Meet Our Clinicians: Krystal Jones
We are thrilled to introduce Krystal Jones, a dedicated therapist known for her compassionate, strengths-based approach to counseling. Grounded in empathy and systemic care, Krystal focuses on building safe, empowering spaces where individuals, couples, and families feel seen, supported, and equipped to navigate life's challenges with resilience.
What is Counseling?
Counseling is often misunderstood as a process where an expert tells you how to live your life or offers quick fixes for complex emotional struggles. In reality, counseling, or therapy, is a collaborative journey where you—the client—remain the ultimate expert on your own life.
Helping Children and Teens Build Confidence Through Compassionate Care
Meet Brittney Balderas, a compassionate counselor at Next Chapter Counseling dedicated to helping children and teens build emotional resilience and confidence. Using a blend of person-centered care, play therapy, and evidence-based approaches like CBT, Brittney empowers young people to navigate anxiety, understand their emotions, and thrive through life's challenges.
Why I Became a Counselor — and Why I Still Love This Work
Mercedes Burk, founder of Next Chapter Counseling, has dedicated her career to holding space for those navigating life's most painful challenges. With extensive experience spanning group practice, clinical leadership, and her own private practice, she specializes in trauma, grief, and providing support for senior adults. For Mercedes, counseling is less about dramatic breakthroughs and more about the quiet, sacred moments where clients begin to reconnect with their true selves, discover the coexistence of joy and grief, and learn to navigate life with newfound clarity and freedom.
Finding Resilience: My Journey to Empowering Teens and Trauma Survivors
Shauna’s work is centered on fostering a space where every client, especially teens and trauma survivors, can feel supported and empowered. By combining holistic strategies with a creative approach to emotional expression, she aims to help individuals recognize their inherent strengths, build resilience, and move toward a life defined by self-acceptance and purpose.
When Trauma Becomes the Uninvited Guest:
When post-traumatic stress first enters a home, it rarely announces itself with a capital-T “Trauma.” It arrives quietly, through a startle at fireworks, a sudden shutdown at the dinner table, or a parent who no longer sleeps in the bed they once shared. At first, families think they’re just “going through a hard season.” Years later, they realize the entire household has quietly reorganized itself around one person’s dysregulated nervous system.
Meet Our Clinician: Cristine Jordan, LPC
Meet Cristine Jordan, LPC, a valued clinician dedicated to guiding clients through their healing journeys with a warm and authentic approach. Learn about her transition from a 14-year career in education to counseling, her specialized training in areas like couples, sexual and emotional intimacy, and affair recovery, and her passion for restoring hope. Discover the influential voices she aligns with and her simple but effective mental health tip for finding perspective.
What Are the Most Effective Ways to Talk to Children?
How we communicate with our children shapes their behavior, confidence, and relationships. Using positive, respectful, and clear communication—listening carefully, giving choices, showing acceptance, and modeling good manners—helps children feel valued and understood.
How to Start the New Year With Emotional Clarity
Whether you're an individual trying to understand yourself better or a couple seeking reconnection, these gentle practices can help.
The Snow Globe Brain: Understanding Stress, Anxiety, and Emotional Overload
When anxiety takes over, your thoughts swirl like snow in a shaken globe. Neuroscience shows why — and how to help it settle.