Dania Menardi
Hi, I’m Dania — a faith-integrated, attachment-focused therapist who shows up with compassion, curiosity, and a deep belief that healing happens as a result of feeling safe to be seen, knowing you are known and accepted, and care for.
I help clients make sense of their "bad habits", reconnect with their nervous system, and build healthier patterns with tenderness and practical tools.
I help clients make sense of their "bad habits", reconnect with their nervous system, and build healthier patterns with tenderness and practical tools. My approach is warm, down-to-earth, and rooted in both clinical insight and lived experience.
First session
In our first session, you can expect a calm, welcoming space where nothing about you is “too much.” We’ll talk about what brings you in, what you’ve been carrying, and what you’re hoping will change. I’ll help you identify your goals, explore patterns in your nervous system, and leave the session with a better understanding of yourself and a few steps you can begin right away. My style is collaborative; you set the pace, and I support you with grounding, clarity, and compassion.
Strengths
My strengths lie in blending emotional attunement with practical tools. I help clients feel deeply understood while also giving them guidance they can actually use. I’m trained in trauma-informed, attachment-based therapy and love equipping clients through psychoeducation, helping you understand why your mind and body respond the way they do so you can respond with empowerment instead of shame. I work gently but intentionally, always honoring your nervous system and meeting you exactly where you are. Clients often tell me that they finally feel safe, seen, and supported in ways they never have before.
Ideal clients
I work best with people who grew up feeling like they were never quite enough — whether they went quiet… or got loud. The ones who people-please without thinking, who fear being “too much,” who lose themselves in relationships and don’t know how to find their way back. The ones who feel everything intensely and have spent their whole lives being told to tone it down, calm down, or stop being so sensitive. But I also work with the ones who coped in the opposite direction, the fighters. The kids who pushed back, spoke up, named the dysfunction, and got labeled “difficult,” “dramatic,” “ungrateful,” or “the problem.” The black sheep. The truth-tellers. The ones who grew up angry because anger was the only thing that kept them alive. Maybe you learned to shrink. Maybe you learned to shout. My ideal client is the person who always felt out of place in their own family. The ones who were yelled at, shamed, hit, or emotionally dismissed until their voice didn’t feel safe; whether that meant you swallowed it or used it as armor. If you’ve ever walked through life feeling like something was wrong with you, or like everyone else got a blueprint you’re still searching for… you’re the person I’m here for. I also have a special heart for first-generation Americans — the ones raised between two cultures, two sets of expectations, two versions of themselves. The translators. The peacekeepers. The kids who grew up fast because someone had to. Cycle-breakers who are exhausted, overwhelmed, and quietly grieving the childhood they never got; you belong in this space too. And for those whose faith has been shaped by fear, shame, or spiritual pressure — the ones who love God but feel anxious around Him, who confuse His voice with the voices that hurt them — I hold space for that healing as well. If you’re untangling what was Jesus and what was trauma, there is room for your story here.
Treatment methods
Trauma-Informed Care
In my practice, trauma-informed care means creating a safe, steady space where clients receive the attunement, care, and understanding that was often withheld from them. I move at the client’s pace, help them make sense of their nervous system responses, and reduce shame around their survival patterns. I also love equipping clients with the empowerment that comes from psychoeducation, understanding why they feel what they feel and how to regulate it. My goal is to honor their story while helping them build safety, resilience, and confidence in their healing process.
Attachment-based
My attachment-based approach starts with helping clients understand why they relate the way they do. A lot of us learned early on that we had to earn love, stay quiet, be strong, or handle everything alone — and those patterns show up in adulthood whether we want them to or not. In our work together, I help clients make sense of those roots, notice where those old patterns are still running the show, and gently build new experiences of safety and connection. I offer the attunement, steadiness, and understanding many people didn’t receive growing up, and I love empowering clients with the psychoeducation that helps everything finally click. My goal is to help clients feel more secure in themselves and in their relationships — not by forcing change, but by creating the kind of safe space where change naturally happens.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Top specialties
Other specialties
Serves
Licensed in
- CaliforniaLicense 134848