Mental health care providers with a Hampstead presence since 2007 recently expanded to Wilmington.

Anchor Psychological & Counseling Services PLLC opened offices at 1442 Military Cutoff Road in Wilmington last month. The practice’s Hampstead office is located at 16581 U.S. 17 North.

“We decided to open the second location mainly because we were so busy in our Hampstead location,” said Mary Godin, clinical director and founder. “We have a lot of clients who were commuting from Leland and Wilmington up to Hampstead. . . . We thought this would be a more convention location and we could still continue to serve the Wilmington area.”

Anchor has eight therapists in Hampstead and five in Wilmington. Godin said Anchor has also contracted with Carolina Behavioral Care out of PInehurst to provide psychiatric care to children, adolescents and adults.

“We're partnering with Carolina Behavioral Care to help with medication management because this area has such a shortage of psychiatrists,” Godin said. “The primary care doctors end up managing probably more than they would prefer to manage because of that, but it’s very important, with some of the more complex cases especially, that they [the patients] have the specialty care.”

Anchor is accepting new clients and is able to accommodate same-day appointments if needed, Godin said. 

“Within this group, we have a big focus on trauma and grief and also serving children with various types of disorders,” she said. “We do psychological testing here for pretty much all psychiatric disorders including ADHD evaluations, personality assessments, learning disorders, autism evaluations."

She said the aim of the group is "trying to offer a safe place to heal and have personal growth.”