John’s Short Bio

John Thurman is not your typical counselor, he’s a licensed counselor, work-life coach, and Christian non-fiction author and speaker specializing in faith-based, resiliency-centered counseling. With over 50 years’ experience and service as a critical event counselor in 280+ incidents and multiple national disasters, he helps individuals and couples bounce back from adversity by blending Scripture with evidence-based techniques to build inner strength, healthy relationships, and lasting resilience

John’s  Journey

John Thurman grew up in Fort Valley, Georgia, where an early experience as a Boy Scout sparked a quiet conviction that would shape his life and work. In the 1960s, Troop 52 took part in a joint training exercise with the local volunteer fire department. The drill, a training event for the Fort Valley Volunteer Fire Department’s first responders, was staged at the local Boy Scout building. Volunteers moved among the Scouts, tagging “victims” with injuries and conditions, and the town’s rescuers treated the drill as a real event. As a Second-Class Scout, Thurman was assigned the role of a twenty-three-year-old pregnant woman. The moment he wore the tag, he was assessed and then loaded into the back of a pickup for the ride to the county hospital. The improvisation, calm competence, and the willingness of these local volunteers to show up left an imprint: preparation and the steady human presence of neighbors could turn confusion into care. Those impressions, born of a small-town training exercise, were the first seeds of a vocation committed to presence, readiness, and practical compassion.

Thurman’s journey was not a straightforward one. In high school, he faced academic hurdles and even encountered skepticism from an English teacher who doubted his future in writing. Instead of succumbing to this judgment, he persevered. He pursued higher education and eventually earned two master’s degrees. The tension between early academic doubt and later scholastic achievement helped shape the humility and practical tone that would mark his ministry and counseling style. Thurman’s approach is more akin to a conversation—honest, warm, and immediately usable, a testament to his resilience and determination.

Those formative choices led him into roles that blended faith, counseling, and crisis response. He trained as an Army Reserve Chaplain and served twenty-two years in the Reserve, including ministry work at the U.S. Army’s Burn Unit. Chaplaincy strengthened his capacity to serve people under stress and to offer pastoral care in structured, often high-stakes environments. Serving in the Burn Unit, he learned to sit with acute physical suffering and complex family dynamics, bringing spiritual presence into clinical medical settings. Chaplaincy refined his ability to hold space for grief, offer spiritual resources that are comforting and actionable, and operate within multidisciplinary teams—skills that would prove indispensable as his work expanded into critical event response.

Over the course of more than five decades, Thurman accumulated over 70,000 hours of clinical counseling—time spent across various offices, crisis sites, church offices, and community centers. He became a licensed mental health professional whose caseload included individuals grappling with depression and anxiety, couples seeking to strengthen fragile relationships, and families trying to navigate loss. These clinical hours were not abstract; they were filled with real people carrying real pain: a parent stunned by grief, a couple at a crossroads, a young adult wrestling with despair. Thurman’s practice emphasized both clinical rigor and pastoral care, integrating evidence-based therapeutic techniques with faith-based resources—Scripture, prayer, and spiritual disciplines—so that clients received help that addressed both mind and soul.

Thurman’s expertise in crisis response evolved naturally from both his background in chaplaincy and his clinical work. He became a Critical Event Mental Health Provider. This role requires rapid assessment, triage of psychological needs, and immediate interventions to stabilize individuals and organizations after traumatic incidents. Over the past twenty years, this focus intensified. Thurman has responded to mass shootings, natural disasters, workplace tragedies, suicides, and other disruptive events—more than 280 critical incidents in total. Each event required a blend of clinical skill, pastoral presence, and practical coordination: establishing safety, providing short-term interventions to mitigate acute stress, advising leaders on continuity and communication, and connecting survivors to ongoing resources.

What sets Thurman apart in these settings is the consistent thread that began in Fort Valley: a belief in the power of human presence and practical preparation. In chaotic moments, he brings steadying practices, clear assessment, calm language, and small actionable steps that help teams and communities move from disorientation to organized care. His practical approach reassures teams and communities that he can provide immediate solutions in times of crisis.

