For nearly three decades, Advanced Counseling Associates has been a trusted resource for mental health and personal growth on Long Island. Founded in 1997 by Laura Asner Mercogliano, LCSW-R, LMSW, ACSW, the Bay Shore–based practice has built its reputation on helping children, adolescents, families, and adults overcome challenges, strengthen relationships, and achieve their fullest potential.
What began as one clinician’s passion project has evolved into a thriving practice with more than 25 therapists, a wide array of services, and a new specialty: advanced coaching for students and professionals.
From Private Practice to Community Impact
Mercogliano’s journey began in 1994 when she resigned from her role as Director of Alcohol and Substance Abuse at Freeport Hospital to pursue a part-time private practice in addition to her role at South Oaks Hospital, a premier mental health treatment center where she worked with patients with significant mental health diagnoses, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But what started as a part-time practice soon became her full-time passion.
“I was amazed at how effortlessly people came to my office through word of mouth. My caseload grew very quickly, and soon I had a full-time-plus practice,” she recalls. “I kept repeating this one mantra that came to me: ‘Together we can make a difference.’ I started to think if I could make an impact for so many people so quickly and so naturally, the next progression would be to align myself with people who shared my mindset and who could also enlighten me further so that together we could make a greater difference.”
Soon, Advanced Counseling Associates was not only providing counseling in Bay Shore, but also expanding to serve assisted living facilities throughout Long Island and beyond. At its peak, the practice served 28 locations, reaching disenfranchised populations who might otherwise have gone without appropriate mental healthcare.
Then, like many healthcare providers, the practice pivoted to telehealth during the pandemic. With telehealth, demand for Advanced Counseling Associates’ services skyrocketed. “For an extended period of time, we had a waiting list of 200 people,” Mercogliano says. “We simply couldn’t hire therapists fast enough to keep up with the demand.”
Expanding Services: Boutique Mental Healthcare
Today, Advanced Counseling Associates is a boutique mental health practice, matching clients with therapists who specialize in meeting their unique needs. Programs, which are offered both in the office and over telehealth, include:
Aspire: Created for adolescents ages 9–15, Aspire is a solutions-focused behavior modification program that helps young people build resilience, confidence, and social skills to reach their full potential.
Purposeful Parenting: This program illuminates the practice of raising children through deliberate actions, clear values, and emotionally attuned responses that support the child’s long-term development, rather than relying on automatic habits or short-term fixes.
Workshops for parents align with Aspire to provide maximum benefit and outcome. “When working with a teen, we find that if parents are educated on the parenting practices that will best support the child’s growth and development, it leads to more successful outcomes,” Mercogliano says.
Advanced Connection: This therapeutic program is designed to help couples explore and improve communication, rebuild emotional intimacy, and strengthen the foundation of their relationship. Whether couples are feeling distant, stuck in cycles of miscommunication, or looking to reconnect on a deeper level, this program offers real tools for real change. Healing the couple strengthens the family, which leads to sustainable progress.
“Couples who find themselves being torn between day-to-day life of competing priorities can become disconnected living in the same home. Committing to Advanced Connection is a conscious effort to invest in the relationship that they intended to have when they were dating,” Mercogliano says. “Replace date night with a couple assessment and see how much more impactful Advanced Connection is. This will change your life.”
Specialized Counseling Services: Counselors work with adults and children with ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, family and relationship issues, grief, trauma, alcohol and substance abuse, and more.
New patients undergo an intake session with a clinician, after which they are paired with the most appropriate therapist. Sliding scale starts at $75 per individual counseling session or $100 per couples counseling session. Most major insurance plans are accepted. The practice emphasizes building resilience, with associates collaborating with and guiding clients to reach their highest potential.
A Natural Shift into Coaching
Over the last couple of years, Advanced Counseling Associates expanded into advanced coaching – a niche that has quickly become the fastest-growing part of the practice.
“Today, 68% of the calls that I personally receive for my services are for advanced coaching,” Mercogliano says.
Unlike counseling, which involves diagnosis and treatment, coaching is proactive and free of a clinical label. Clients include C-suite corporate executives looking to gain a competitive edge in their careers, as well as high school students navigating the stressful college admissions process. “More and more people are saying they want to hire a coach to achieve a specific goal,” Mercogliano explains. “For executives, it’s about tapping into their inner resources to reach the next level. For students, it’s about managing expectations, coping with setbacks, and building resilience.”
In recent years, the expectations of college-seeking students have increased exponentially. The impact of deferrals, wait lists, and rejections can feel overwhelming. This takes an emotional toll that impedes students from approaching the process with clarity, free of the emotional and psychological barriers that lead to debilitating test anxiety and performance.
Mercogliano was inspired to expand into this area while guiding her own daughter through elite college applications. “I realized the emotional side of the process was being overlooked,” she says. “Academic advisors can help with essays and test prep, but students also need psychological tools to handle the pressure, manage expectations, and emotionally regulate after they get a deferral or get wait-listed to their top school. They have been at the top of their class for their whole academic experience, and now they have to adjust to competing on a higher level. We help them navigate the process from the emotional and psychological point of view. And the skills that we work on are essential for helping them reach their potential once they transition to college.”
The coaching process begins with three assessment sessions, from which the advanced coach collaborates with the student and parents on developing a roadmap that outlines areas of focus. Then, students can choose to move forward with a 10-session one-on-one coaching workshop that is tailored to their unique needs and goals.
Unlike the practice’s counseling services, which involve treating symptoms, identifying a mental health diagnosis, and billing insurance, coaching is a highly curated collaborative approach unique to the individual, not based upon a mental health diagnosis. As it does not involve insurance, private pay allows clients to maintain complete anonymity. Following the three-session assessment, which costs $500 in total, the cost per coaching workshop session is $150.
Looking Ahead: A New Chapter in Islip
As the practice celebrates its 28th year, it is preparing for an exciting expansion. Advanced Counseling Associates has purchased property at 176 Main Street in Islip, formerly the Viking Bar, with plans to transform it into a second location, expected to open in 2026.
“What was once a place of joyful celebration will become a center of healing and inspiration,” says Mercogliano. “We want the new location to be a beautiful representation of our mission, reducing the stigma of mental health care and expanding access to the community.”
For more information about Advanced Counseling Associates, visit https://advancedcounselingassociates.com, call 631-647-9009 or email info@advancedcounselingassociates.com
