The counselor behind Stay Strong Counseling.
Aaron Plotz, MS, LMHC, founded Stay Strong Counseling in 2021 after years working across inpatient and behavioral health settings. He treats trauma, anger, anxiety and depression in Jacksonville, and increasingly works with clients nationwide through self-pay life coaching.
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From the stage to the therapy room.
Aaron's first experience with therapy wasn't as a counselor. As a child and young adult, being heard and guided through hard moments by his own therapist showed him firsthand what good support could do.
He's also been a working musician since he was fifteen. Years of performing taught him something he didn't expect: people open up to him. Audience members and strangers after shows would seek him out just to talk through what they were carrying. Eventually he stopped treating that as a coincidence and started treating it as a calling.
Founded in 2021, Stay Strong Counseling grew out of that realization — a private practice built around EMDR, CBT, and Existential/Logotherapy, for people ready to actually do the work of healing rather than just talk around it.
“I don't think people need to be fixed. I think most people are carrying something heavy and have never had a real chance to put it down, even for an hour. That's what I want this practice to be.”
Music was Aaron's first language before counseling was. He spent years learning that a good rhythm section doesn't fix a song, it just gives everything else room to land right. He brings the same instinct into a session: less correcting, more making space for the thing that's actually true to come out.
Trained, licensed, and still learning.
None of this replaces the actual work of a session, but it's worth knowing who's sitting across from you.
Individualized, not one-size-fits-all.
Every plan starts with actually hearing the client's story, then building treatment around their pace and goals rather than a fixed program. Sessions lean structured and practical: name what's going on, build a tool for it, leave with something usable the same day.
That same direct, goal-oriented style is what's drawing more clients toward the self-pay coaching side of the practice, people who aren't in crisis, just stuck, and want momentum more than they want to talk around the problem.
A direct, structured, and compassionate approach that helps clients move from feeling stuck to making meaningful progress.
Husband and father first. Still a working musician, and a golfer whenever he can.
Outside the office, Aaron is a husband and father first, and everything else fits in around that. He's also still a working, professional musician, playing gigs most weekends, and when there's time left over, you'll usually find him on the golf course chasing a game he'll never fully solve.
Still behind the kit. Music has been part of Aaron's life since he was fifteen, long before it became part of the practice.
Performing live, one of Aaron's regular weekend gigs, this one at Walt Disney World.
Out on the course whenever he can get away, golf is Aaron's other reset button.
A practice built to feel steady, not clinical.
A few things people ask Aaron directly.
What's a first session actually like with you?
Mostly listening. Aaron will ask what brought you in and what you've already tried, but the first session is about understanding your situation clearly, not running through a checklist. No homework after session one.
Do you take a particular approach with veterans?
Aaron has worked extensively with veterans through inpatient and behavioral health settings. He does not judge historical experiences, merely working with you to accept and move forward following military service.
What if I came in for one thing and it turns out to be another?
That happens more often than not. Aaron will say so directly rather than quietly treating something you didn't come in for, and you'll always know what the plan is and why.