(she/her)
New to Grow
I’m Dr. Ali Pickover, a clinical psychologist with advanced training in trauma, relationships, and women’s mental health. I trained at Emory School of Medicine and completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. I work with adults navigating relationship difficulties, life transitions, and the long-term effects of trauma, including complex PTSD and interpersonal trauma. I also have specialized expertise in perinatal and reproductive mental health, including postpartum adjustment and pregnancy loss.
Many people feel nervous about the first session and assume they need to arrive with a clear explanation of what is wrong. You do not. I guide the process. In our early sessions, I take time to understand your history and gather the information that will actually make the work meaningful. That process is not generic to me. I want to understand you as a whole person, and I carry that understanding forward so therapy stays grounded in your life, your relationships, and your specific needs.
My approach is warm, thoughtful, and highly individualized. I pay close attention to how emotions function in your life. Some people have learned to shut feelings down, often at the cost of connection, vitality, or self-understanding. For others, emotions feel intense, fast-moving, and difficult to regulate. A central goal of therapy is helping you gain more control over that dial, so life feels more manageable and relationships less fraught. I draw from evidence-based treatments, but always tailor the work to the person in front of me.
I work especially well with adults who are thoughtful, capable, and caring, but privately struggle with self-doubt, shame, people-pleasing, or painful relationship patterns that are difficult to change alone. Many are working through trauma, major life transitions, reproductive or postpartum challenges, or the lingering effects of earlier experiences that still shape the present. They are often looking not only for relief, but for a deeper and more lasting shift in how they relate to themselves and others.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
CBT helps with anxiety, depression, stress, and low self-worth. By exploring connections between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, you’ll better understand why you feel the way you do and how core beliefs shape your view of yourself, others, and the world. From there, we can update patterns that once helped you cope but now keep you stuck.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT helps you understand your emotions more clearly, both what you feel on the surface and what’s underneath. Therapy becomes a space to slow down and explore feelings safely, rather than pushing them away. Over time, you can feel more in control of the intensity of your emotions and find new ways of working with them.
Interpersonal
IPT is an evidence-based treatment for depression and PTSD. It’s also helpful around pregnancy, postpartum, or pregnancy loss. It focuses on the present, such as major transitions, relationship conflict, grief, or isolation, rather than the past. Together we look at how your communication patterns and support system affect your mood and help you find new ways of connecting.
Trauma Informed Care
A lot of trauma responses are like armor that once kept you safe but now feels heavy or gets in the way of the life you want. Together we make sense of that armor, how it helped and how it hurts, and work on softening shame and self-blame while building skills in communication and self-advocacy, so you can move through the world feeling more steady and empowered.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
PE is a first-line treatment for PTSD and is especially helpful if you feel constantly reminded of what happened, have nightmares, or avoid people, places, or situations that trigger those memories. In a structured, supportive environment, we gradually revisit a traumatic experience and work through difficult feelings like shame, guilt, or self-blame, so that you can feel more in control of your life again.