Mark Anderson
The second-career counselor for the worst week of your life: decades in business before the counseling room, his home turf is in early recovery and major transitions.
Who Mark Works With
Mark’s clients usually arrive when the old life has stopped working and the new one hasn’t shown up yet. The job ended, the marriage turned, the drinking crossed a line, the question of what any of it was for has moved from background noise to the only station on the dial. He works with addiction, with anxiety, and with major life transitions, and he is at his best exactly where most people feel at their worst: the first weeks after everything changed.
He’ll tell you that a label never walked into his office; a person did, and the person is who he works with. That’s a description of how he practices, not a position on diagnosis: names for things have their place, and the person always comes first.
How a Session With Mark Works
Mark listens more than he talks, and when he does talk, it counts. The texture is warm and unhurried: he’s not steering you toward a conclusion he’s already reached, he’s paying attention until what’s true has room to come out, and his questions tend to land on the thing you were hoping to skip. People who expect to be lectured are usually surprised by how much space they’re given, and by what they do with it.
Mark's Groups at The Community
- Wednesday Process Group, in person, 1 hour, 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 6:30 PM, with Bob Day. Enrolling now.
- Tuesday Process Group, virtual, 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 6:30 PM, with Todd Valentine. Enrolling now.
- Professionals Group, in person, 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, with Todd Valentine. Enrolling now.
Enrollment details for every group live on the groups page.
Qualifications
Mark is a Licensed Professional Counselor “(LPC #013180, Georgia).” He can also see Florida residents by telehealth. His MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling is from Mercer University (2018) and his BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi (1977).
He sees adults.
“His experience: group counselor at Firm Foundation Treatment Center in Woodstock (2025 to 2026), leading groups for men in CBT skills, values work, 12-step education, art therapy, and open process; primary counselor at MARR (2019 to 2024), at both the Men’s and Women’s Recovery Centers, leading groups, individual counseling, psychosocial histories, and client reviews; PRN counselor at Blue Ridge Mountain Recovery Center (2018 to 2019); and counselor intern (2017 to 2018). Before that he spent four years as a volunteer at MARR (2013 to 2017), sitting in on group counseling and a weekly spiritual growth group and sharing his own recovery, and stepped away from full-time work to care for his aging parents. Mark has 29 years of continuous sobriety in 12-step recovery.”
Before This Work
Mark’s first career was a long one in information technology: decades of business, systems, and responsibility. Through those years the drinking grew alongside the success, quietly and then not, until it stopped being manageable and he stopped pretending it was.
He went through treatment, found twelve-step recovery, and still practices it today. The counseling career came out of that turn: the second act isn’t an accident or a hobby, it’s the point.
Outside the Office
You’ll find Mark walking the Big Creek Greenway, folding paper into precise and, he hopes, artistic shapes, and tinkering with computers for the pleasure of it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Mark works with adults, and his favorite client arrives after one of the worst weeks of their life: early recovery, anxiety that has outgrown self-management, and major life transitions. Decades in business before the counseling room mean the professional version of collapse is familiar ground.
Mark co-facilitates three groups: the Wednesday Process Group with Bob Day (in person, 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 6:30 PM), the Tuesday Process Group with Todd Valentine (virtual, 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 6:30 PM), and the Professionals Group with Todd Valentine (in person, 2nd and 4th Tuesdays). All three are enrolling now; enrollment details live on the groups page.
A long career in information technology came first, then treatment and the twelve-step recovery he still practices, then a counseling degree from Mercer University in 2018. The second career is the point: he has been on both sides of the worst week and chose this room deliberately.
Mark’s rate is $150/hour, and a group at the same frequency as your individual work is part of that fee rather than an extra. A limited number of reduced-fee sessions are available. Ask at your consult. Our prices are on the pricing page.
He says the hardest part is the first phone call and he makes it easy from there: 404-590-2993, same-day response on weekdays (by phone or email), or email him straight from this page. A free 15-minute consult comes before anything else, in person or by telehealth.
Ready when you are
Email Mark directly at mark@communityatlanta.com and start with a free 15-minute consult, or start with the main line and we’ll match you.