Chelsea’s new counselor privileged to help people through life’s hard places

Published 4:44 pm Monday, September 9, 2013

Kara Jones uses a comfortable office at Grace Church in Chelsea to help people who need help through life’s hard places. (contributed)

Kara Jones uses a comfortable office at Grace Church in Chelsea to help people who need help through life’s hard places. (contributed)

By SHELBA NIVENS / Community Columnist

Is there something you feel stuck in and just can’t break out of?

If so, you may be a good candidate for counseling, says Kara Jones, a licensed counselor at Covenant Counseling and Education Center in Homewood, who now does counseling in Chelsea, as well.

“Whether it’s an emotion, destructive pattern, relationship problem or the past, if you can’t handle it yourself, you might need counseling,” she said.

“More than anything, I want people to know they can come and not have to hide from these things. I want them to know there is a place where they can talk freely and be safe and not feel any sort of Judgment or condemnation.”

“We saw a real need to provide faithful, competent services to those who live in Shelby County, along the 280 Corridor,” said Gil Kracke, Covenant Counseling director. “When the opportunity came to have an office in Chelsea, we considered it a privilege to link arms with Grace Church.”

The Chelsea office, located at Grace Church next door to Chelsea Coffee House, offers daytime and evening appointments and provides a wide variety of personal, marital and family counseling to children, adolescents and adults of all ages.

Kara said she has always been a listener, and always cared about people. While teaching and coaching in an Atlanta high school, she realized that what she loved most about her work was talking to students about life and about their struggles on and off the field. So, deciding to pursue a career in professional counseling, she earned Ed.S. and master’s degrees in counseling at UAB.

She came to faith in Christ at an early age, Kara said. Christian parents raised her in the Word and in church. But she was in high school before she began to really understand the price Christ paid for her on the cross and that He loved her.

Kara said it’s such a privilege to be able to share common struggles with people and help them through the tough places.

Kara has a son, 2-1/2, and a daughter, 15 months. Her husband is a Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy and on the county SWAT team.

Contact her through Covenant Counseling, 879-7500, Grace Church, or karakj@gmail.com.