Teens and Suicide (Lowe) CCEP

Description

Many teenagers are not navigating adolescence successfully. Often, even though they have material things, the latest electronics, and spending money, they can be stressed, unhappy, and feel directionless. For an increasing number of teenagers, their struggle to manage pressures and expectations leads them to consider suicide as their only means of escape.

Family and children’s counselor Julie Lowe takes a look at some of the reasons teenagers are increasingly vulnerable to suicide and what factors lead to it. She offers helpful advice for all those who work with teenagers to recognize suicide warning signs and shares ways to guard against hopelessness and help them find reasons to live. 

Loving, trustworthy adults (parents, mentors, youth workers, and friends) need to establish solid relationships with teenagers that will serve as the basis for the direction and instruction that they still acutely need. Teenagers long to be known and accepted.

Giving them a solid foundation that they are known and loved by God, as well as displaying care, sacrificial giving, genuine compassion, faith in Christ, and being there for them builds a foundation that will not be easily shaken and will provide a lifeline to teens who are struggling.

Author

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 minibooks Helping Your Anxious Child and Teens and Suicide. Julie and her husband, Greg, have six children and serve as foster and adoptive parents.

Endorsements

“New Growth Press minibooks are my number one go-to in my counseling ministry with soldiers as an Army chaplain. I keep a display of a couple dozen outside my office, which are widely read by soldiers. On a daily basis, the practical topics meet service members right where they're at. Most soldiers will read counsel from a biblical perspective if it addresses their current struggles, which these minibooks do so well. NGP minibooks address the struggles well and provide gospel answers and hope! Thank you for making them available!” 
CH (CPT) Brent Sadler, Chaplain, US Army

“New Growth Press minibooks are a solidly biblical and practical ministry tool enabling you to give biblical counsel in a readable format to people in a variety of settings and can extend your ability to biblically counsel in places and people you cannot go or reach otherwise. I really appreciate how in about thirty pages they confront the problem and give biblical solutions and practical strategies for change. Also, having them available in easy-to-see wall racks within easy reach of our traffic makes them very easy to utilize. I highly recommend these excellent resources in helping people find biblical answers to their life problems, enabling them to find and grow to be like Christ.”
Daniel Hartwig, Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Dysart, IA

“Our church has been using the minibooks by New Growth Press for many years, and we have almost every title produced. In our church’s counseling ministry, the clear, concise, and gospel-centered message of these minibooks has proven to be a useful tool for our counselors to help to bring about true heart change with their counselees. We also have them prominently displayed in our lobby for our church family to pick up and take with them at any time. One of the most attractive aspects of these minibooks is that they are ideal for people who don’t want to take the time to read an entire book but still want to get practical and sound biblical guidance on a particular area of struggle. We also find these resources particularly helpful for those who may be reluctant to ask for help on a topic that may be of a sensitive nature. We are grateful for these minibooks and how God is using them in the lives of so many in our church family.”
Kris Hemphill, SoulCare Supervisor