His personal journey has constantly deepened Thurman’s professional competence. In 1986, his brother was killed in an automobile accident. This event eventually opened up a trajectory of grief in his life. Years later, a separate traumatic event, an unsuccessful resuscitation attempt of someone who had suffered a pulmonary embolism, reawakened traumatic responses. Those experiences triggered symptoms consistent with depression and post-traumatic stress: insomnia, hypervigilance, avoidance, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks. Rather than hide from those struggles, Thurman engaged them directly. He pursued help, including short-term medication, leaned on peer support from fellow clinicians, and grounded his recovery in disciplined study of Scripture and sustained prayer. His proactive approach to recovery empowers others to take personal responsibility for their healing process.

Those lived experiences changed how Thurman counseled others. He could not simply recite therapeutic techniques; he had walked through darkness and tested the tools he recommended. That authenticity matters to clients and colleagues: it shows that the strategies he teaches are not merely theoretical but have been applied in his own life. He speaks about recovery with the authority of someone who has navigated the same storms, offering both clinical insight and pastoral encouragement.

Thurman’s marriage has been another arena for applied learning. He and his wife have been married for fifty-three years, and their relationship has been cultivated through resilience-based, biblically grounded principles. They have used those principles during seasons of conflict, loss, and everyday strain—testing, refining, and demonstrating that long-term relational health is both possible and practical. Their marriage serves as both a testament to the values Thurman teaches and as a laboratory where faith-integrated relationship practices are practiced and refined over time.

Writing became a natural extension of Thurman’s desire to make these hard-earned lessons accessible and understandable. Despite early discouragement from a high school teacher and the setback of a rejected manuscript, he persevered. He found encouragement in writing groups and fellow authors who helped him hone his voice. His books, blog posts, and podcast episodes are intentionally practical; they avoid clinical or theological obscurity and instead translate principles into actionable steps that people can take in their daily lives. The goal is transformation—helping readers move from a narrative of victimhood to one of intentional living and spiritual resilience. He writes with the conviction that truth must be both credible and usable: the reader should be able to read a chapter and walk away with a small, tangible practice to implement immediately.

Beyond words, Thurman expresses his attentiveness to people through photography. He pursues environmental portraiture, a style that captures subjects in their natural contexts—at work, at home, or within community spaces. His photographs focus on authenticity rather than polished poses; he aims to reveal the ordinary dignity and beauty of everyday life. This visual work complements his counseling and writing: it is another way of affirming that ordinary people possess remarkable courage and worth.

Thurman’s work and insights have reached broader audiences through media and speaking engagements. His contributions have been featured on platforms such as Focus on the Family, Inspiration.com, and Today’s Christian Woman. He has developed curricula and presented at conferences, translating his field experience into training that empowers others to respond to crises with competence and compassion. Organizations have relied on his consultation not merely for theoretical frameworks but for pragmatic steps that leaders can implement immediately.

Across the decades, one theme remains constant: Thurman teaches what he has lived. The lessons that began with a community disaster drill in a small Georgia town have been put to the test in counseling rooms, at disaster sites, and on quiet nights when grief demands attention. He brings a blend of professional expertise, pastoral warmth, and personal integrity to each encounter. He prefers straightforward language over technical jargon, believing that the best help is accessible and practical. His faith is not abstract theology but a tested resource that informs both his emotional resilience and his guidance to others.

John Thurman’s life is a map of service: early lessons in community response, formal education and military chaplaincy training, twenty-two years of Army Reserve service including work at the U.S. Army’s Burn Unit, tens of thousands of clinical hours, hundreds of critical event responses, personal trials of grief and trauma, a long marriage shaped by tested principles, and a public voice that seeks to equip others. He has lived the realities he teaches—loss and recovery, crisis and care, doubt and perseverance. Whether he is sitting beside a grieving family, advising a school in crisis, teaching a classroom of emerging counselors, or writing a short devotion, his posture remains steady: presence before perfection, practical steps before platitudes, and faith integrated with professional care.

For those who encounter his work, including clients, readers, and community leaders, the value of Thurman’s approach lies in the combination of credibility and compassion. He does not promise quick fixes; instead, he offers disciplined practices, grounded hope, and the steadiness of someone who has traversed the valleys he describes. The throughline of his life is a simple yet powerful proposition: resilience is learned in community, strengthened by faith, and sustained through daily practices that turn hardship into growth. John Thurman’s biography is not a list of roles; it is a witness to a life spent helping others move from chaos to care, from despair to resilience, and from survival to a more intentional, hope-filled way of living.

John is active in his church and is involved in its Men’s Ministry, and is a Family Dynamics and Relationships Assessor for the Send Now Network.

John’s Lifetime Bible Verse is Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT): “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”