Brooke Van Doren

Have you ever been to therapy and felt like you needed to talk about something your words couldn't quite reach? Like what you needed to process was stuck so deep you feared you'd never get past it — let alone understand it? Me too.

I know what it's like to be afraid of giving yourself permission to feel your own emotions. To worry that the pain inside is too big to navigate. To not even know where to start, and to wonder if healing is even possible. I also know what it's like to look like you have it together on the outside while quietly carrying something heavy on the inside — because that's exactly the kind of person I work with most.

Many of my clients are high-functioning. They show up for everyone else. They manage, they cope, they push through. But underneath the surface, their system is exhausted — and they're starting to wonder why nothing they've tried has actually helped them rest. That's where I come in.

My deepest area of focus is anxiety and nervous system work. I believe most of what keeps us stuck isn't a thinking issue — it's the body doing exactly what it learned to do to keep you safe. When we've lived braced for a long time, thinking our way out doesn't work. What does work is slowing down, getting curious, and gently creating space for your system to learn that it's safe to settle. Clients who've done this work often tell me the thing that surprised them most wasn't feeling calmer — it was finally understanding themselves for the first time.

I'm a Marriage and Family Therapist in training, currently working under supervision while completing my graduate degree — and I bring more than clinical knowledge to this work. I draw from Internal Family Systems (IFS), Brainspotting, somatic awareness, and Gottman Method principles, with dedicated training in each. I also bring years of lived experience that shape how I show up in the room: present, real, and deeply human.

My approach is warm, collaborative, and attuned. I'm not the blank-slate type — I show up as a full person and invite you to do the same. In our sessions, you can expect grounding practices, parts work, gentle somatic exploration, and a pace that honors where you actually are. I work with adults both in person and via telehealth.

Outside of sessions, you'll find me writing memoir, tending to my (many) houseplants, baking sourdough, and building Messy Healing — my future private practice and community-centered therapy space. I've also published six journals, including three therapy companion journals, a parts mapping journal rooted in IFS, and two blank journals. They were born out of my own healing journey — tools I created because they were literally what helped me get through week to week when progress was hard to see. You can explore them and learn more about my work at www.messyhealing.com.

My work is rooted in the belief that healing doesn't have to be perfect to be powerful.

If something in this resonated with you, I'd be honored to walk alongside you. Healing is messy — but you don't have to do it alone.