In this episode of the Hope + Help Podcast, Christine Chappell interviews Julie Lowe about her book, Building Bridges: Biblical Counseling Activities for Children and Teens. During the conversation, Julie helps listeners to understand why counseling children is different than counseling adults, explains the importance of "wooing" children to Jesus, and discusses some of the benefits and challenges of collaborating with parents during the counseling journey. She also offers a biblical rationale for using "expressive activities" to enter into a child's world, unpacks how using Scripture as a story can better connect a child's life experience back to the Lord, and shares some of the top tools/props/resources she uses in her counseling room during sessions with youth counselees. 

JULIE LOWE, MA, is a faculty member at CCEF and a licensed professional counselor with nearly twenty years of counseling experience. Julie is also a registered play therapist and has developed a play therapy office at CCEF to better serve families, teens, and children. Julie is the author of Child Proof and Building Bridges, as well as the mini-book Helping Your Anxious Child. Julie and her husband, Greg, have five children and serve as foster and adoptive parents.

A production of the Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship, the Hope + Help Podcast offers compassionate biblical conversations about life's challenging problems. The podcast accomplishes this by offering a mix of interviews with seasoned biblical counseling professionals and ministry leaders on a variety of topics. Listeners can expect to receive biblical wisdom as well as practical steps for facing suffering, struggling, and sin with courage and grace. Hosted by author/writer Christine M. Chappell. 

BUILDING BRIDGES: BIBLICAL COUNSELING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS • Knowing how to approach children and teens in counseling can be a challenge. Learning to enter into their world and draw them out can sometimes feel impossible. But with Julie Lowe’s Building Bridges—a practical workbook of expressive activities to do with kids and teens in counseling—you will find the biblical tools you’re looking for.

Anyone who has ever heard a child say, “I don’t know” in answer to a question about what they are thinking and feeling or about why they acted a certain way, will be thankful for these thoughtful, biblically wise, and creative ways to engage young people. Julie Lowe, drawing on decades of experience in counseling children has compiled helpful, practical ways to speak the gospel into children and teenager’s lives. By building bridges with young people, we can build bridges with them to the Lord.

With over fifteen years of counseling experience and by working as a registered play therapist supervisor, Julie Lowe understands there is a need to speak truth and hope into the lives of children and teens in a hands-on, meaningful way. That’s why the activities and reproducible worksheets in Building Bridges can be used over and over in multiple contexts.

As part of CCEF’s Helping the Helper series, this workbook walks counselors, teachers, parents, and caregivers through the rationale for expressive activities, provides examples, and then shows counselors how to do it themselves. Upon the purchase of this product, customers will be given access to downloadable, colorized versions of each of the interactive charts and graphics, with the option of creating printable posters for their ministry. By pointing to the Lord through expressive mediums, counselors and youth workers will be able to reach kids and teens in a unique, biblical way.