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Alison Picard
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychoanalytic therapy for individuals and relationships in-person in Pasadena, CA and virtually throughout California.
Welcome
We offer psychotherapy in person in Pasadena, CA and virtually throughout California. Our practice works with adults, adolescents, and a wide range of relationship configurations. Every therapist on our team brings their own clinical interests and specialties, and all are trained in relational depth-oriented therapy under the supervision of Alison Picard, LMFT. We believe in meeting you fully — as a whole person — and we look forward to connecting.
Welcome
We offer psychotherapy in person in Pasadena, CA and virtually throughout California. Our practice works with adults, adolescents, and a wide range of relationship configurations. Every therapist on our team brings their own clinical interests and specialties, and all are trained in relational depth-oriented therapy under the supervision of Alison Picard, LMFT. We believe in meeting you fully — as a whole person — and we look forward to connecting.
In-person South Pasadena, CA
Licensed Psychotherapist
Psychoanalytic Depth Therapy
Supervision & Consultation
LGBTQIA+ Affirming
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
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M.A. Antioch University, Los Angeles
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Clinical Psychology, LGBTQ+ Affirmative Specialization.
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Graduate-level training at The Maple Center, Los Angeles
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New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
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2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
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Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles
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2-year certificate in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
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Co-Chair of the Committee for Diversities and Socio-cultural Inequities
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New Center for Psychoanalysis
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Faculty, Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program
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Course: Sexuality and Gender
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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.
welcome
We offer psychoanalytic therapy for adults, adolescents, and a wide range of relationship configurations. Our practice is based in-person in Pasadena, CA and on tele-health throughout California. Every therapist on the team brings their own clinical interests and specialties, and all are trained in relational depth-oriented therapy. We look forward to connecting with you.
We offer psychoanalytic therapy for adults, adolescents, and a wide range of relationship configurations. Every therapist on the team brings their own clinical interests and specialties, and all are trained in relational depth-oriented therapy. We believe in meeting you fully — as a whole person — and we look forward to connecting.
how we work
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE WORK WITH
WHO IS IT A FIT FOR?
Who we work with
LGBTQIA+
Identity, coming out, queer relationships, family dynamics, and the particular experience of moving through a world that wasn't built with you in mind.
Life Transitions
Parenthood, relationship changes, loss, new identities, and exploring consensual nonmonogamy. Transitions are opportunities for a true confrontation with our selves.
Therapists & Trainees
Clinicians deserve their own space too. I work with therapists and trainees navigating the particular pressures of this profession.
Emerging Adults
Early adulthood brings issues related to identity formation, relationships, vocation, and the anxiety that tends to accompany all of it.
Creatives
The intersection of identity and work — creative block, visibility anxiety, the complexity of building a life around something that means so much.
Relationships
All relationship constellations welcome. I work with couples and partners navigating conflict, communication, and the challenge of sustaining closeness over time.
How we work
aka what is Psychoanalytic Therapy?
Psychoanalytic therapy is interested in the root of why you feel the way you feel, not only in helping you feel better. This slower, deeper exploration can lead to more lasting change.
Here's what that might look like in therapy:
Close listening
As we talk about what is coming up for you, we listen closely to what you say, including what you might avoid, emphasize, or repeat without realizing it. We also welcome in the exploration of dreams, which can be remarkably useful.
The therapeutic relationship
How we relate to each other often mirrors earlier patterns. This goes for the therapy relationship as well. Here we have an opportunity to notice what happens and explore it while it's happening, in a safe environment.
Depth over speed
Understanding something deeply, and then practicing a new way of responding to deep feeling takes repetition and time. We aren't only trying to address symptoms in this way of working; we're trying to understand what they're communicating.
Who we are
In addition to primary therapist Alison Picard, the practice includes associate therapists at different stages of their training, each with their own clinical voice and areas of focus. Read more about each clinician on our Team page.
Who we work with
Life transitions
Life is a series of transitions from birth to death. Every transition is an opportunity for a true confrontation with our selves: relationship changes, grief & loss, parenthood, career shifts, or the emergence of a new identity.
Early adulthood in particular can bring questions and anxiety related to identity formation, relationships, and vocation.
LGBTQIA+
The experience of being LGBTQIA+ may include coming out, family estrangement, and internalized homophobia or transphobia. But it also includes queer kinship building, love and sex, creating art and culture that shapes the wider world, and passing down resilience and joy to the next generation. We are attuned to the many ways being LGBTQIA+ may impact your life.
anxiety & depression
We work together to reduce the intensity of your anxiety or depression, and we do so in part by seeking to understand the root of these symptoms. Emotional pain is a signal that can tell us what needs your deeper attention.
CREATIVES
Creatives often find themselves at the intersection of identity and work — dealing with creative blocks, visibility anxiety, and struggling with the the complexity of building a stable financial life around something with so much personal meaning.
THERAPISTS
Clinicians deserve their own space too. I work with therapists and trainees navigating the particular pressures of this profession — including what shows up in your own clinical work.
ACADEMIC PRESSURE
Whether the pressure comes from parents, school, or the voice in your own head, we can help you find a way to succeed without losing yourself in the process.
Wondering if this type of therapy is right for you?
REPEATING PATTERNS
Do you repeat patterns in relationships with friends, family, and partners?
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.
FEELING STUCK
Do you “know” what is wrong or why you struggle but still feel stuck?
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.
SEEKING MORE
Are you looking for a deeper understanding and knowledge of yourself?
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.
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
Associate therapists supervised by Alison Picard, offering lower-fee sessions.
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.
Shayna Harvey
Registered AMFT
Shayna works with adults, teens, and couples, offering a supportive space for collaboration and growth. Shayna's training includes LGBTQIA+ Affirmative therapy and Jungian depth psychotherapy. She brings a focus on authenticity, alignment, and connectivity to her work.
Lillian Molayem
Registered AMFT
Lillian is a relational, psychodynamic therapist with a Jungian orientation. As a child of Iranian immigrants with a background spanning autism support, yoga, mindfulness, death doula work, and songwriting, she brings particular depth to working with bicultural identity, grief, neurodivergent affirming care, and creativity.
Em (Emily) Turner
Registered AMFT
