Brooke Osborn, associate professor of psychology and counseling, is serving on the advisory committee for the Southern Baptist Convention’s “Fortify Initiative,” a training program designed to help churches prevent and respond to abuse.
The Fortify Initiative was officially launched this June at the SBC Annual Meeting. The initiative is led by the SBC Executive Committee after the entity voted to establish an internal department dedicated to helping churches with abuse prevention and response in 2024.
The initiative primarily works with local Baptist associations to provide resources and put on events that help train local churches
Osborn serves on Fortify’s advisory committee, made up multiple members from various professional backgrounds. She has helped the group prepare resources and served as a presenter at these events around the country.
Osborn's research and professional experience have focused on crisis and trauma counseling, specifically the impact of trauma on the brain and learning. She is the co-author of Counseling through the Storm: A Guide to Treating Crisis and Trauma.
In her experience as a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family counselor, she has worked with people of all age groups who have experienced various examples of trauma.
This background in trauma and crisis counseling has made her a perfect fit for the mission of Fortify.
“I think a lot of the things I have done in my career have prepared me for the roles that I have now,” Osborn said.
“I’m glad to play a part in helping our convention of churches in this way, and I’m thankful that leaders in our churches are really wanting to address this.”
Osborn said she was recruited to be a part of the committee by Jeff Dalrymple, who oversees Fortify in his role as director of abuse prevention and response for the SBC Executive Committee.
Osborn explained several people around the country recommended her to Dalrymple.
One person even told Dalrymple that if he could not get Osborn for the committee, he should make sure to get someone from the counseling program at NOBTS.
Osborn emphasized that a crucial element of the counseling program at NOBTS is the combination of teaching students several different evidence-based models of trauma counseling while training them to be strong in their Christian faith.
Specifically in the context of New Orleans, Osborn said this trauma training has proved effective.
In a city where people may have experienced various examples of trauma, students in the NOBTS counseling center have been able to serve the community through the seminary’s Leeke Magee Christian Counseling Center and other local organizations.
Osborn said serving on this committee is simply another avenue to help prepare people to minister to those in crisis.
“I think our counseling program does a really good job preparing students to handle trauma,” Osborn said. “Our counseling center and our counseling program have really been able to pour back into our city because of this.
“As a seminary, we are a place that is sending people out into ministry, so we want to make sure they are as prepared as they can be to safeguard the people that are going to be entrusted to them in their churches. I am proud to represent the seminary on a committee like this.”
Among the age groups Osborn has counseled through trauma are children and teenagers, even though she never pictured herself doing that.
“When I came to the seminary, I knew I wanted to help people but I wasn’t sure what that looked like,” Osborn said. “I started taking more counseling classes and that could be the avenue for me, and I narrowed my focus to trauma over time.
“I never really had a specific desire to counsel children and adolescents, but I kind of had to just figure it out because they kept sending them my way. It ended up being something that I really liked.
“There may be some people in our churches who do not understand certain things related to trauma, but I have to remember that if I did not work in this field, I might struggle to understand those things as well. I want to be very patient as people are learning about these important topics and walk with them.”
Osborn came to the NOBTS as a student in 2008 and came on faculty in 2016.
Ten years later, Osborn is representing the seminary’s counseling program in a national capacity through Fortify’s executive committee.
Osborn is helping Fortify plan one of their events at NOBTS next year, and said she wants to make sure students, alumni and friends of the seminary are the most prepared they can be regarding topics of abuse.
“I’m hoping that the more we as Southern Baptists are addressing abuse, the more people feel prepared if it were to happen, or feel prepared to prevent it from happening,” Osborn said. “We want to help equip people to handle these things and set things up at their church in such a way that can reduce the possibility of abuse happening. That’s the primary way that the seminary is playing a part in this.
“Additionally, I don’t want us as a seminary to be sending people out when they graduate and that is kind of the end of it. I would like there to be an on-going relationship with the alumni that we have sent out. I want them to feel like they can come back and get some of this training and we are continuing to try to equip them and encourage them on the journey of ministry.”
