Nancy Guthrie teaches the Bible through numerous Bible study books, at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally. She offers companionship and biblical insight to the grieving through Respite Retreats that she and her husband, David, host for couples who have faced the death of child, through the GriefShare video series, and through books such as Holding on to Hope and Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow. She is also the host of the “Help Me Teach the Bible” podcast at The Gospel Coalition.
David Powlison serves as CCEF’s executive director, as a faculty member, and as senior editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He has served at CCEF for more than 35 years. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. David has written extensively on biblical counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology. His books include: Seeing with New Eyes; Speaking Truth in Love; The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context; Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness; How Does Sanctification Work?; Making All Things New; and God’s Grace in Your Suffering. David and Nan dearly love their three children, and the three spouses and six grandchildren who have joined the family.
Ed Welch, M.Div., Ph.D. is a counselor and faculty member at CCEF. He has served at CCEF for over 35 years. Ed earned a Ph.D. in counseling (neuropsychology) from the University of Utah and has a Master of Divinity degree from Biblical Theological Seminary. He has been counseling for over 30 years and has written many books and articles on biblical counseling, including When People Are Big and God Is Small; Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave; Blame It on the Brain?; Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness; Running Scared; Shame Interrupted; Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love; and A Small Book about a Big Problem: Meditations on Anger, Patience, and Peace. He and his wife, Sheri, have two married daughters and eight grandchildren. In his spare time, Ed enjoys spending time with his wife and extended family and playing his guitar.
Mike Emlet is a faculty member at CCEF and has served for more than 15 years. He holds an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MDiv degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. He worked as a family physician for over ten years before joining CCEF. Mike has counseled for many years and is the author of CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet, which explores the use of Scripture in counseling, as well as Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnoses and Medications. Mike is married to Jody, and they have two children. He is active in his urban church and enjoys gardening, camping, and creating wheel-thrown pottery.
Alasdair Groves directs CCEF New England and is a faculty member at CCEF where he has served for more than five years. He received his Master of Divinity in counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary. In addition to counseling for CCEF New England, Alasdair has served on the staff of several churches and has a background in campus ministry. He has written articles for the Journal of Biblical Counseling, and regularly teaches a variety of seminars around the New England region. Alasdair and his wife, Lauren, have three young children. Alasdair is a fiction enthusiast, plays ultimate frisbee, and loves to produce and enjoy both good food and good music.
Steve Midgley is the senior pastor of Christ Church, Cambridge and the Executive Director of Biblical Counselling UK, a new initiative to help promote biblical counselling in UK churches. He worked as a psychiatrist in London before leaving to serve full time in church ministry. He and his wife Beth have three children who, in different ways, are all at the ‘leaving home’ stage. Steve teaches biblical counselling at Oak Hill Theological College and leads a two year certificate course in Biblical Counselling offered jointly with CCEF. To relax, Steve enjoys a good row (that’s row as in river, not row as in argue).
Julie Lowe
Julie Lowe is a faculty member at CCEF where she has served for more than fifteen years. She holds an MA in counseling from Biblical Theological Seminary. She is a licensed professional counselor with over fifteen years of counseling experience. She has extensive experience with women’s issues, sexual abuse, body image issues, parenting, and child maltreatment issues, and regularly speaks at events on these topics. Julie is also a registered play therapist and has developed a play therapy office at CCEF to better serve families, teens and children. She is a trained facilitator for Stewards of Children, a non-profit organization that provides trainings on child sexual abuse. Julie has trained a therapy dog that she works with both professionally and on a volunteer basis. Julie and her husband, Greg, have five children and serve as foster and adoptive parents.
Cecelia Bernhardt
Cecelia Bernhardt is a faculty member at CCEF and the director of counseling ministries. She has served at CCEF for more than 10 years. Cecelia holds an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary and has earned the advanced counseling certificate through CCEF. She has worked in various Christian ministries for many years, including women’s ministries at her church. She enjoys her large family, reading, music, and flowers—live and in watercolor.
Todd Stryd
Todd Stryd serves as the Counseling Coordinator at CCEF. He holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Immaculata University, as well as an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education. His dissertation work explored the relationship between a reformed Christian narrative and the experience of schizophrenia. He has experience as a hospital chaplain, crisis worker, and university counselor. He is married with three children. He considers himself a coffee connoisseur, and fills his off days with reading Winnie the Pooh and making Lego creations.
