Dr. Danielle Burns is a Registered Psychological Associate and California Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of experience across behavioral health, integrated healthcare, clinical leadership, education, and human-service systems. Her clinical orientation integrates depth, psychodynamic, and phenomenological psychology with contemporary neurobehavioral, somatic, relational, trauma-informed, and biopsychosocial perspectives.

Dr. Burns is particularly interested in the relationship between psychological and neurological functioning and in understanding the whole person within the context of mind, body, relationships, environment, and lived experience. Her approach draws upon depth psychology’s attention to meaning, identity, personality, implicit processes, and psychological transformation while incorporating contemporary perspectives on embodiment, attachment, nervous-system regulation, and adaptation to illness and changes in functioning.

Her clinical interests include trauma and stress-related conditions, personality disorders and personality functioning, complex relational and attachment patterns, anxiety and mood concerns, chronic pain and complex health conditions, and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). She is especially interested in working with individuals navigating complex presentations in which psychological, relational, bodily, and neurological experiences intersect.

Dr. Burns approaches psychotherapy from a relational and phenomenological stance, seeking to understand how individuals experience themselves and their worlds rather than reducing complex experiences to symptoms or diagnoses alone. She values the therapeutic relationship as a space for developing insight, recognizing longstanding patterns, integrating difficult experiences, strengthening agency, and creating meaningful psychological change.

Her doctoral training in Depth Psychology further informs her interest in meaning-making, identity, embodiment, symbolism, and individuation. Her doctoral research explored how profound relational and embodied experiences can contribute to changes in meaning, self-understanding, and consciousness. These themes continue to inform her clinical interest in how people adapt, reorganize, and discover new possibilities for living during periods of trauma, illness, loss, and significant change.

Dr. Burns is also interested in the evolving dialogue between depth psychology and contemporary neuroscience, particularly the ways psychological, relational, embodied, environmental, and neurobiological perspectives can together enrich our understanding of human experience. Her approach reflects an appreciation for the complexity of human functioning and for the ways meaning, relationships, culture, environment, and the body can contribute to psychological well-being.

Across her work, Dr. Burns values psychotherapy as a place for both healing and discovery. She helps individuals explore recurring patterns, integrate difficult experiences, deepen their relationships with themselves and others, strengthen their sense of agency, and develop lives that feel more coherent and meaningful.

Prior to joining Pacific Neurobehavioral Clinic, Dr. Burns held clinical and leadership positions across healthcare, community mental health, child welfare, and behavioral health organizations. Her professional experience includes psychotherapy, clinical supervision and leadership, professional education, consultation, and program development. She has also taught psychology and related disciplines at the university level and provided education and consultation to behavioral health and human-service professionals.