Who writes our clinical content
Every clinical page on this website — every page under /services/, /resources/, the FAQ, and clinically themed pages under /about/ — is authored or directly supervised by Dr. Kristy Burton (PhD, LPC-S, LADAC, AADC, MAC, CS, SAP, NCC). Senior clinicians on our team may contribute drafts under her supervision. The maintainer who applies the approved text to the site does not write clinical claims.
Source standards
Clinical claims on this site are sourced from primary literature only:
- Federal agencies — SAMHSA, CDC, NIH/NIMH, NIDA, NIAAA, AHRQ, FDA
- Department of Transportation publications for DOT SAP content (49 CFR Part 40)
- Professional bodies — APA, ACA, NBCC, ASAM
- State agencies — Arkansas Department of Human Services, Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling, Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence
- Peer-reviewed journals via DOI or PubMed PMID
We do not cite marketing copy, single-author blogs, or non-peer-reviewed sites as primary sources for clinical claims. When a non-primary source is used for context (for example, a reputable news article describing a regulatory change), we cite the regulation directly and treat the news source as supplementary.
Review process
Every clinical claim — whether new content, a substantive edit, or an annual recheck — is reviewed by Dr. Burton or, when she is unavailable, by a senior clinician she has designated. Substantive means: changing a claim, citation, recommendation, scope statement, or regulatory reference. Typo fixes and clarity rewrites do not trigger clinical review.
Update cadence
Clinical pages are reviewed on the cadence below. The cadence is documented in our internal refresh calendar at /admin/content-refresh-calendar.md and tracked per article.
- Service pages: quarterly
- Crisis resources: monthly
- DOT SAP pages: quarterly plus on every 49 CFR Part 40 amendment
- DVIP pages: quarterly plus on every Arkansas court rule change
- Trauma and EMDR pages: annually plus on clinical guideline change
- FAQ: quarterly
- Comparison and resource pages: quarterly
Author qualifications
Every clinical author on this site holds a relevant Arkansas license appropriate to the content they author. Burton's eight credentials are verifiable through the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling public license lookup. Other authors' licenses are listed on their team profile pages with verification links.
AI use
We do not use generative AI to write clinical content. Every clinical paragraph on this site is written by a clinician. Operational tools (scheduling, intake) may use software automation but no patient information passes through any AI system that learns from inputs. See our AI use policy for details.
Conflicts of interest
Dr. Burton owns Arkansas Counseling and Wellness Services and serves on the faculty of Ouachita Baptist University. She also holds positions on the Arkansas Substance Abuse Certification Board and other professional bodies disclosed on her bio page. These relationships are disclosed in compliance with this policy and do not influence the content of clinical pages on this site. Where clinical content references organizations Burton is associated with, the affiliation is disclosed inline.
Contact
For editorial questions, fact-check requests, or correction submissions: scheduling@arcounselingandwellness.com with subject "Editorial question". Corrections specifically: see the corrections policy.