IFS parts work, somatic therapy, and Narrative Therapy, woven together in whatever way serves you best. I am a Pasadena therapist, who takes pride in serving my local community and clients via telehealth in California.
I hold a post-modern perspective, which means I see you as the expert on your own life. My role isn’t to fix or direct. It’s to accompany you, with deep acceptance and without judgment, into the parts of yourself you may have never felt safe enough to bring into a room before.
This work moves at your pace. Sometimes that means slowing down to build the foundation that lasting change requires. Sometimes it means diving in. I follow your lead.
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 Sandoval Therapy.
TRAINING
- Individual Consultation in EMDR (Ongoing 2025)
Laurie Colson-Young, LMFT - Certification in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (September 2025)
- Individual Supervision in EFT (Ongoing 2025)
Haleigh Butler, LMFT - Consensual Non-Monogamy Level 1: Clinical Skills & Interventions (August 2025)
Martha Kauppi, LMFT | Institute of Relational Intimacy - EMDR with Complex Trauma & Dissociative Personality Structure (August 2025)
Jim Knipe, Ph.D | BeaconLive & EMDRIA - Working with ADHD-Impacted Couples (May 2025)
Orange County Community for EFT, Grazel Garcia, LMFT - Sex, Sexuality & EFT Couples Therapy (April 2025)
EFT Center LA, Dr. Lisa Blum & Dr. Silvina Irwin - Working with Dissociative Identity Disorders, Pt. 1 (February 2025)
Cristina Mardirossian, LMFT | Pasadena Trauma Therapy - Intimacy Issues & Desire Dilemmas, Facing the First Session Webinar (January 2025)
Martha Kauppi, LMFT - Volunteer Team Member, EFT Externship (October 2024)
Dr. Silvina Irwin & Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - EFIT Essentials: Emotionally Focused Individual Training (May 2024)
Ali Barbosa Calderon & EFT Center LA - Group Consultation in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (2024)
Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - Sexual Attitude Reassessment (March 2024)
Dr. Stephanie Buehler - EFT Core Skills (2023-2024)
Dr. Silvina Irwin & Michael Barnett, LPC, LPCC - Externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy (2023)
ICEEFT, Robin Williams Blake & Kathryn de Bruin - Fundamentals of Emotionally Focused Therapy (2023)
ICEEFT, Dr. Silvina Irwin & Dr. Senem Zeytinoğlu Saydam - Working With Adult Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors A Structural Dissociation Perspective (“parts work”) (2023)
Cristina Mardirossian, LMFT | Pasadena Trauma Therapy - 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 (Live Webinar)
Alexia D. Rothman, Ph.D. (2023) - 70-Hour Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Counselor Advocate Training
Peace Over Violence (2021)
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.
LINKS
LOCATION
Danielle Palomares, LMFT
Couples Therapy & Trauma Therapy
Pasadena, California
Current office location:
Sandoval Therapy
491 S Marengo Ave
Pasadena, CA
CONTACT
(626) 209-9055
danielle@sandovaltherapy.com
