Christian singer-songwriter Katy Nichole said her latest album “Honest Conversations” was inspired by a season of deep spiritual questioning, mental health challenges, and learning to bring every emotion honestly before God.
Winner of the 2023 Dove Award for New Artist of the Year, Nichole spoke candidly with ChurchLeaders about anxiety, OCD and depression, emphasizing the importance of spiritual healing alongside professional mental health care, and challenged harmful church stigmas surrounding medication and therapy.
Nichole also received the award for Worship Song of the Year at the K-LOVE Fan Awards in 2022 for her song “In Jesus Name (God of Possible).”
The 25-year-old singer shared how surrender, community and honest dialogue have shaped her healing journey, ultimately pointing listeners to hope, grace and the reminder that it is “okay to not be okay sometimes.”
While writing her song “When I Fall,” Nichole said that was the first time she realized she could actually have honest conversations with God.
The Turning Point in Katy Nichole’s Relationship With God
“When I was writing that song, it was kind of the first time that I realized I can have really honest conversations with the Lord,” she said. “I don’t know why, but for so long, I was so scared that I couldn’t bring my anger and my frustration and my doubts and my questions because I thought that God would not want that. I thought that He was only wanting my joy and my praise. And I think I believed that lie for so long that I just never talked about anything.”
“I was sitting at my piano, and I was crying, and I said, ‘God, I’m tired of trying to be okay. I’m tired of pretending I’m fine. I’m not fine. And my heart is broken. I’m sad. I am hurting,’” Nichole continued. “I was going through a lot of chronic pain at the time and so I was just being so upfront because I just didn’t have another choice. And I did feel a lot of peace in that moment to just say what I needed to say.”
That was a turning point in Nichole’s relationship with God, she shared.
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“I realized God doesn’t want just half of me—half of me is the joy and the happiness and the wonderful things, Nichole added. “But then on the flip side, I’m a human being who experiences the range of emotions that we have in this life. Anger, frustration, questions—those are still things that the Lord wants me to bring to Him and to surrender to Him because I can’t handle those things on my own.”
