🧘 Find Balance Within: Meet the Commack Therapist Helping Long Islanders Feel Like Themselves Again

🔨 Freeport's Historic Armory Is Becoming a Trade School

🌳 A Tree Killing Fungus Just Closed In on Five Suffolk Towns

🌊 Rip Currents Put a Damper on This Weekend's Beach Plans

In a world where stress, anxiety, grief, and life's daily demands can often feel overwhelming, one Long Island therapist is helping people rediscover something many believe they've lost: balance.

When DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, PLLC was founded, its mission extended far beyond opening a private psychotherapy practice. Owner and founder DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, envisioned creating a place where people would feel welcomed, understood, and accepted from the moment they walked through the door, a place where they could set down the emotional weight they had been carrying and begin moving toward healing. That vision is reflected in the practice's guiding philosophy: Find Balance Within.

Located in Commack, New York, DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, PLLC offers both in-person and virtual therapy appointments for adults, couples, and families throughout New York State. With more than 20 years of clinical experience, DawnMarie has dedicated her career to helping individuals navigate life's challenges with compassion, understanding, and evidence-based care.

DawnMarie believes that sometimes people simply need someone who will truly listen without judgment while helping them recognize strengths they may no longer see in themselves."

Working alongside DawnMarie are Alexandra D'Orio, LMSW, and Amanda Purchick, LMSW, two caring and compassionate therapists who share the practice's commitment to providing exceptional, client-centered care. Together, they create a warm, supportive environment where clients feel heard, respected, and empowered to make meaningful changes in their lives.

Whether someone is navigating anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, grief, life transitions, or overwhelming stress, DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, PLLC emphasizes collaboration, resilience, and hope. DawnMarie's philosophy is simple but powerful: therapy isn't about "fixing" people, it's about helping them reconnect with their inner strengths. Through meaningful conversations, practical coping strategies, and genuine human connection, clients are encouraged to build healthier relationships, greater confidence, and lasting emotional wellness.

The practice strives to make quality mental health care accessible by accepting Aetna, Cigna, Northwell Direct, out-of-network benefits for most other insurance plans, and self-pay options. Equally important is ensuring that individuals receive the support they need. If DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, PLLC is unable to meet someone's specific needs, DawnMarie and her team are committed to helping clients navigate the process of finding providers and services that are the right fit.

Beyond the therapy office, DawnMarie is passionate about increasing awareness of mental health through education and outreach. Her Instagram page, @therapywithDawnMarie, has become a valuable resource for those seeking encouragement and practical tools for everyday life. Through daily posts featuring coping skills, educational content, strategies for managing common stressors, and inspirational messages, she strives to make mental health support accessible long before someone ever walks into a therapy session.

As DawnMarie Maloney, LCSW, PLLC continues to grow, so does its commitment to reducing the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraging meaningful conversations about emotional well-being. Clients frequently describe the practice as a place where they feel genuinely welcomed, supported, and understood.

Seeking help is often the hardest first step, but it can also become the beginning of a remarkable journey. Every journey begins with one conversation, one connection, and one reminder that healing is possible. The practice's motto, Find Balance Within, serves as a daily reflection of its mission to help every individual discover resilience, hope, and balance within themselves.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit www.dawnmariemaloneylcsw.com, call 631-210-6283, or follow @therapywithDawnMarie on Instagram for daily mental health inspiration, educational resources, and practical strategies for navigating life's challenges.

The old Freeport Armory has sat mostly quiet for years, but that is about to change. The Nassau County Legislature just awarded the Village of Freeport $300,000 to help fund construction work at the historic site, and village officials say the building is being transformed into a new trade school.

The plan is to bring in a vendor, likely something along the lines of BOCES, to teach electrical work, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry and IT to students who are not looking to go the four year college route. The new funding will go toward asbestos testing and monitoring, replacing windows, doors and the roof, upgrading electrical service and installing new heating units, all the unglamorous work that has to happen before anyone can set foot inside for class.

Officials are hoping to have the doors open within six to nine months, which would put a working trade school back in a building that has spent a lot longer than that sitting empty. For Freeport families weighing options beyond a traditional college path, it is one more reason to keep an eye on the armory this fall.

👉 Read more: Patch

New York State has established a laurel wilt quarantine district covering the towns of Huntington, Babylon, Smithtown, Islip and Brookhaven, and if you have never heard of laurel wilt, you are not alone. It is an invasive fungus, spread by a tiny beetle, that kills off trees and shrubs in the laurel family, most notably sassafras and spicebush, the kind of understory plants that hold a lot of Long Island's woods together.

The disease was first confirmed on Long Island back in August of last year, marking the northernmost occurrence ever recorded in the United States. Since then it has turned up at ten separate sites across those five towns, which is what prompted the state's Departments of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets to step in with an official quarantine.

What that means practically: sassafras and spicebush wood, along with any untreated firewood, cannot be moved out of the quarantine district unless it has been heat treated at an approved facility or chipped down small and left in place for at least a week. If you are a camper who likes to bring your own firewood from home, or a homeowner clearing brush in one of these five towns, it is worth knowing before you load up the truck.

👉 Read more: LongIsland.com

If your weekend plans involved more than ankle deep water, the National Weather Service wants a word first. A high rip current risk has been in effect across Long Island's ocean facing beaches, with life threatening currents possible for anyone who wades in past the shallows, on top of a heat advisory that pushed the heat index past 100 degrees.

This is not a one time warning either. Long Island beaches have seen repeat high surf and rip current advisories through the first two weeks of August, with large breaking waves and dangerous currents showing up again and again even on days that otherwise looked perfect for the water.

The advice from lifeguards and forecasters hasn't changed: swim near a guarded beach, keep an eye on flag conditions before you go in, and if you do get caught in a current, swim parallel to shore instead of fighting straight back against it. It is not the news anyone wants mid-August, but it beats finding out the hard way.

👉 Read more: Patch

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