Psychotherapist
In-person at the Ballantyne, Telehealth option provided for NC Residents

Paloma Hetherington is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Queens University of Charlotte and a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pfeiffer University.

Paloma focuses first on building a holding environment — a space of genuine warmth, consistency, and non-judgment grounded in safety, attunement, and integration of self. She helps clients incorporate their histories while working through relational and somatic patterns together in the present moment, drawing on the therapeutic relationship as a meaningful part of the healing process. Paloma’s approach is psychodynamically informed and deeply collaborative, integrating Object Relations, Transference Focused Therapy, Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, the Gottman Method, attachment-based theory, and somatic experiencing techniques.

Her areas of competence include couples therapy, individual psychotherapy for adults, trauma-informed care, and intimacy work across all sexualities including; heterosexual, LGBTQIA+ polyamorous, and power exchange dynamics. She helps client’s work through attachment wounds, betrayal and infidelity, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, intergenerational trauma, sexual concerns, trust repair, crisis intervention, postpartum, life transitions, end-of-life and spiritual matters.

As a research assistant, Paloma focused her research on best modalities for sex therapy and couples therapy, including treatment protocols for special populations. She has provided mental health services across a range of settings, including a university clinic serving individuals and couples in Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, and Atrium Health Main Hospital, where she provided crisis intervention and mental health support across the ICU, labor and delivery, pediatrics, and inpatient behavioral health units.