Dr. Jon A. Parker
Ph.D., LPC, LMHC, NCC
Jon Parker's path to becoming a therapist and researcher started well before graduate school. After earning his B.A. in African American Studies from UC Berkeley, he worked across industries — as a journalist, audio engineer, banker, and tour guide — building a firsthand understanding of how people navigate stress, identity, and burnout without the tools to name what they're experiencing. That restlessness eventually pointed him toward clinical work, and in 2014 he completed his Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy at Richmont Graduate University in Atlanta.
Atlanta is where he found his footing as a clinician. He spent several years doing direct mental health work at local psychiatric hospitals and later at Oglethorpe University, while running a private practice serving individuals, couples, and families. Early in his practice, he noticed there were very few Black male therapists in the city — and deliberately leaned into filling that gap, giving particular attention to Black men who had limited access to someone who looked like them in a clinical setting. During that same period he co-hosted multiple podcasts — Build a Better Us, Don't Do That Bro, Of Myths and Men, and Off the Record — often reaching people who would never walk into a therapist's office.
In 2018 Jon and his family moved to South Africa where he launched Baleka Run Club and later Baleka Wellness. The organization now runs nature-based counseling, youth programming, and community health research across Gainesville, Florida and South Africa, with feeding programs and empowerment events specifically rooted in Johannesburg. In Gainesville, the Thrive Outside Initiative offers free and reduced-cost traditional and nature-based mental health services built to lower the financial and cultural barriers that keep marginalized communities out of care. After working for the university's counseling and wellness center, in 2021, Jon began the journey of pursing a Ph.D. at the University of Florida. The Ph.D. program in Youth Development and Family Sciences, provided Jon with the opportunity to complete his doctoral research on nature-based mental health interventions for underserved populations. Also during this time, Yale University inducted him into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.
His scholarship has taken him to stages and podiums across the country. He has presented research at the Yale Bouchet Conference on Graduate Education, the National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference, and the Florida Society of the Social Sciences. He has also shared his knowledge of mental health via invited talks with groups such as the USDA-NIFA Multistate Research Project and the UF/IFAS Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. The Today Show's Wellness TODAY with Sheinelle Jones featured him in a conversation on the healing power of nature — a thread that runs through everything from his research to his community work to his book.
That book, Pace Your Self: A 30-Day Journey to Finding Your Rhythm, pulls all of it together. Born from a painful personal lesson at the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town and shaped by years of clinical work with people navigating burnout and life transitions, it's a 30-day, nature-inspired guide for men who keep running until something breaks.
Dr. Parker speaks on nature-based mental health, men's wellness, health equity, marriage and family dynamics, and youth and community development.
To book him for a keynote, workshop, or panel, email
Jon@balekasports.com or call 678-310-8505.
Counseling Services
Baleka Wellness
https://www.balekawellness.com