Julie Kirchner spends her days doing something not everyone can do. She sits beside children who feel too much, listens to their wobbliest words, and helps them name the big feelings bouncing around inside. She is a marriage and family therapist and a registered play therapist. But really, she is someone who believes that every tear and every quiet fidget tells a story worth hearing.
Julie has worked with young people for years. She has seen the child who hides under a desk. The one who screams when no one understands. The one who whispers, "Something is wrong with me." And she has watched those same children bloom when someone finally says, "Your feelings belong here."
That is why she wrote this book. Julie wanted to give sensitive children a hero who looks like them. Not a loud, sword-swinging hero. A quiet, weeping, trembling hero named Bran. A gnome who turns his so-called weakness into the very thing that saves his forest.
When Julie is not writing or seeing clients, you can find her wandering real woods. She talks to mushrooms. She listens to crows. She pays attention to the small, tender moments most people rush past. She believes that a gentle story can do what a lecture never will. It can sneak past a child's guard and plant something healing there.
Julie lives with her family and continues to champion emotional wellness one page, one session, one quiet forest walk at a time. She hopes Bran finds a home in your child's heart.
Bran the Heartwise is a gentle and lyrical children’s story about a sensitive gnome who feels the world deeply. While others see his emotions as a burden, Bran discovers that his ability to feel is a powerful gift. When the ancient Heartroot Tree begins to wither starved of the forest’s unspoken feelings
