ALISON PICARD
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychoanalytic therapy for individuals and relationships
in-person in the Los Angeles area and virtually in California
ALISON PICARD
PSYCHOTHERAPY
ALISON PICARD
PSYCHOTHERAPY
If you are interested in learning more or working together in therapy, supervision, or consultation, please reach out.
I look forward to connecting with you.
ABOUT ME
I am a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT CA #132492) based in Los Angeles, CA, and maintain a private practice working with a diverse range of adults, couples, and relationship constellations. My areas of focus include LGBTQIA+ individuals, therapists and trainees, creatives and performers, emerging adults, and those navigating life transitions such as parenthood or consensual nonmonogamy. In addition to clinical work, I offer supervision and consultation to clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques as they apply to psychotherapy, particularly in work with LGBTQIA+ communities.
WHO I WORK WITH
Many people I work with are navigating major life changes—career shifts, relationship transitions, coming into new identities, or grieving loss. Moments of significant change can offer an opportunity to deepen our understanding of ourselves. Therapy provides a space to be held while doing the difficult work that leads to growth and transformation. Others I see are addressing long-standing anxiety, depression, isolation, or a sense of discontent. With a curious and compassionate approach, we can come to understand suffering as a signal—one that draws our attention to deeper, unresolved conflict—and begin to create movement and change.
HOW I WORK
My approach includes exploring unconscious thoughts and feelings and how they shape present challenges. We do this through close listening, dream analysis, and careful attention to the relationship between therapist and patient, understanding that it often reflects earlier relational patterns. Together, we work to identify defenses that limit emotional awareness and to address questions related to self-perception and identity. While much of this work focuses on how we make meaning of our experience, it is also essential to acknowledge that we live within broader social contexts. Our sense of self and emotional well-being are shaped by intersecting systems of oppression, and relationships to power—through race, class, gender, and ethnicity—are present in all aspects of life, including the therapeutic space. I am a white, able-bodied, cisgender queer woman, and I bring ongoing awareness of how these identities shape our work together.
EDUCATION, TRAINING & AFFILIATIONS
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B.A. McGill University, Montréal
-
M.A. Antioch University, Los Angeles
-
Clinical Psychology, LGBTQ+ Affirmative Specialization.
-
-
Graduate-level training at The Maple Center, Los Angeles
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
-
2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
-
-
Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles
-
2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
-
-
Co-Chair of the Committee for Diversities and Socio-cultural Inequities
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis
-
-
Faculty, Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program
-
Course: Sexuality and Gender
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles
-
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Member:California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
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APA DIV 39 Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology
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American Psychoanalytic Association
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psychoanalytic therapist, clinical supervisor
Alison Picard
MA, LMFT
We discover who we are, learn to love, and experience pain through our relationships with others. It makes sense, then, that the deepest forms of healing and transformation happen within a human relationship.
Relational psychoanalytic therapy is a powerful and effective path toward that change.
If you are interested in learning more or working together in therapy, supervision, or consultation, please reach out.
I look forward to connecting with you.
Education, Training & Affiliations
I have degrees from McGill University in Montréal and Antioch University Los Angeles, where I specialized in LGBTQ+ Affirmative Therapy. I completed my graduate-level training at the Maple Center in Los Angeles.
I completed 2-year certificates in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at both the New Center for Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Center of California. At the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, I am Co-Chair of the Committee for Diversities and Socio-cultural Inequities, and teach a course on Sexuality and Gender in the Adult Psychotherapy Program. I am a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, APA DIV 39 Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
psychoanalytic therapist, clinical supervisor
Alison Picard
MA, LMFT
I am a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT CA #132492) based in Los Angeles, CA, and maintain a private practice working with a diverse range of adults, couples, and relationship constellations. My areas of focus include LGBTQIA+ individuals, therapists and trainees, creatives and performers, emerging adults, and those navigating life transitions such as parenthood or consensual nonmonogamy. In addition to clinical work, I offer supervision and consultation to clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques as they apply to psychotherapy, particularly in work with LGBTQIA+ communities.
Many people I work with are navigating major life changes—career shifts, relationship transitions, coming into new identities, or grieving loss. Moments of significant change can offer an opportunity to deepen our understanding of ourselves. Therapy provides a space to be held while doing the difficult work that leads to growth and transformation. Others I see are addressing long-standing anxiety, depression, isolation, or a sense of discontent. With a curious and compassionate approach, we can come to understand suffering as a signal—one that draws our attention to deeper, unresolved conflict—and begin to create movement and change.
My approach includes exploring unconscious thoughts and feelings and how they shape present challenges. We do this through close listening, dream analysis, and careful attention to the relationship between therapist and patient, understanding that it often reflects earlier relational patterns. Together, we work to identify defenses that limit emotional awareness and to address questions related to self-perception and identity. While much of this work focuses on how we make meaning of our experience, it is also essential to acknowledge that we live within broader social contexts. Our sense of self and emotional well-being are shaped by intersecting systems of oppression, and relationships to power—through race, class, gender, and ethnicity—are present in all aspects of life, including the therapeutic space. I am a white, able-bodied, cisgender queer woman, and I bring ongoing awareness of how these identities shape our work together.
