Dr. Markera Jones (she/her) is passionate about helping people develop a stronger sense of self-awareness, flexibility, and fortitude while navigating life’s challenges. In her work, she emphasizes a holistic view of wellness that honors the mind-body connection as well as the self-others connection.
Dr. Jones values a collaborative, humanistic approach to therapy and aims to be responsive to individuals’ identities, sensitivities, and societal context. Dr. Jones uses an integrative approach that is mostly grounded in cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion-focused therapy, meaning that she helps clients to recognize how their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors are separate, dynamic, valid, and ever-changing pieces of their experience. She understands people’s concerns not only as individual-level challenges, but also as experiences shaped by larger social, environmental, and/or systemic factors that may be helpful to consider. She also incorporates mindfulness and contemplation, feminism, intersectionality, and a framework of radical healing into her work.
Ph.D. in Clinical Community Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S. in Clinical Community Psychology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A. in Psychology and French from Franklin and Marshall College
Dr. Jones has a specialization in mindfulness, which is the practice of paying attention to your inner experiences as they arise in the present moment, intentionally and non-judgmentally. Dr. Jones leads mindful meditation, movement, and other activities, with groups and individuals, to help cultivate self-awareness and self-compassion. She has also conducted research on the benefits of mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions, and has developed mindfulness-based programming for individuals with diverse backgrounds.
Having been trained in Community Psychology, Dr. Jones recognizes the self as embedded within and interacting with social, cultural, economic, and political influences. She recognizes the community as a context for the individuals within them, and she is interested in the relationships between the individual, the community, and society. Dr. Jones has experience not only in psychotherapy and assessment, but also in program development, community-based action projects, and evaluation of community-oriented organizations. She values a collaborative approach in individual-level therapy and in work that aims to address social issues that affect communities. Some topics of interest within clinical community psychology are culturally responsive care, racism-based stress, LGBTQIA+ identity, collective community healing projects, and more.
At Harmony Holistic, Dr. Jones welcomes the opportunity to work with adolescents, adults, and couples with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, as well as provide group therapy, and connect more with the surrounding community. Dr. Jones is practicing as a postdoctoral psychology associate under the supervision of Dr. Melanie Ricaurte (MD License #05428).
Ph.D. in Clinical Community Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S. in Clinical Community Psychology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A. in Psychology and French from Franklin and Marshall College