Ava Christine Martinez, LMFT

I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist in California, providing feminist and trauma-informed therapy to adolescents, adults, and couples. I am particularly passionate about collaborating with my clients to unpack and process the complex trauma associated with holding marginalized identities.

Hi, I'm Ava (she/they). I'm a therapist specializing in the treatment of trauma, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and self-harming behaviors. I'm particularly passionate about providing therapy to the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

One of my primary goals as a therapist is to contribute to decolonizing mental healthcare, and a large part of that is taking into consideration that a client's identity and social context cannot and should not be ignored when looking at their mental health as a whole. Even widely used "evidence-based" modalities have blind spots when working with historically marginalized identities. In my private practice, I have enjoyed breaking from the "one size fits all" interventions and considering each client's individual needs and experiences first.

As someone who holds both marginalized and privileged identities, my intention is to practice with humility and curiosity. Part of this is bearing in mind that while I have expertise and experience in providing mental healthcare, my clients are experts on their own life experiences and histories and therapy is most successful when it is treated as a collaborative effort between therapist and client. I am committed to practicing trauma-informed and culturally competent care while getting to know each client's life history and current challenges.

My goal, as your therapist, is to work with you to create the roadmap to achieving a better quality of life. While I can't build it for you, my goal is for our work to leave you feeling empowered to build it yourself, with me alongside you every step of the way offering support, humor, and (reasonable) challenges.