Alison Picard
MA, LMFT
psychoanalytic therapist, clinical supervisor
ABOUT ME
I am a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT CA #132492) based in Los Angeles, CA, and maintain a private practice working with a diverse range of adults, couples, and relationship constellations. My areas of focus include LGBTQIA+ individuals, therapists and trainees, creatives and performers, emerging adults, and those navigating life transitions such as parenthood or consensual nonmonogamy. In addition to clinical work, I offer supervision and consultation to clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques as they apply to psychotherapy, particularly in work with LGBTQIA+ communities.
WHO I WORK WITH
Many people I work with are navigating major life changes—career shifts, relationship transitions, coming into new identities, or grieving loss. Moments of significant change can offer an opportunity to deepen our understanding of ourselves. Therapy provides a space to be held while doing the difficult work that leads to growth and transformation. Others I see are addressing long-standing anxiety, depression, isolation, or a sense of discontent. With a curious and compassionate approach, we can come to understand suffering as a signal—one that draws our attention to deeper, unresolved conflict—and begin to create movement and change.
HOW I WORK
My approach includes exploring unconscious thoughts and feelings and how they shape present challenges. We do this through close listening, dream analysis, and careful attention to the relationship between therapist and patient, understanding that it often reflects earlier relational patterns. Together, we work to identify defenses that limit emotional awareness and to address questions related to self-perception and identity. While much of this work focuses on how we make meaning of our experience, it is also essential to acknowledge that we live within broader social contexts. Our sense of self and emotional well-being are shaped by intersecting systems of oppression, and relationships to power—through race, class, gender, and ethnicity—are present in all aspects of life, including the therapeutic space. I am a white, able-bodied, cisgender queer woman, and I bring ongoing awareness of how these identities shape our work together.
EDUCATION, TRAINING, & AFFILIATIONS
-
B.A. McGill University, Montréal
-
M.A. Antioch University, Los Angeles
-
Clinical Psychology, LGBTQ+ Affirmative Specialization.
-
-
Graduate-level training at The Maple Center, Los Angeles
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
-
2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
-
-
Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles
-
2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
-
-
Co-Chair of the Committee for Diversities and Socio-cultural Inequities
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis
-
-
Faculty, Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program
-
Course: Sexuality and Gender
-
New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles
-
-
Member:California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
-
APA DIV 39 Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology
-
American Psychoanalytic Association
-
If you are interested in learning more or working together in therapy, supervision, or consultation, please reach out.
I look forward to connecting with you.
We discover who we are, learn to love, and experience pain through our relationships with others. It makes sense, then, that the deepest forms of healing and transformation happen within a human relationship.
Relational psychoanalytic therapy is a powerful and effective path toward that change.
Wondering if psychoanalytic therapy is right for you?
You might notice yourself reenacting the same relational roles—feeling unseen, abandoned, controlled, or responsible for others. You may have tried other forms of therapy that worked at the time, or helped bring temporary relief, but found that the same patterns returned with time.
Psychoanalytic (or "depth") therapy attends closely to how these patterns arise in the therapeutic relationship itself. This lived relational experience can be more transformative than insight alone.
Do you repeat the same patterns in relationships with friends, family, and partners?
Why doesn't just knowing what the problem is change it? You may be able to link some of your current patterns or challenges to past experiences, but oftentimes that isn't enough.
Depth therapy recognizes that change often requires emotional experience, not just explanation. Working through feelings as they arise in real time can create shifts that insight alone does not produce. Working through feelings with another person helps bring this experiential dynamic to life.
Do you “know” what is wrong or why you struggle but still feel stuck?
Psychoanalytic therapy makes space for ambiguity, contradiction, silence, and what is difficult to articulate, allowing meaning to emerge over time rather than being prescribed. We look at symptoms as meaningful communications rather than problems to eliminate, offering a richer sense of personal wholeness.
People often turn to psychoanalytic or depth therapy when they sense that what they are struggling with cannot be “fixed” quickly, but needs to be understood, felt, and worked through in the context of a sustained, meaningful therapeutic relationship.
Are you looking for a deeper understanding and knowledge of yourself?
Em works with adults, children (12+), and relationships. They are especially drawn to working with academics and creatives, LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, parents and queer parents, as well as people living away from home or navigating the complexities of belonging, identity, and cultural transition.
Registered AMFT
Em (Emily) Turner
Isabella Alsobrook
Registered AMFT
Isabella works with adults, adolescents, and children (12+). She approaches deep relational work with curiosity, warmth, direct feedback, and a sense of humor. She has specific experience and sensitivity to working with people entering therapy for the first time.
Clinical Staff
Clinical Staff
Em (Emily) Turner
Registered AMFT
Em works with adults, children (12+), and relationships. They are especially drawn to working with academics and creatives, LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, parents and queer parents, as well as people living away from home or navigating the complexities of belonging, identity, and cultural transition.
Office
Alison Picard Therapy
1015 Fremont Ave.
Suite 7
South Pasadena, CA 91030
Phone
(213) 282-7025
Get in Touch
Office
Alison Picard Therapy
1015 Fremont Ave.
Suite 7
South Pasadena, CA 91030
Phone
(213) 282-7025
