MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING
This isn’t your traditional counseling session.
Mental health counseling for children navigating anxiety, emotional dysregulation, ADHD, and more — offered in Dover, NH, throughout the Seacoast, and in the home when appropriate.
Mental Health Counseling Can Help With…
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults who carry anxiety like a weight they can't put down — the constant worry, the school refusal, the stomachaches before something new.
Our counselors use evidence-based approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness, with creative arts integration, to help clients understand their anxiety, build coping skills, and find relief that lasts beyond the session.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults who struggle to manage big feelings — the meltdowns, the shutdowns, the moments where emotions take over before there's a chance to think.
Our counselors work with clients to identify triggers, build awareness, and develop a personalized toolkit of strategies that work in real life, not just in the therapy room.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults with ADHD navigate a world that wasn't designed for the way their brain works.
Beyond managing symptoms, our counselors help clients understand themselves, build self-advocacy skills, and develop strategies for focus, organization, and emotional regulation that fits their life.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults who have lost interest in things they used to love, who feel disconnected, heavy, or just not like themselves.
Our counselors create a safe space to explore what's underneath, process difficult emotions, and take small steps toward feeling more like themselves again.
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Mental health counseling helps children and teens who have been bullied — and who are carrying the weight of that experience long after it happens.
Our counselors help clients rebuild confidence, process feelings of shame or anger, and develop the self-worth that bullying tries to take away.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults who have experienced trauma — and who carry it in ways that affect every part of their life.
Our counselors are trained in trauma-informed approaches that create safety first, and healing second.
We work at the client's pace, never pushing toward disclosure or processing before they're ready.
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Mental health counseling helps children and teens who dread Monday mornings — whether it's academic pressure, social stress, learning differences, or just feeling like they don't fit in.
Our counselors work with the whole child, helping them build resilience, self-confidence, and the skills to navigate school with less anxiety and more ease.
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Mental health counseling helps children, teens, and adults who are trying to figure out who they are — and learning to like what they find.
Our counselors provide a non-judgmental space to explore identity, values, and self-worth, helping clients build a relationship with themselves that is grounded, honest, and kind.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults navigating change — a new school, a divorce, a move, a loss, a diagnosis, a relationship ending.
Transitions can shake the ground beneath us even when they're expected.
Our counselors help clients process what's shifting, find their footing, and move forward with clarity.
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Mental health counseling isn't only for crisis moments.
Our counselors work with children and adults who simply want to feel better — more grounded, more present, more themselves.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do is have a dedicated space to process life before it builds up.
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Mental health counseling helps children and adults who are grieving — a person, a relationship, a version of their life they expected to have.
Grief doesn't follow a schedule and it doesn't look the same for everyone.
Our counselors meet clients exactly where they are in the process, without rushing them toward an ending that isn't theirs to define.
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Mental health counseling helps adults navigating recovery from addiction — and the complex emotions, relationships, and identity questions that come with it.
Our counselors provide a nonjudgmental space to explore what's underneath the addiction, build coping skills, and develop a life that supports sustained recovery.
What is Mental Health Counseling?
At The Sonatina Center, our Mental Health Counselor brings a unique dual expertise — integrating creative arts into every session while also providing the full scope of clinical mental health services.
That means in addition to music and art-based approaches, our mental health counselors can diagnose and treat mental illnesses, administer psychological assessments, screen for suicidality, and offer psychoeducation on psychological disorders to clients and families.
If you're wondering whether music therapy or counseling is the right fit for your child, we're happy to talk it through during your free consultation.
What We Do In A Mental Health Counseling Session
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CBT is one of the most well-researched approaches in mental health treatment.
Our counselors use CBT to help clients identify the thoughts and beliefs that fuel anxiety, depression, and other challenges — and learn to challenge and reframe them.
It's practical, skills-based, and gives clients tools they can use outside of sessions.
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DBT skills help clients manage intense emotions, improve relationships, and build a life worth living.
Our counselors draw on DBT techniques to teach distress tolerance, emotional regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness — particularly effective for adolescents and adults who experience emotions intensely.
