We all carry names we struggle to say out loud.

Some names still sting.
Some names still echo.
Some names still have the power to change our mood the second we hear them.

And sometimes…
the hardest part isn’t what they did.

It’s what their actions made us believe about ourselves.

Do me a favor…

Close your eyes right now.
(Only if you’re somewhere safe.)

Think of a name.

A person whose name still brings anger…
hurt…
frustration…
sadness.

Maybe hearing their name still makes your stomach turn.
Maybe seeing it written on paper would bring all those feelings rushing back.
Maybe there’s even a celebrity who shares that same name…
and you can’t stand them either.

Now open your eyes.

That person isn’t standing in front of you.
They aren’t texting you.
They aren’t calling you.

But they still live somewhere inside your story.

And this week’s guest knows exactly what that feels like.

Brooke Van Doren knows what it feels like when betrayal detonates your world overnight.

After discovering her husband’s affair, Brooke found herself spiraling through heartbreak, confusion, anger, and childhood wounds she didn’t even realize were still shaping her life.

Therapy became more than survival.

It became a mirror.

A place where she was forced to confront trauma, grief, behavioral patterns, accountability, and the parts of herself she had spent years trying to outrun.

Now a therapist-in-training, speaker, author, and founder of Messy Healing, Brooke helps others navigate betrayal, anxiety, emotional overwhelm, and healing without shame or judgment.

Because healing isn’t neat.
It isn’t polished.
And it definitely isn’t linear.

Sometimes the mess is exactly where the truth begins.

💔 Can a marriage survive infidelity?

🧠 How imagination can become its own form of torture

🪞 The painful connection between betrayal and childhood wounds

🌱 Why healing starts with radical honesty

📓 How journaling became part of Brooke’s recovery process

😔 The emotional weight of feeling “unloveable”

❤️ What forgiveness actually looks like in real life

👣 Learning how to sit with pain instead of running from it

Could you heal after discovering your spouse was unfaithful?

What would you do if you found photos of your spouse with someone else?

How often does your imagination make the pain worse?

Is there something you could never forgive in a marriage?

Through her platform “Messy Healing,” Brooke creates tools and conversations centered around emotional healing, therapy, accountability, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

Her Therapy Companion Journals were created from her own personal need to process emotions between therapy sessions — helping people identify triggers, emotional patterns, anxiety responses, and ways to better communicate and care for themselves.

Brooke believes healing continues outside the therapist’s office…
and sometimes writing things down helps us finally connect the dots.

🌐 Website: Messy Healing
📸 Instagram: @messyhealing

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👍 Facebook

🐦 X (Twitter)

▶️ YouTube

🌐 Website

If this episode challenged you, made you uncomfortable, or helped you feel a little less alone…

Please share it.

And if Other People’s Shoes has impacted you in some way, consider leaving a review. Your words help more people step into stories that might change the way they see others… and themselves.