Joyce Morley-Ball, Counselor

• Job: Counselor, Stone Mountain

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KARL W. RITZLER / Special

Joyce Morley-Ball relaxes in the office she keeps at Berea Christian Church in Stone Mountain, where she counsels people who are facing personal problems or struggling with difficult decisions. ‘I help them see that there’s hope, to have faith and they’re worthy,’ she said.

• What I do: People who have problems in their relationships, families and personal lives often turn to Joyce Morley-Ball for help.

“Dr. Joyce” — as she is known to clients, radio listeners and audiences for her motivational speeches — is upbeat and stresses the positive in her messages.

Morley-Ball, 52, wears several hats. She is a psychotherapist, family and marriage counselor, motivational speaker, executive coach, leadership trainer, author, poet and former radio show host.

“Everything I do is from a positive perspective,” she said.

A day might include counseling couples at her office in Berea Christian Church in Stone Mountain, giving advice as a guest on radio shows, or speaking about women’s health and physical problems that can arise when mental health needs aren’t met.

“I help people understand where they are,” she said. “I’m not here to tell them what to do but to help them know what they need to do. I give them the tools to do what they need to do to grow.”

She helps her clients set personal goals, learn to communicate or overcome situations such as domestic violence or infidelity.

She helps family members learn to communicate with one another, and she helps people deal with career issues or make important decisions about their lives.

As a motivational speaker, she tells her audiences, “Everything starts with you, and everything ends with you.”

• What got me interested in this: Morley-Ball said she was supposed to be a school superintendent.

She had been a teacher at an elementary school in Rochester, N.Y., for several years when she began to counsel children who had emotional issues. She earned a master’s degree in counseling, but “I was still hungry.” She worked at other schools in the district as a full-time counselor, then dean of students after earning specialist degrees in counseling and education administration.

In the meantime, she started a private counseling practice and began work on her doctorate in counseling, family and work-life.

“I was working full time, going to school full time, [was] a graduate assistant, [and] had three kids and a private practice,” she said.

Then she got injured at school.

“That’s when I finally listened [to what God was saying]: to go to the masses,” Morley-Ball said. “God broadened my territory.”

She finished her Ed.D. degree, began public speaking, started teaching at the college level — first in New York and then in Atlanta — and expanded her counseling work.

“I made up my mind I was not going to work for anyone anymore,” she said.

• Best part of my job: “The people that I get to meet,” Morley-Ball said. “They’re all important. I don’t take sides.”

• Most challenging part: “Remembering to keep God first and not put myself in the way. I’m not so big that I ever forget where I came from,” she said. “I return every call, every e-mail. I’m still reachable. I’m still touchable.”

• What people don’t know about my job: “I’m up until 2, 3, 4 a.m. working to prepare for a speech or a workshop,” she said. “They see only the finished product. Each speech and workshop, I treat it as if it’s the first time I’ve done it. It’s not canned.”

• What keeps me going: “Prayer and belief in God,” Morley-Ball said.

• Preparation needed for this job: “You have to have an earned doctorate. People like to see the credential,” she said.

In counseling sessions, “people like to see that they are welcome, that they are important,” she added.

Counselors and psychotherapists must be licensed and certified by the state and several organizations. Morley-Ball is a licensed professional counselor, a national certified counselor, a national certified school counselor, and a licensed marriage and family therapist.

All licenses and certifications must be renewed periodically and require continuing education.

She has an Ed.D. from the University of Rochester, a master’s degree in counseling from the State University of New York at Brockport, bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and psychology from SUNY Geneseo, and specialist degrees in counseling and education administration from SUNY Brockport.

She has been a counselor or faculty member at Clark Atlanta University, Agnes Scott College, Psychological Studies Institute in Atlanta, Georgia School of Professional Psychology, Atlanta Public Schools, SUNY Brockport, Rochester Institute of Technology and the Rochester City School District.

She owns Morley-Ball Associates, a counseling, training, coaching and public speaking company. She also appears occasionally on radio station V-103 and has written a column for Family Digest magazine, a book about relationships and a collection of inspirational poetry.

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.

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