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Sometimes words aren't enough. Our counselor integrates art-based approaches into sessions, giving clients a creative outlet to express, process, and explore what's happening inside.
Art-making in therapy isn't about being artistic — it's about having another language when the usual one falls short.
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Change is hard — especially when part of you isn't sure you want it.
Our counselors use motivational interviewing to meet clients where they are, explore ambivalence without judgment, and help them find their own reasons and readiness for change.
It's particularly effective for adolescents and adults navigating addiction recovery, behavior change, or life transitions.
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a highly effective, evidence-based therapy for trauma.
Our counselors use EMDR to help clients process distressing memories and experiences that are stuck in the nervous system — reducing their emotional charge and allowing the brain to integrate them in a healthier way.
EMDR is particularly effective for PTSD, trauma, and anxiety.
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The body holds what the mind sometimes can't process alone.
Our counselors use somatic approaches to help clients tune into physical sensations, release stored tension, and understand the connection between body and emotion.
Somatic work is especially powerful for clients whose anxiety, trauma, or stress lives in the body as much as the mind.
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For younger clients especially, play is the language of healing.
Our counselors use play therapy techniques to help children process experiences, express emotions, and develop coping skills in a way that feels natural and safe rather than clinical or intimidating.
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Music and mindfulness together create a powerful space for regulation and reflection.
Our counselors use music-assisted mindfulness techniques to help clients slow down, tune into their body and emotions, and build a present-moment awareness that supports mental health and resilience. -
Our licensed mental health counselor can do more than provide therapy.
Our counselors are qualified to diagnose and treat mental health conditions, administer psychological assessments, screen for suicidality, and provide psychoeducation to clients and families.
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Storytelling is a natural and powerful therapeutic tool.
Our counselors use narrative approaches to help clients make sense of their experiences, reframe their story, and find meaning in what they've been through.
For children especially, storytelling creates a safe distance from difficult emotions — allowing them to process through character and plot what might be too hard to say directly.
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Poetry and therapeutic writing give clients a way to express what's difficult to say out loud.
Our counselors use writing-based approaches — journaling, poetry, letter writing, and creative expression — to help clients process emotions, gain insight, and find their voice.
For clients who struggle with verbal expression or who simply connect more deeply through words on a page, writing becomes a bridge to healing.
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When the nervous system is dysregulated, everything feels harder.
Our counselors teach breath-work and nervous system regulation techniques that help clients move out of fight-or-flight and back into a state where thinking, feeling, and connecting are possible.
These are skills clients can use in session and take with them into daily life.
Getting Started is Free
Every new client starts with a free twenty (20) minute phone consultation. Our Intake Coordinator will review our process and policies with you and gather information to determine if mental health counseling may be a good fit. The phone consultation serves as an opportunity for you to ask questions about services and gain a deeper understanding of the counseling process.
Individual counseling sessions are provided at The Sonatina Center in Dover, NH. We currently offer mental health counseling for children ages 4–10.
New clients begin with a 60-minute intake session where your therapist will gather information, complete an initial assessment, determine diagnosis, and review treatment goals with you. For children, this may be split into a 60-minute in-person session and a 30-minute follow-up phone call with the caregiver.
Progress and treatment goals are reviewed every 90 days or as needed.
What To Expect
INVESTMENT
Our fees are $200 for the initial Mental Health Counseling Intake Appointment and $150/hr for follow-up sessions. Fees are reviewed annually and you'll always be informed of any changes in advance.
SCHOLARSHIPS & ACCESSIBILITY
Free Sessions for BIPOC Clients
The Sonatina Center is committed to bridging the gap of accessibility for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community. We offer free individual counseling sessions to any BIPOC client. Availability is currently limited to 6 scholarships and we have a waiting list. Please for more information.
Insurance & Billing Info The Sonatina Center does not accept private insurance. If you wish to seek reimbursement through your insurance provider, we are happy to provide a monthly Super Bill with CPT codes and provider numbers that you can submit directly to your insurance company. Please contact us for more information.