Dr. Ameenah Ikram is a licensed psychologist and Health Service Provider in North Carolina. She is dedicated to helping individuals navigate life’s challenges with warmth, expertise, and a trauma-informed approach. Dr. Ikram specializes in empowering clients to explore how past experiences influence present struggles, offering practical tools and insights to foster healing and growth.
Specialties and Therapeutic Approach
Dr. Ikram utilizes evidence-based practices, integrating approaches from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (TLDP). Her work is rooted in cultural humility, ensuring clients feel understood, safe, and valued within the context of their unique identities and backgrounds. Dr. Ikram creates a compassionate and supportive space for clients to process difficult emotions, reframe traumatic experiences, and develop practical coping strategies to re-engage with the present moment. Dr. Ikram prioritizes meeting clients where they are, by walking alongside them in their journey to heal, grow, and live a life that is in alignment with their chosen values.
Dr. Ikram offers brief and long-term individual therapy, group therapy, couples therapy, and psychological assessment. She works with clients across the lifespan and specializes in treating concerns such as depression, anxiety, trauma/PTSD, women’s health and perinatal mental health challenges, identity struggles, adjustment difficulties, relationship struggles, and family-of-origin issues.
Dr. Ikram has ample experience working with young adults in both university college counseling and private practice settings. Throughout her training, she has developed a passion for helping young adults who may be struggling with navigating the “emerging adulthood” period. She particularly enjoys working with young adults who may be experiencing interpersonal relationship struggles with family members, friends, and romantic partners, and adjustment issues related to job stress, feelings of isolation, boundary struggles, developing independence, and shifts in anticipated trajectories. Dr. Ikram also helps young adults who may be having troubles with processing emotions, and difficulties with deciphering personal needs for wellness.
Dr. Ikram has a deep commitment to supporting individuals experiencing perinatal mental health challenges, including mood and anxiety disorders, pregnancy loss, reproductive health concerns, and trauma related to conception, pregnancy, birth, or the postpartum period. Dr. Ikram is dedicated to helping clients find balance and healing during this transformative phase of life. Compassion, empathy, and validation are at the forefront of Dr. Ikram’s approach as she helps clients explore emotions, process and re-frame traumatic perinatal experiences, and increase coping skills to help clients better function and re-engage in the present moment. Dr. Ikram has research experience in understanding the unique contexts of mental health challenges during and after pregnancy in diverse populations, is a member of Postpartum Support International, has completed specialized training with the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, and presents in the community on perinatal mental health.
Dr. Ikram is passionate about providing culturally informed, identity-affirming care for clients from diverse and marginalized backgrounds including immigrants, refugees, first-generation Americans, individuals navigating dual identities or race-based trauma, individuals who identify as persons of color, individuals who are marginalized by religion, and individuals who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. She carefully addresses the intersection of identity, systemic oppression, and personal growth in her work with clients, and has found that using cultural humility, feminist, anti-racist, and social justice frameworks are at the core of building empathy, safety, trust, and understanding. Dr. Ikram’s goal is to foster a safe, empathetic space where clients can explore their experience honestly and without judgement. Dr. Ikram is truly committed to social justice both personally and professionally. She has given ample community presentations on cultural humility, multicultural coping skills, and anti-racism, and has co-authored articles on implementing cultural humility into practice and working with diverse populations. Dr. Ikram has also completed training in Kniffley Racial Trauma Therapy. Her goal is to support clients in navigating the complexities of their identities and relationships, fostering resilience and empowerment.
Philosophy of Care
Dr. Ikram strives to create a collaborative and nonjudgmental therapeutic environment where clients feel seen and supported. She believes that clients are the experts of their own lives and works alongside them to address areas of “stuckness,” process difficult experiences, and cultivate meaningful, values-based change. Her goal is to help clients heal, grow, and build a hopeful, empowered outlook on life.
What it’s like to work with Dr. Ikram:
“My approach is to be a warm, compassionate, affirming, collaborative, and culturally humble support system for you. My hope is that you feel safe with me as we examine your pains and joys, and as we explore your emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and needs. I believe that you are the expert on yourself, and that by working together, we can explore your areas of “stuckness” in a safe and nonjudgmental way, in order to help you live a more meaningful and values-based life. My hope is that together, we can add more tools in your tool box which can help you learn new ways of being, and ultimately guide you towards becoming the best version of yourself.”
Her expertise in evidence-based psychotherapies includes:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Time Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (TLDP)
- Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- LGBTQ-Affirmative Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Education and Experience:
Dr. Ikram completed Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Louisville in 2017. She then obtained her Master of Arts Degree in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University in 2020, and earned her Doctor of Psychology Degree (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University in 2023.
Dr. Ikram’s training spans a variety of settings, including private practices, a community mental health center, Islamic schools, and university counseling centers. Across these environments, she provided therapy to adults, children, and families dealing with challenges such as depression, anxiety, trauma, adjustment difficulties, interpersonal struggles, identity concerns, and behavioral issues. She also gained expertise in addressing more specific concerns, including attachment challenges, body dysmorphia, gender dysphoria, perinatal mood disorders, ADHD, OCD, and learning difficulties.
In addition to therapy, Dr. Ikram conducted psychological assessments for conditions such as ADHD, PTSD, autism, mood disorders, and personality-related concerns. She also facilitated a “Women of Color” support group for university students and delivered workshops for elementary through high school students on topics like bullying prevention, puberty education, time management, and building self-esteem in the age of social media.
During her pre-doctoral internship at UNC Charlotte’s Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, Dr. Ikram worked primarily with young adults facing depression, anxiety, trauma, eating disorders, identity-related challenges, and racial minority stress. She also facilitated a “Multicultural Women’s Empowerment” group and an “Understanding Self and Others” interpersonal process group. Her internship provided advanced experience with diverse populations, including those navigating intersecting marginalized identities related to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, she conducted psychological assessments for students seeking diagnostic clarity for mood and personality disorders.
Dr. Ikram completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Breyta Psychological Services, P.A. and has since joined the clinical team. Dr. Ikram has grown in her expertise in trauma informed care. She continues to enjoy working with clients from all walks of life, and being present with them in their journeys of processing difficult moments, while also gaining a newfound sense of hope and values based living in the here and now.
Additional Trainings and Experience
Dr. Ikram has completed many trainings related to perinatal mental health and multicultural psychology given that those are some of her favorite areas of clinical practice. Additionally, Dr. Ikram has also given thought and attention to other areas of clinical work as well, and is dedicated towards growing to her full potential as a generalist clinician. She has attended lectures and completed trainings on LGBTQ-Affirmative CBT (through Yale University), Neurological symptoms of psychopathology (through the Institute of Muslim Mental Health), Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy (through the Khalil Center), Process-Based Therapy understanding and application, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy conceptualization and application, telepsychology, QPR suicide prevention, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Dr. Ikram has also co-facilitated many community level presentations and has co-authored literature on topics including, perinatal mental health, cultural humility, gratitude, anti-racism, Muslim mental health, and the relationship between mental health and sexual health.
