About
Silvia Pomares, LMHC, LPCC
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist · In-person in Mar Vista, online throughout California and Massachusetts · Bilingual: English & Spanish
I trained as a Clinical Psychologist in Madrid, Spain, and began seeing clients almost immediately — working within a multi-specialty medical clinic alongside physicians from other departments. It was a formative place to start: I saw early on how often emotional pain arrives disguised as something else, and how much is missed when no one asks what lies beneath the symptom.
While working there, I completed a two-year master’s-level training in Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and opened a private practice that I ran alongside my work at the clinic.
I later moved to the United States to deepen that training, earning a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling with a psychoanalytic focus at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. I went on to work at South End Community Health Center and East Boston Neighborhood Health Center — settings that brought me a wide range of people, histories, and ways of suffering — before transitioning fully into private practice.
I have been practicing continuously since 2012, with thousands of clinical hours across adults, adolescents, and children.
Approach
How I see
this work.
I’m deeply curious about people — about what makes each person particular, and how someone comes to feel, fear, and long for the things they do. That curiosity is the center of how I work. You will not find judgment here, only a genuine wish to understand your deepest longings, fears, desires, and conflicts.
Jonathan Shedler puts something I believe at the heart of this work:
“We can’t understand ourselves until we have first been understood.”
That is what therapy offers that little else does: the experience of being genuinely understood by another person — and through it, the possibility of finally understanding yourself.
Languages
English & Spanish.
I work in both English and Spanish, and offer all of my services in either.
Credentials
Training & licensure.
- Graduate (US)
MA, Mental Health Counseling
Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis (BGSP). A graduate school dedicated to psychoanalytic theory and clinical training, with a psychoanalytic focus throughout.
- Postgraduate (Spain)
Adult, Child & Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Two-year master’s-level training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy across the lifespan, completed alongside early clinical practice in Madrid.
- Undergraduate (Spain)
Degree in Clinical Psychology
Trained as a clinical psychologist in Madrid, Spain, where the path to the title differs from the United States. This is the foundation of the practice.
- Licensure
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor · CA
Licensed by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (License #LPCC21271), authorized to provide psychotherapy throughout the state of California.
- Licensure
Licensed Mental Health Counselor · MA
Licensed by the Massachusetts Board of Allied Mental Health as an LMHC (#13156), authorized to provide psychotherapy throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- Since 2012
In continuous practice
Thousands of clinical hours across adults, adolescents, and children, in community and private-practice settings on both coasts.
California Board of Behavioral Sciences, License #LPCC21271
Massachusetts Board of Allied Mental Health, LMHC #13156
Begin
The first step is a conversation.
A complimentary 10-minute consultation by phone — to hear what brings you, and to see whether we might be a fit. There is no obligation.