A Guest Post by Kaitlin Niles
You’re reading Part 7 in a blog mini-series of guest posts by biblical counselors who attended the 2025 Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) Called to Counsel Conference. On Facebook and X/Twitter, I put out this call:
Did you attend the ABC Called to Counsel Conference? Would you like to share a public testimony that I could post at RPM Ministries?
- Dr. Tim Allchin crafted the first post: Similarities and Differences Between the ABC and the ACBC Conferences.
- The second post was by ACBC Certified biblical counselor Sarah Puebla: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Christ-Centered Truth for Life.
- Rusty Dawson’s post was next, #3: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Speaking the Truth in Love.
- Brooke Shepherd wrote the fourth post: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Grace and Truth.
- Dan Brewer was up next with #5: The 2025 ACBC Called to Counseling Conference: What Is All the Fuss About?
- Our sixth post was by Chris Moles: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: What Is Unique About ABC?
Meet Kaitlin
Today’s post is by Kaitlin Niles. Kaitlin holds a Master of Applied Theology in Biblical
Counseling from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a certified biblical counselor with the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC), and is a Certified Christian Trauma Care Provider (Level 2) through the Christian Trauma Healing Network (CTHN). She has several years of experience providing Christ-centered care to women and teenage girls, particularly in the areas of trauma, shame, anxiety, and harmful coping behaviors. Kaitlin is the owner and operator of Grace Upon Grace Biblical Counseling, a gospel-rooted counseling ministry based in Oklahoma City that serves clients both locally and virtually. In addition to her counseling work, Kaitlin teaches regularly in her local church and is passionate about equipping the body of Christ to connect the truth of God’s Word to the way they live. She has a particular love for helping others engage with biblical lament as a means of honest, hopeful communion with God. Kaitlin has been joyfully married to her best friend, Landon, since September 2022.
Weary
This was the first time I had ever experienced a conference with ABC, so I was totally unsure of what to expect. To be honest, my heart was so heavy and conflicted before attending due to recent stress, burnout, and time within the dark trenches of hard counseling cases. I had heard nothing but good things about Called to Counsel, but I went with uncertainties and a certain guardedness.
The recent turmoil within the biblical counseling community was also a factor to the state I was in. I didn’t want to enter into a space where conflicts and disagreements would disrupt my heart further.
Ministered To
I am so happy to say that this conference ministered to my own weary heart, and truly confirmed a personal call to the heavenly burden of biblical counseling. There was something to say about the atmosphere there, especially within the main plenary sessions. All of our voices joining together as we sang praise and worship to the Lord seemed to have brought some of heaven down to earth.
I can recall many emotional moments in those times of worship as I reflected on our commitment to bring the gospel to hurting people, and as we lifted our voices in union, I caught a glimpse of the heart in Revelation 4:10-11. It remained clear to me that our group was casting our crowns before the Lord, knowing the only He is worthy and that we must offer our counselees something better than the world can.
Equipped to Counsel
I truly appreciated ABC’s format in their track options, in that you could pick from an array of subjects and have focused time on that in breakouts. I personally had been wrestling with feeling inadequate and inept as a certified biblical counselor rather than a licensed mental health professional, and the track titled ‘Mental Health: Biblically Unpacking Diagnoses’ struck me.
I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to hear from this track originally, but ultimately, I left this specific track completely floored in the best way possible. We had theologians, mental health professionals, and other biblical counselors all saying the same thing:
Our counselee’s only hope is found and anchored in Christ, no matter what diagnosis they face.
The interactions and biblical critiques of the DSM ignited my soul and reminded me how our counseling can remain gospel-centered and yet aware of the complexities of the body and mind. One of my personal favorite quotes from the breakouts was by Dr. Nate Brooks as he passionately exhorted:
“I treat people, not codes.”
Final Thoughts
Overall, I could not comprehend just how encouraging and renewing it was to be in a place with other biblical counselors who believe that the gospel really changes everything. It was a place where we could come together, despite differing roles and titles, to be unified in our unwavering commitment to bring the transforming power of Christ to a world that is sold on surface-based, humanistic, and shallow methodology.
