Olde Port Counseling, PLLC

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Portsmouth, NH
Olde Port Counseling, PLLC

Healing relationships, connecting families, and empowering change. Services are offered both in person and online.

Olde Port Counseling, PLLC is a collection of therapists working toward the same goal: serving the community to better the lives and relationships of families on the seacoast. We offer an array of child and adolescent therapy, family therapy, couple and marital, and individual counseling to uncover the issues that contribute to problems and help you obtain the vision you always wanted for your family.

04/27/2026

Big behaviors can be a distress signal.

When children and teens experience trauma, stress, or attachment challenges, it rarely looks the way we expect it to. It usually shows up as intense anxiety, acting out, withdrawal, or unexplained anger.

EMDR is a highly effective therapy designed to treat those challenges at the root. Instead of just managing the outward behavior, EMDR acts as a biological reset for their mental health. It helps a child's brain "unstick" painful memories and regulate their nervous system without making them constantly relive the hard details.

Laurie A. Couture, LCMHC provides specialized, kid-friendly EMDR right here in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. If you are looking for counseling that truly meets your child where they are, she helps families across the Seacoast find real healing.

Send this to a parent who is looking for a way to support their child.

Ready to help your child find heal? Tap the link in our bio to connect with Laurie and our team.

04/22/2026

"Just relax" is the most common advice you get before a big moment—and it’s completely wrong.

A racing heart, sweaty palms, and tunnel vision don't mean you're about to choke. That is just your nervous system dumping fuel into the engine so you can execute.

The goal isn't to kill that energy just so you feel comfortable. The goal is to grab the steering wheel.

Swipe through for the 3-step sports psychology playbook to stop fighting your adrenaline and start using it to your advantage.

Send this to an athlete who needs to hear this today.

Mental fitness is a competitive advantage. Tap the link in our bio to connect with the Olde Port Counseling team and build your playbook.

*****on

04/20/2026

...And coffee never lies. ☕️

Your morning brain is probably already running through your to-do list for the day, but tell it to take a seat. The mug has the floor.

Notice how your coffee isn't asking for a status update? It doesn't care if you skipped the gym, if your inbox is a disaster zone, or if you're already running ten minutes late. It just has one simple, highly caffeinated fact for you to swallow before the day gets loud.

Listen to the mug. Drink the coffee. You're doing great.

✈️ Send this to someone whose brain is already too loud this morning.

Need to fire your inner critic? Tap the link in our bio to connect with Olde Port Counseling.

04/15/2026

67% of couples see their relationship satisfaction tank after a baby.

That’s a heavy stat, but it doesn't have to be your story. Most of that drop happens because couples try to shove a newborn into their old life instead of building a new one.

Based on decades of research from Drs. John and Julie Gottman, staying in the 33% of couples who actually thrive requires a strategy to move from "roommates" back to partners:

1️⃣ The 15-Minute Rule: Talk about... literally anything else.
2️⃣ The Soft Start-up: Ask for what you need without pointing a finger.
3️⃣ New Rituals: Create habits that make you feel like a unified team.
4️⃣ Active Appreciation: Tell them what they’re doing right.
5️⃣ The Repair: Accept the peace offering mid-fight.

A strong relationship is the foundation your child grows on. Don't wait for the foundation to crack before you start the maintenance.

(Major credit to the Gottman Institute for these concepts and the "Bringing Baby Home" research.)

Send this to a couple who is expecting or recently brought a baby home.

Want to build a relationship that thrives through the transition? Tap the link in our bio to connect with the Olde Port Counseling team.

04/13/2026

Are you actually gaining ground, or are you just burning rubber?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being wired to work hard. That drive to build, provide, and push the pace is a massive asset, but horsepower without a steering wheel just leads to a crash.

If you are running at 100% capacity but still feel like you aren't gaining traction, you don't lack hustle; you lack direction.

Blind hustle, grinding away without a clear plan, leads to burnout, frustration, and a lot of wasted energy. You end up putting out fires instead of actually building the house.

Therapy for high-performers isn't about slowing you down, killing your ambition, or telling you to just "take it easy." It is operational optimization.

It is a place to clear the mental noise, organize your strategy, and make sure your energy is actually moving the needle, not just burning up the engine. You already have the drive. Let's make sure you have the direction to match it so you can actually execute this week.

Send this to someone who is ready to stop spinning their wheels and get after it today.

Want to clear the mental clutter and get your strategy right? Tap the link in our bio to connect with our team.

04/08/2026

We’re expanding the team at Olde Port Counseling.

Let’s be honest: the mental health field is exhausted right now. Private practice offers great freedom, but it usually comes with a massive side of administrative burnout and isolation.

We wanted to build something different.

Our practice is built on the values of community, connection, and well-being—and that applies to our clinicians just as much as our clients. We want you to focus on the clinical work you are actually good at. We will handle the rest.

When you partner with us, you get the autonomy to set your own schedule and practice on your exact terms. In exchange, we provide the fully furnished office space, the billing services, the marketing, a reliable referral base, and a team that genuinely likes collaborating with each other.

We are currently looking for self-motivated, licensed (or soon-to-be-licensed) NH therapists to join us. Our mission is simple: Healing relationships. Connecting families. Empowering change.

If you want to make a massive impact in the Seacoast community without burning yourself out in the process, we should talk.

If you love the work we do here and want to help us grow, the biggest compliment you can give us is sharing this post to your story or sending it to a clinician you know. We'd love the introduction.

Ready to drop the administrative headaches? Tap the link in our bio to read the full details and apply.

04/06/2026

Meet Alan Nemetz, PhD.

