Nikki Gruver, MA, APCC
Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #APCC15531
Under the Supervision of Dr. Aimee Martinez PSY 28937
In Nikki’s own words: “Beginning therapy can feel deeply vulnerable, especially if you’ve spent much of your life prioritizing others, minimizing your own needs, or trying to manage things on your own. I strive to create a therapeutic space that feels warm, emotionally safe, and grounded in genuine connection, where all parts of you are welcome. My work is rooted in a relational psychoanalytic approach, which means I believe change happens not only through insight, but through the experience of being understood within a trusting therapeutic relationship. Together, we will explore how past experiences, relationships, and emotional wounds continue to shape the ways you relate to yourself and others today.
I have a particular interest in supporting people who struggle with people pleasing, religious trauma, and the lasting impact of relationships or environments where they learned to disconnect from their own needs, emotions, or sense of self. You may have learned to silence parts of yourself in order to feel loved, accepted, or safe. You may also appear highly capable on the outside and internally carry exhaustion, grief, anxiety, self-doubt, or a persistent sense that you are “too much” or somehow never enough. Over time, these patterns can leave you feeling emotionally overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself, stuck in painful relational dynamics, or carrying feelings that have never fully had space to be acknowledged or understood. Therapy can be a place to begin untangling these patterns with compassion rather than judgment, while making space for anger, sadness, uncertainty, longing, and the questions that may have never felt safe to ask before.
I also work with individuals navigating a wide range of concerns, with a particular focus on people pleasing, religious trauma, and grief, loss, and life transitions.”
I am proud to introduce Nikki Gruver to Dr. Aimee Martinez and Associates. Nikki is an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor seeing clients in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, under my supervision. She works with extraordinary capacity to hold the experience of those she works with. Nikki conceptualizes through a relational psychoanalytic framework, with particular focus and care for those navigating people pleasing, religious trauma, and grief, loss, and life transitions..