How Do We Help Our Kids Cope With Crisis? | With Dr. Jamie Aten & Kent Annan

This summer, devastating floods struck Central Texas, leaving families, camps, and entire communities grieving and in shock. In response, the Echoes team hosted two live webinars to support parents, educators, and caregivers facing an urgent question: How do we help our kids cope with something like this?

In this season one finale, we share highlights from those gatherings—including two heartfelt conversations with trauma expert Dr. Jamie Aten. A seasoned psychologist and co-creator of Spiritual First Aid, Jamie has spent over 20 years responding to the world’s hardest disasters and has lived through personal trauma himself.

He’s joined in the second conversation by Kent Annan, host of the Better Samaritan Podcast, for an honest and hopeful dialogue about grief, parenting, and self-compassion. Together, they offer practical tools and spiritual insight for those walking children—and themselves—through fear, confusion, and loss.

Whether you're a parent, pastor, educator, or community leader, this conversation offers grace-filled wisdom for showing up with love, clarity, and resilience when it’s needed most.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Spiritual First Aid, co-created by Dr. Jamie Aten
• Philippians 4 and the Lord’s Prayer
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
• Letter-writing reflection exercise: “Who helped you through this crisis?”
• 1 Corinthians 16:13 – “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith…”
• The Better Samaritan Podcast from Christianity Today
• Additional mental health resources related to the podcast episode
• Full recordings of the webinars included in the podcast excerpt

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