Embracing the joy of the season can be challenging, especially with the added pressures of family expectations and festive preparations. And while it's common for mothers to experience a mix of overwhelming emotions this time of year, we hosted this heartfelt conversation with the hope of helping you through it!
In this recording of a live broadcast, authors (and fellow mothers) Christine Chappell, Darby Strickland, Eliza Huie, and Lauren Whitman consider ways that moms can navigate difficult emotions, manage expectations, and stay spiritually nourished during the holiday season.
Panelists' Resources from New Growth Press
Meet the Panelists
Christine Chappell
Christine Chappell is a certified biblical counselor and host of the Hope + Help Podcast for the Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship. She is the author of Midnight Mercies: Walking with God through Depression in Motherhood as well as several mini-books, including Postpartum Depression: Hope for a Hard Season and Help! I’ve Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder. She currently serves as a council member for the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and is a regular speaker at women’s events and conferences. Christine lives in South Carolina with her husband and three children, and is a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Easley.
Darby Strickland
Darby A. Strickland, MDiv, is a faculty member and counselor at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). She is a contributor to Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused and Caring for Families Caught in Domestic Abuse and is the author of Is It Abuse? A Biblical Guide to Identifying Domestic Abuse and Helping Victims, the Comfort for Children in Hard Times series, and the minibooks When Children Experience Trauma and Helping Your Family Grieve. She writes regularly for the Journal of Biblical Counseling. Darby and her husband, John, have three children.
Eliza Huie
Eliza Huie, MA, LCPC, is the Director of Counseling at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, VA. She is the author of several books, including I'm Stressed, Raising Emotionally Healthy Kids, Count Yourself Calm, the minibook Teens and Anxiety, and is coauthor of The Whole Life and The World Rejoices. Eliza and her husband, Ken, have three grown children, two daughters-in-law, and a sweet grandson.
Lauren Whitman
Lauren Whitman, MA, is a counselor and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF), where she has served for over a decade. She also serves as the developmental editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling, the editor of the children's books Henry’s Big Mistake and Darcy Is Always First, and the author of When Parents Feel Like Failures, A Biblical Counseling Process, A Painful Past, and the minibook Mom Guilt. Whitman, her husband, and their two children make their home in the Philadelphia area.
