Anuja Martinez, IL LCSW 149014784

I’ve been a therapist for more than 25 years, and one thing I know for certain is that people rarely fit neatly into boxes—and I don’t believe therapy should try to put them there.
I work with adults and young adults navigating trauma, grief, relationships, identity, major life transitions, and the complicated experience of simply trying to be yourself in a world that often has strong opinions about who you should be. I have a particular passion for working with LGBTQIA+ individuals, including transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and gender-expansive clients. Your identity is not something you will need to explain, defend, minimize, or educate me about in order to receive support.
My therapy style is warm, straightforward, curious, and very human. I’m not the therapist who will stare at you silently for 45 minutes while taking mysterious notes. I will listen, ask questions, challenge you when it might help, celebrate your growth, and occasionally bring humor into the room because sometimes healing and laughter belong in the same conversation.
I believe therapy can be a place to take off the armor. You can bring the messy parts, the contradictions, the anger, the humor, the uncertainty, and the parts of yourself you may have learned to make smaller for other people.
You don't have to become a different person to heal. Sometimes the work is learning how to live more freely and confidently as the person you already are.