Hey friend, welcome to Job with Julie. I'm your host, Julie Slattery, and this podcast is a listener's

supported outreach of authentic intimacy. Well, we made it to the end of the year. Crazy how fast it goes,

isn't it? But I don't know about you, but when the year draws to a close, I start to take some

time to reflect on things like what God has taught me through the year, some of the challenges I've faced, and really who God is helping me to become.

You know, this kind of reflection is a practice that in many ways has fallen by the wayside.

As we celebrate New Year's, we just kind of continue into the next year

without taking time to really look at what God is doing. And we miss out on a lot of the things

that the Lord might be trying to show us. Well, that's why I thought this might be a great

conversation to end the year with. I'm talking with author and psychologist Kathy Lurzel.

Kathy is a huge proponent of what is called storywork. That helps me. I'm talking with author and psychologist Kathy Lurzel.

Kathy is a huge proponent of what is called storywork.

That helps people reflect on their experiences and really make sense of them.

In this conversation, Kathy and I talk about what storywork is, how it's helpful, and why emotional and spiritual maturity are more integrated than we might think.

Let's head to the coffee shop for my conversation with Kathy Lorzell.

Well, Kathy, before we start into our conversation, I just have to say how grateful I am for the work that you and others that you're partnering with are doing.

When we look at our world today, it seems like there's so much trauma.

We talk a lot about trauma and trauma-informed kind of help or therapy.

And I feel like you've been on some of the front lines of not only doing trauma-informed care, but also training people. So thank you for that.

Oh my gosh. You're welcome. It's the privilege of a lifetime. Yeah. Did you always know that you wanted to do what you're doing today? No. I kind of came in it by accident, actually. Mostly, and I think this is true for so many people who end up in this field. I found myself with a story and not really knowing where to go with it. And for me, the church wasn't, it was kind of telling me to just pray more or have more faith or do more Bible studies.

And so I was really hungry as a kid and then into college to figure out like what made me

me and why I was reacting in ways I was reacting and why I was struggling.

And it wasn't until I went to school and studied under Dan Allender that I started to go,

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