A practice built around the cultures, families, and stories that shape us.

Why Culturoots

Many people come into therapy editing themselves: explaining their family, softening their story, or leaving culture out entirely. Culturoots was started so you don't have to translate who you are to be understood. Your background is part of the work from the start.

Therapy here is for the spaces where generations, identities, and cultures overlap. You don't have to simplify yourself to be understood here.

Where Culturoots began

Culturoots was founded by Ankur Varma, LCPC, who believed therapy should fit real life, not the other way around. His work showed him that the most helpful care is three things: rooted in who you are, integrative in pulling from evidence and culture, and relational in being a real human connection.

That is how we work today. Ankur's practice has centered on immigrants, children of immigrants, people moving through life transitions, and anyone figuring out who they're becoming. Years of working across Chicago schools, community centers, and professional settings have shaped services that actually match what people need.

Our approach

We bring together evidence-based tools (cognitive-behavioral and acceptance-based approaches, attachment work, and trauma-informed care) with respect for identity, spirituality, family systems, and lived experience. The goal isn't to fix you. It is to help you live with more honesty, agency, and ease.

How we show up

We hold space for the realities of being a child of immigrants, a person of color in white-dominant spaces, a man learning to feel, a partner navigating two cultural playbooks, or a working parent with quiet burnout. These are modern lives. They deserve care that is rooted in your context, integrative in method, and relational in its delivery.

What you can expect

• A real person, not a script.
• Curiosity about your culture, not assumptions.
• Honest collaboration about what works and what doesn't.
• Practical tools alongside deeper exploration.