Chris Ball, M.A.
I was born and raised in Virginia, and went to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where I studied Psychology & Religious Studies, before moving to the Raleigh area to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to study under Dr. Sam Williams in their Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling program. My own experience of entering sustained, long term recovery from drug addiction in college and beginning to explore and participate in my faith forged my heart to help others. As Rilke said, “Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find these words.” The often disjointed, compartmentalized, lack of continuity within the mental health field, recovery oriented systems of care and spiritual communities led me to work towards developing more accessible, interconnected, nuanced and holistic soul care for those seeking help that bridge the gaps and translate between the mental health sphere, recovery communities and the church. I gained experience counseling and teaching in the residential program at Converting Hearts Ministries for several years before launching a new Bridgehaven Counseling Associates office in downtown Raleigh in partnership with the Summit Church and Christ the King Presbyterian Church under the supervision of Brad Hambrick. I served on the City of Raleigh’s Substance Abuse Advisory Commission, and was also a founding board member of Recovery Communities of North Carolina, a non-profit that seeks to promote addiction recovery, wellness and citizenship through advocacy, education and support. I have also served in the PCA church as an elder in both Raleigh, NC & Seattle, WA. In relocating to Seattle in 2015, I worked briefly at in the residential program at Union Gospel Mission, while I developed Polis Recovery Project to be a trusted clinically-informed yet distinctively Christian counseling resource for the Puget Sound region. Covid was the impetus for our shift into virtual practice allowing us to work with clients all over the country and internationally. In 2026, my wife and I relocated to Haarlem, Netherlands and launched Poiema Soul Care to continue to serve clients virtually.
I approach my craft as a blend of ‘wounded healer,’ ‘story farmer,’ ‘psychonaut’ and ‘shadow boxer’, and practice counseling as an applied language art concentrated in the ‘cure of souls’—soul care melding counseling, spiritual direction, contemplative spirituality and evidence-based therapeutic modalities. His therapeutic framework has been shaped by narrative therapy, existential therapy, Jungian depth psychology, Deleuzian schizoanalysis, attachment theory, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), internal family systems (IFS), expressive arts therapy, solution-focused therapy (SFT), transtheoretical model (TTM) stages of change, motivational interviewing (MI), mindful self-compassion (MSC) and somatic embodiment. My experience with individual clients is focused in the areas of addiction recovery, trauma recovery, sexuality and mental health issues—engaging this explorative process collaboratively to discover significant themes, dynamics and points of tension in the client’s life and relationships. This increased self-awareness helps clients to cultivate integrated wholeness and develop meaningful purpose aligned with their journey of becoming.
Education & Training:
B.A. in Psychology & Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte — 2009
M.A. in Biblical Counseling, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary — 2011
Way of the Heart (contemplative spiritual formation program), Selah Center — 2018
Spiritual Direction Program, Christian Formation & Direction Ministries Northwest — 2022
Textual Mentors:
Theology & Spirituality: Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Meister Eckhart, Charles Taylor, Tim Keller, N.T. Wright, James K. A. Smith, Hans Boersma, Thomas Merton, Howard Thurman, Alan Watts, Anthony De Mello, Henri Nouwen, John O’Donohue, David Steindl-Rast,Gerald Bray, Thích Nhất Hạnh, David Benner, Curt Thompson, Joan Halifax, Pema Chödrön
Psychology & Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard, Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Felix Guattari, Edward Edinger, Irvin D. Yalom, Steven C. Hayes (ACT), Richard C. Schwartz (IFS), William R. Miller & Stephen Rollnick (MI), James O. Prochaska & Carlo DiClemente (TTM), Fredrike Bannink (SFT), James Hollis, Tara Brach, Deb Dana, Chris Germer (MSC), Kristin Neff (MSC), Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Gilles Deleuze, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Georgio Agamben, Byung-Chul Han, Frederico Campagna
Literature & Poetry: Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Hölderlin, Antonin Artaud, Fernando Pessoa, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust, Albert Camus, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Bernhard, Italo Calvino, Haruki Murakami, Lazlo Kraszahorkai, Georgi Gospodinov, Olga Tokarczuk, Mircea Cărtărescu, Yoko Tawada
Experience:
Poiema Soul Care (Haarlem, Netherlands) — Sole Proprietor, counselor & spiritual director (2026-present)
Polis Recovery Project (Seattle, WA) — Executive Director, counselor & spiritual director (2015 – 2026)
Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) — Ordained Ruling Elder (2014-2015 in Raleigh, NC & 2018-2020 in Seattle, WA)
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (Seattle, WA) — Men’s Recovery Program Counselor (2015-2016)
Bridgehaven Counseling Associates (Raleigh, NC) — Executive Director & counselor (2014-2015)
City of Raleigh’s Substance Abuse Advisory Commission (Raleigh, NC) — Commission Member (2015)
Recovery Communities of North Carolina (Raleigh, NC) — Founding Board Member (2012-2015)
Converting Hearts Ministries (Raleigh, NC) — VP of Program & Clinical Studies (2011-2013)
Mentorship:
I am thankful to have had wonderful mentors over the years. Discipleship can take all sorts of forms—family, teachers, clergy, counselors, soul friends (anam caras), spiritual directors, barbers, bartenders & dogs. I have been impacted and shaped immensely by Josh Reed, Sam Williams, Brad Hambrick, Geoff Bradford & John Kiemele and nourished by the companionship of my friends & puppies—to whom I want to express my deepest gratitude. And of course, to my brilliant, elegant wife Ashley Rea, who has shown me how steadfast love endures forever. I hope to share what has been so generously given.
“We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.”
~Albert Camus
“And so long as you have not experienced
this: to die and so to grow
you are only a troubled guest
on the dark earth.”
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope. Through this common search, hospitality becomes community. Hospitality becomes community as it creates a unity based on the shared confession of our basic brokenness and on a shared hope."
~Henri Nouwen
Haarlem, Netherlands
“And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”
~1 Thessalonians 5:14
"One could say that part of the task is to help the body of Christ find the lines of intersection, define the points of tension, discern the trajectories of implication, and chart a course for faithful practice going forward."
~James K. A. Smith