about the author
about
Linda J Macdonald
Linda J. MacDonald, M.S., is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Washington with more than 33 years of clinical experience specializing in the treatment and recovery of infidelity trauma. Throughout her distinguished career, she has worked extensively with couples and individuals navigating the devastating emotional, relational, and spiritual consequences of betrayal.
Linda’s professional life has been devoted to helping marriages heal after affairs whenever reconciliation is possible. When it is not, she has remained equally committed to guiding betrayed spouses through the difficult and deeply personal journey of recovery, helping them regain stability, meaning, and hope.
To support unfaithful partners who are genuinely committed to repairing their marriages, Linda authored the internationally acclaimed book How to Help Your Spouse Heal from Your Affair: A Compact Manual for the Unfaithful. The book has sold over 140,000 copies worldwide and earned more than 2,600 positive reviews, establishing it as one of the most trusted and influential resources in the field of infidelity recovery.
Her most recent work, Redeeming the Post-Affair Divorce: Heal Your Life, Restore Your Faith When Infidelity Breaks Up Your Marriage, addresses a population often overlooked, those whose marriages do not survive infidelity. Integrating clinical expertise, spiritual insight, and psychological understanding, Linda weaves together true stories, including her own, with practical guidance to support healing when recovery must occur outside the marriage.
Beyond her writing, Linda is a sought-after workshop leader and small-group facilitator. She is also the creator of the powerful one-act psychotherapeutic play Broken Heart, which has reached an estimated 3.5 million viewers worldwide and is now available on Amazon. Over the years, she has co-founded three Christian counseling centers, collaborating with other spiritually sensitive therapists to provide effective, ethical care. She has since retired from her counseling practice in 2021 to write.
Linda earned her Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University and has continued to expand her expertise through extensive advanced training in trauma-informed treatment, particularly in the area of betrayal trauma and relationship-related PTSD.
Personal Journey
Linda’s passion for healing broken relationships was shaped early in life. She grew up in a home impacted by alcoholism, an experience she describes as competing with her father’s devotion to his family. Although her parents loved one another and remained married, her father’s addiction took a devastating toll on his health and ultimately led to his death at the age of 54. Witnessing how an outside force could quietly erode a loving marriage planted the seed for her lifelong commitment to helping couples repair relational wounds.
Midway through her professional career, while remodeling their family home, Linda faced a crisis she never anticipated: her own husband fell in love with a colleague. After two years of painful effort, the marriage ended in divorce. The experience left Linda devastated—questioning her future, her faith, and even her professional identity.
Yet out of that profound loss came transformation.
Her personal journey deepened her resolve to help couples save their marriages when possible, sharpened her awareness of how poorly betrayal trauma was understood within the therapeutic community at the time, and led her to pursue training that integrates spiritual healing with trauma-informed therapy. Most significantly, it gave her firsthand compassion for those who are both betrayed and abandoned—a pain she came to understand not only clinically, but personally.
During that season, Linda’s faith became her lifeline. One verse sustained her through the darkest moments:
“You are my servant. I have chosen you and will not throw you away.” (Isaiah 41:9, NLT)
This renewed spiritual foundation ultimately shaped the heart of her work.
Now retired from clinical practice, Linda continues to write, teach, and mentor. Her focus remains on individuals and couples impacted by heart-based affairs, while referring cases involving sexual compulsivity to appropriately trained specialists. She is currently preparing the companion workbook to Redeeming the Post-Affair Divorce, inspired by the small-group and faith-based practices that were central to her own healing.
In her personal life, Linda enjoys long walks with Dan, her husband of twenty-one years, time with their eight grandchildren, hiking and camping near Mount Rainier, and meaningful conversations over coffee. She has a love for home design, thoughtful reading, and theological discussions with her recently retired pastor husband.
Readers and listeners can stay connected with Linda’s ongoing work, podcasts, and future publications by subscribing to her occasional newsletter through the Contact page