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In today's episode, Write Your Story, Create Your Life with artist Brooklyn James, we explore what it takes to stop living inside a story someone else wrote and start telling the truth at a pace your nervous system can handle. Brooklyn James shares how writing and songwriting helped her metabolize childhood abuse, loosen shame, and rebuild vulnerability in safe relationships.
• why untold stories get heavier over time
• how expressive writing research supports healing and meaning-making
• affect labeling and why naming feelings calms the brain
• why music reaches emotion faster than sentences
• Brooklyn’s origin story behind The Boots My Mother Gave Me and its soundtrack
• using fiction and romance as a “carrot” to stay with hard truth
• hypervigilance, family roles, and the brutal choice to leave an abusive home
• how speaking about domestic violence and suicide prevention reduced shame
• learning to unlearn armor and practice micro-moments of vulnerability
• choosing your pace and picking the right audience for your story
• why pen to paper can process differently than typing
Show Guest: Brooklyn James
Brooklyn James is an author and singer-songwriter who loves nothing more than mixing books with music. Her first novel, The Boots My Mother Gave Me, follows strong-willed tomboy Harley LeBeau as she comes of age, leaves an abusive home, and learns to trust in love. There's a small town, a boy named Jeremiah Johnson who gives her a soft place to fall, and a Chevelle named Charlene. The book explores the courage to overcome, the strength in sisterhood, and the conflict and unconditional love between mothers and daughters. It also comes with an original soundtrack.
Out of that book grew a platform, and Brooklyn has served as a guest speaker focused on awareness and prevention of domestic violence and suicide.
Her birth memoir, Born in the Bed You Were Made: One Family's Journey from Cesarean to Home Birth, led her to speak about accessibility, rights, and choice in birth. She also teaches writing workshops that help people put their own birth stories on paper.
These days she's making music with her longtime friend, cowriter, and producer Eric McKinney of Wonderland Studios ATX. They met back in 2010 when he produced the soundtrack for Boots, and they've kept a standing date ever since: Sunday Songwriting Sessions. As the duo McKinney James, they've been releasing singles like I Don't Care, One Of Them Boys, Hits Me, Crazy Like, and Up In Flames. By her own account they've written a ton of okay songs and a few rather good ones, which might be the most honest description of creative work I've ever heard.
And because one career is apparently not enough, she moonlights in voice-over and film. She played a paramedic in a Weezer video. She met Harry Connick Jr. as an extra on When Angels Sing. She appeared in Richard Linklater's Boyhood for, in her words, all of a nanosecond. And she was a stand-in and stunt double for Mira Sorvino on a Jerry Bruckheimer pilot.
She holds a master's in Communication and bachelor's degrees in both Nursing and Animal Science. So she can write the song, check your vitals, and probably deliver a calf.
But what she finds most thrilling is being a mother to two illuminating little souls and a wife to the one big soul they get their light from. She says he's the hero in all her stories.
Brooklyn fits this topic because she doesn't just tell her own story. She helps other people find the words for theirs.
You can connect with Brooklyn at: www.brooklyn-james.com, on Instagram @brooklynjamesauthor, and you can buy her books on Amazon, The Boots My Mother Gave Me .
Support the show
Couch Time with Cat isn’t therapy—it’s real conversation designed to support your journey alongside any personal or professional help you're receiving. If you're in emotional crisis or need immediate support, please get in touch with a professional or reach out to a 24/7 helpline like:
- US: 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline)
- UK: Samaritans at 116 123
- Australia: Lifeline at 13 11 14
- Or find local resources through findahelpline.com
You’re not alone. Let’s take this one honest conversation at a time.
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Show hosted by:
Catia Hernandez Holm, LMFT-A
Supervised by Susan Gonzales, LMFT-S, LPC-S
You can connect with Catia at couchtimewithcat.com
and
To become a client visit- catiaholm.com
