Welcome to Ancora Compassionate Care Counseling Center!

 For our first post, we want to introduce you to the
Counseling Center by sharing our history.

The Counseling Center is part of Ancora Compassionate Care, formerly known as Hospice of Rockingham County, the only free-standing, non-profit hospice serving Rockingham County, proudly serving our community since 1987.

In 2023, we rebranded to Ancora Compassionate Care to acknowledge and celebrate that we were now offering more than hospice care and were serving Rockingham, Caswell, Guilford, and Stokes Counties. In 2021, we added the service line of Serious Illness Care (palliative care), offering services for those coping with serious and/or chronic illnesses seeking relief from their symptoms and the stress of their illness.

Ancora Compassionate Care's services have always included grief and bereavement support for the loved ones served by our hospice, and to members of our community seeking grief counseling after a loss on a time-limited basis. This includes our free weekly virtual support group, our quarterly caregiver support groups and surviving spouses and partners' events, and our annual Camp Good Grief for children grieving a loss.

Beginning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bereavement team found themselves receiving more and more calls from community members seeking support in coping with their grief. Referrals poured in from hospitals, doctor's offices, even other therapy practices. Our bereavement team met the need head-on, but the need quickly outpaced our capacity. We tried to help people seeking care find other providers, only to learn how difficult it was to find a therapist without a long waiting list, or having to drive to Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Burlington, or Danville. 

Simultaneously, as the Serious Illness Care program grew, we recognized that quite a few participants on that program were in need of mental health support, but the same barriers affected them, with the added dilemma of these often being older adults without access to smartphones or internet to utilize virtual appointments, and health issues that limited their ability to leave home. 

Ancora's mission statement is, "to be a supportive presence for life's journey." We recognized that the next step towards fulfilling our mission was to meet the community's need for high-quality, local mental health counseling services. In July 2024, we held our first counseling session with a patient under our Serious Illness Program. In August 2025, our two therapists completed over 120 counseling sessions, and have over 75 clients under our care. 

Our providers, Megan Cole, MSW, LCSW, and Kristi Rakes, MSW, LCSW, are proud to be deeply rooted in Rockingham County. Megan has worked at Ancora since 2011, first as a hospice social worker, then as the Director of Support Services, and now as Director of Counseling Services. Kristi, a lifelong resident of Rockingham County, first worked at Ancora several years ago as a hospice social worker, and joined the Counseling Center in May of this year. 

Megan and Kristi are accepting new clients for in-person and virtual sessions, and accept Medicare, managed Medicare, and most major commercial insurance plans. We work with clients with a range of diagnoses, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and people coping with stressors from life transitions, grief and loss, caregiver stress, chronic pain/ disease, infertility, and other concerns. We work with children, families, and adults of all ages. Please note that we are not substance abuse counselors, and are unable to offer medication management services, but are happy to help refer you to providers who can meet these needs.

It is our honor and privilege to serve our community, walking alongside each of our clients as they set and accomplish their mental health and wellness goals. 

If you would like more information about the Counseling Center, or would like to make a referral, please call (336) 427-9022. Our Intake team is happy to walk you through our intake process, and most new clients can be seen within 1-2 weeks of their referral. 

We look forward to using this blog to help educate our community about the Counseling Center, about our providers, and about mental health in general. If you have an idea that you would like us to write about, please email Megan Cole at mcole@ancoracc.org.

Thanks for dropping in! Please help us spread the word about the Counseling Center and our blog by sharing this post!