🎙 Permanent
Season 24: Lost & Found | Guest: Dean Sikes
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses childhood sexual abuse, trauma, suicide, suicidal thoughts, and emotional pain.
Sixty seconds can feel permanent.
At 15 years old, Dean Sikes experienced sexual abuse. In the aftermath, he made himself a promise: he would never tell anyone what happened.
He kept that secret for 22 years.
The abuse was over in a moment.
The silence lasted decades.
Then an unexpected encounter with the person who abused him brought everything Dean had buried back to the surface.
Season 24 of Other People’s Shoes, Lost & Found, explores what happens when people lose something deeper than possessions—identity, purpose, hope, direction, faith, or the life they thought they would have—and what they discover as they find a new way forward.
For Dean, finding his way forward meant confronting something he had spent years trying not to face: what happened to him could not be changed, but it did not have to control the rest of his story.
Today, Dean has spent more than three decades carrying a message of hope to young people around the world:
You matter.
But what happens when pain has been with you for so long that it begins to feel permanent?
And can healing change what something means without changing what happened?
Welcome to “Permanent.”
🧭 GUEST INTRODUCTION
Dean Sikes is an author, speaker, and longtime advocate for young people who feel unseen, unheard, or without hope.
Since 1993, Dean has spoken at thousands of events in schools, churches, Teen Challenge centers, prisons, and communities around the world, sharing the You Matter message with millions of people.
His work centers on helping young people understand their value, confront hopelessness, discover purpose, and recognize that the painful chapters of their lives do not have to become the final chapters.
Dean's message comes from more than three decades of ministry—but it also comes from his own experience with trauma, secrecy, shame, forgiveness, and healing.
🧭 EPISODE DETAILS
In “Permanent,” Neil and Dean explore:
🕰️ How an experience lasting only moments affected Dean for decades
🤐 Why Dean decided at 15 that he would never tell anyone about the abuse
🎭 What happens when we become skilled at hiding pain while appearing okay to everyone around us
🏠 The unexpected encounter with his abuser 22 years later that forced Dean to confront what he had buried
🧠 Why emotions we refuse to deal with can eventually begin dealing with us
🗣️ The importance of bringing hidden pain into the light instead of carrying it alone
🙏 The role Dean's faith played in his journey toward healing
🔓 Why forgiveness became connected to freedom without pretending that what happened was acceptable
❤️ Why Dean has dedicated his life to reminding young people that they matter
🌱 How something that shaped your story does not have to permanently define your identity
And underneath the entire conversation is a question that sits right at the heart of Lost & Found:
What if the thing you thought would mark you forever doesn't get the final word?
🧭 MEMORABLE QUOTE
“You matter.”
Two simple words.
But for someone who feels invisible, ashamed, hopeless, or convinced that their story has already been written, they can mean everything.
🧭 CONNECT WITH DEAN SIKES
🌐 Dean Sikes / You Matter (https://deansikes.net/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | 🩵 You Matter (https://www.youmatter.us/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | 🎧 The YouMatter Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-youmatter-podcast/id1735988223?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Learn more about Dean's speaking, books, resources, and the You Matter mission to bring hope to young people and help eradicate hopelessness.
Thank you, Dean, for trusting us with your story and for reminding people that what happened to them does not have to be where their story ends.
🧭 LISTEN & FOLLOW OTHER PEOPLE’S SHOES
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🧭 LEAVE US A REVIEW
If “Permanent” made you think about something you have carried, something you have kept hidden, or the possibility that your past does not have to permanently define your future, we'd love to hear from you.
📝 Leave a Review (https://www.opspodcast.com/reviews/new/)
Thank you for walking in Other People's Shoes. 👟🩵