It is rare to find a therapist who has a deeply impressive academic background, but is also just... really easy to talk to. That is Alan.

Alan is a Licensed Psychologist bringing over 30 years of experience to Olde Port Counseling. He spent a decade teaching at Harvard Medical School and served on the faculty at the Cambridge Health Alliance Couples and Family Clinic. But honestly, the best part about sitting in a room with Alan isn't his resume. It’s his personality.

He is incredibly grounded, deeply compassionate, and genuinely believes that a good laugh is a vital part of good therapy. He just has a way of making hard conversations feel a lot more manageable.

Alan works with adults and couples who are looking for support with:
• Acute and chronic stress
• Relationship and communication struggles
• Anxiety, depression, and ADHD
• Trauma and grief

He also specializes in mind-body medicine. This basically means he doesn't just want you to talk about your stress, he wants to give you practical, evidence-based ways to actually calm your nervous system so you can feel better in your day-to-day life.

Ready to build a better toolkit? Tap the link in our bio to schedule an appointment.

04/01/2026

Happy April Fool's Day. Let’s talk about why your sense of humor is actually one of your most underrated mental health tools.

We tend to treat a sense of humor like a luxury, something we only get to use when the house is clean, the inbox is empty, and life is going smoothly.

But humor isn't just a byproduct of a good day. It is a biological strategy for surviving a chaotic one.

When you are dealing with chronic stress, burnout, or high-functioning anxiety, life throws so many ridiculous obstacles at you that the only logical response is to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

When you do that, you aren't ignoring reality or brushing off your responsibilities. You are actively refusing to let a bad day completely take over.

Your brain cannot hold genuine panic and genuine amusement at the exact same time. When you find a reason to laugh in the middle of the chaos, you force your nervous system to temporarily drop the heavy bags it’s been carrying so you can catch your breath.

A good joke isn't going to fix the conflict or magically make your anxiety disappear. But it will give you the quick mental reset and the bandwidth you need to actually deal with the hard stuff without falling apart.

Send this to the friend who always keeps you laughing through the chaos.

Keep your sense of humor and let us help you carry the rest of the weight. Tap the link in our bio to build your mental health toolbox with our team.

03/25/2026

Why your kid falls apart the second they walk in the door.

It is a confusing experience in parenting: you hear from teachers about how polite, focused, and kind your child is all day. But the second they get home, they burst into tears over a broken cracker or pick a fight with their sibling.

It feels personal, but it is actually biology. It’s called Restraint Collapse.

Self-control takes massive brain power. Your child spends all day holding it together—navigating loud environments, following strict rules, and managing complex peer dynamics. They are acting like a shaken soda bottle, building up pressure all day long.

When they finally get to you, they are in their safe zone. They no longer have to spend energy holding it together for the outside world. So, they take the cap off the bottle, and the emotional exhaustion spills out in your living room.

It is a sign that their battery is at exactly zero.

The worst thing we can do in this moment is interrogate them about their day, ask a million questions, or immediately demand that they start their homework. You cannot ask a completely depleted brain to do more heavy lifting.

If you want the evenings to feel a little smoother, you have to build a transition runway. Drop the immediate demands. Hand them a snack, let the car ride be quiet, and give their nervous system 30 minutes to decompress before you ask them to rejoin the family routine.

Decompress first. Demand second.

Want to learn how to help your child navigate their big emotions? Link in bio to schedule a session with our team.

03/23/2026

Morning meltdowns usually aren't about defiance. They are about biology.

If your mornings feel like a constant battle of nagging and sudden tears over the wrong pair of socks, you are not doing it wrong. You are just fighting against a sleeping brain.

When children wake up, their brain's emotional alarm system turns on immediately, but their logic center takes a while to boot up. Add in the natural morning spike of stress hormones designed to wake their body up, and you get a wired, emotional kid who cannot process logic.

The mistake we make is demanding heavy thinking tasks (hurrying, remembering steps, shifting gears) when they literally don't have the hardware online to do it yet.

If you want the morning to move faster, you have to slow your approach. Stop shouting lists from the other room. Go to them, connect first, help their nervous system gently wake up, and give one direction at a time.

Regulate first. Demand second.

Tired of starting every single day stressed out? Link in bio to schedule a session with our team.

03/18/2026

Behind many behavior struggles for kids is simply a decision-making problem.

Kids are going to make bad choices. That isn't a failure; that is exactly how they learn about the world. But when a decision doesn't work out, they need a framework to help them process what happened so they don't repeat the exact same mistake.

Biologically, children do not have the hardware to make rational, measured decisions when they are upset. Their brain's alarm system triggers before their logic center even has a chance to boot up. The gap between feeling an emotion and taking an action is almost zero.

Punishing an impulsive behavior might stop it in the moment, but it only communicates: "Don't do that." It completely fails to teach them what to actually do instead.

Building your child's mental fitness requires teaching them exactly how to process a decision before they act on it. "Stop, Think, Plan, Do" is the cognitive tool that builds that exact muscle.

1️⃣ Stop: Hit the brakes. Take a breath. Interrupt the physical reaction.
2️⃣ Think: Identify the problem and brainstorm the options.
3️⃣ Plan: Pick the best option and define the very next step.
4️⃣ Do: Take the action.

At first, you will have to walk them through this out loud, every single time. It will feel repetitive. But every time you do, you are helping them build the neural pathways they need to eventually do it themselves.

Tired of managing the meltdowns alone? Link in bio to schedule a session with our team to build your family's mental fitness.

Address

406 The Hill
Portsmouth, NH
03801

Website

http://www.oldeportcounseling.com/, http://linktr.ee/olde_port_counseling

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