An Enterprise ensign mourning the death of her husband, whose counselling sessions with Deanna Troi in The Loss show that Troi can still help without her empathic sense.
Janet Brooks is an ensign aboard the Enterprise in 2367. She appears in the fourth-season episode The Loss as one of Deanna Troi's patients, some months after the death of her husband.
In their first session Brooks insists she is coping well, and Troi senses the grief underneath. Soon afterwards the ship is trapped by a swarm of two-dimensional life forms and Troi's empathic ability disappears. When Brooks returns, bright and seemingly recovered, Troi cannot feel what lies behind the words and doubts her own judgement.
Relying on training and observation, Troi challenges her all the same, and Brooks finally breaks down and begins to grieve. The outcome later helps Troi see that her skill as a counsellor never depended only on her gift.