Aaron Sironi
Aaron Sironi is a counselor at CCEF Montana and faculty member at CCEF. He holds an MS in marital and family therapy from Fuller Theological Seminary. Aaron is a licensed clinical professional counselor and has counseled in community mental health, psychiatric hospital, and outpatient settings. He has a passion for building strong relationships with local churches and loves to come alongside pastoral ministers through consultation, training, and counseling services. He lives in Big Sky Country and enjoys all of its outdoor activities with his wife, Kellie, their three energetic sons and two precious daughters.
Laura Andrews
Laura Andrews has a Master of Divinity degree in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Missouri. She has counseled at CCEF for close to a decade and has a passion for supporting and equipping ministry leaders and their families. She serves as an instructor and the manager of online instruction for CCEF’s School of Biblical Counseling. She and her husband, Joel, have two young children, Elijah and Eveleigh, and her hobbies include photography, gardening, singing, playing games with friends and listening to movie scores.
Darby Strickland
Darby Strickland has a Master of Divinity degree in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bio-psychology from the University of Chicago. She has been doing formal counseling for over a decade. In addition to serving as a missionary to Northern Ireland for two years, she has also supported the ministry of the church as a speaker at women’s retreats, Bible study teacher, and support group leader. While focused on marriage and family counseling, Darby has a special interest in working with abused and developmentally delayed children. She and her husband, John, have three young children. Her hobbies include photography, swimming, reading, and word games.
Michael Gembola
Michael Gembola is Executive Director of Blue Ridge Christian Counseling in Roanoke, VA, where he lives with his wife Kelly and their two sons, Adriano and Shane. Previously he served as a licensed professional counselor (PA) at CCEF and as a licensed preacher in the PCA.
Elizabeth “Libbie” Groves
Elizabeth “Libbie” Groves teaches Hebrew at Westminster Theological Seminary and English as a Second Language at her church. She is the author of Grief Undone: A Journey with God and Cancer as well as a mini-book Becoming a Widow: The Ache of Missing Your Other Half and has contributed to the ESV Women’s Devotional Bible, The Book of Esther in Modern Research, and other publications. She does one-woman dramatic recitations, and in her rare spare moments she loves to visit family, read, watch movies, and dabble in foreign languages. The only thing currently on her bucket list is learning Arabic. Libbie was widowed more than ten years ago and has four married children and five grandchildren.
Rev. Joe Novenson
Rev. Joe Novenson is the delighted husband of Barb, his high school sweetheart and the evangelist God most used to clarify the gospel to him unto his conversion in 1968. Married for 42 years, Joe and Barb have three children and four grandchildren. Joe has been a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America since his ordination in 1978 and has served congregations in Augusta, GA, Lexington, SC, and Lookout Mountain, TN.
Eliza Huie
Eliza Huie is the Executive Director at Life Counseling Center, a biblical counseling ministry in Ellicott City, Maryland. She has a master’s in counseling, advance certificates from CCEF, and holds a graduate license in counseling. She is the author of Raising Teens in a Hyper-Sexualized World and Raising Kids in a Screen-Saturated World and is a contributing writer for various biblical counseling blogs. In addition to writing, she serves as a council board member for the Biblical Counseling Coalition and is a member of the Association of Biblical Counselors. Her approach to counseling brings biblical truth in a way that is encouraging, practical, and personal. She and her husband Ken enjoy spending time as a family with their three young adult children.
Robyn Huck
Robyn Huck is a counselor, speaker, and writer at CCEF New England. Robyn enjoys leading Bible studies and has spoken at many conferences and retreats. She has a passion for connecting biblical truths and comforts to the challenges of life. Robyn and her husband Karl are parents to three grown children and have two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren! They enjoy big band music, fox trot and swing dancing, tandem bicycling, building crazy things (like tree houses), and playing with kids.
Janet Nygren
Janet Nygren has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a BA in Anthropology from Stanford University. She has many years of experience in ministry through the local church, particularly with women’s ministry and small groups. Besides completing the CCEF internship, she has counseled at a crisis pregnancy center, and through referrals by local pastors, both in the US and in Malaysia, where she served for a number of years with her husband, Tom. She is the mother of two adult children, whom she loves to visit. She also loves learning about other cultures (and their food), enjoying the outdoors, watching movies, and playing Scrabble.