In this episode, Steve sits down with artist Nerissa Balland, who also happens to be his niece, for one of the most honest and tender conversations you'll hear on this podcast.

Nerissa opens up about her path from being a kid who loved to create, to working in the corporate art world, to receiving a cancer diagnosis while pregnant that changed everything. She talks about how for years, survival and achievement drove her choices and how illness forced her to slow down and finally ask deeper questions about who she was and what mattered.

It's a conversation about courage, presence, and the messy, beautiful work of turning suffering into meaning and it leaves you with this: you don't need to be fixed to be whole. Broken crayons still color.

She explains:

⬛ Creativity often begins as survival and becomes healing when intention changes.

⬛ Cancer and illness can radically disrupt identity and open new psychological and spiritual pathways.

⬛ The stories we tell ourselves are not always true and can be rewritten.

⬛ Intuition is quiet and must be cultivated through stillness and self trust.

⬛ Healing starts with the relationship you have with yourself.

⬛ Art can regulate the nervous system and support transformation without diagnosis.

⬛ Spirituality does not require certainty, only curiosity and engagement.

⬛ Trauma responses are adaptations, not character flaws.

⬛ You do not need to be fixed to be whole.

⬛ Broken crayons still color.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Nerissa's Journey

01:31 The Power of Art in Healing

07:17 Navigating Life Changes and Identity

15:01 The Cancer Diagnosis: A Turning Point

23:49 Spirituality and Personal Growth

30:21 Listening to Intuition and Self-Discovery

44:19 The Role of Spirituality in Healing

56:33 Understanding Relationships and Self-Expectations

57:30 The Journey of Self-Discovery

01:00:39 Navigating Relationships and Healing

01:03:00 The Importance of Silence and Self-Reflection

01:05:06 Transforming Trauma into Art

01:09:07 The Ongoing Nature of Healing

01:12:42 Finding Balance in Life and Art

01:15:32 The Power of Personal Stories in Art

01:18:14 Creating Art as a Healing Process

About Steve

Steve is a longtime entrepreneur and former finance professional who built significant external success while carrying the hidden impact of severe childhood trauma and addiction. Through years of deep healing work including somatic therapies, psychedelic assisted processes, and brain based interventions, he experienced a profound internal shift that reoriented his life toward service, storytelling, and mental health.

Through The Neuro’s Journey, Steve shares his ongoing process and amplifies voices exploring honest, evidence informed, and heart led transformation.

Follow Steve:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theneurosjourney

About Nerissa

Nerissa Balland is a visual artist, therapeutic arts practitioner, and two-time cancer survivor whose mixed-media works range from intimate to large-scale. As a visual storyteller, she draws on spiritual symbols, patterns, and natural elements to explore universal themes of self-love, acceptance, and protection. Nerissa holds an MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, a BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland, and studied Digital Design at the University of Copenhagen.

Follow Nerissa:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nerissaballandart

Website: https://www.nerissaballand.com

In this episode of The Neuro’s Journey, Steve sits down with Lia for a deeply honest conversation about what happens after Ibogaine. Four months after her treatment, Lia shares what healing has actually looked like in her day to day life. Less fear. Less over functioning. More calm, clarity, and grounded presence as her nervous system settles into a new baseline.

This episode is proudly supported by One And Done, an integration center dedicated to helping veterans after ibogaine treatment. Learn more and donate at oneanddone.org.

Lia brings both personal and professional perspective to this conversation. As a licensed therapist and trained psychedelic therapist, she understands trauma and healing deeply. But here, she speaks from lived experience as someone who survived severe childhood trauma, lost a sister to heroin, and spent years living in survival mode.

Together, she and Steve explore how her mind, body, relationships, and work have changed, and how brain scans helped validate shifts she could feel but had never been able to measure.

She explains:

⬛ Ibogaine shifted her baseline into calm, clarity, and grounded presence.
⬛ Trauma shaped her into an over functioner who stayed safe by being useful and depleted.
⬛ Healing meant pulling her energy back to herself and learning that self focus can be an act of service.
⬛ Brain scans validated her experience and helped guide integration and care.
⬛ Neurogenesis can feel slow and disorienting and requires real support.
⬛ Somatic awareness returned, making body signals clearer and harder to ignore.

Chapters:

00:00 Four months after Ibogaine
01:10 Internal calm and energetic alignment
03:21 Over functioning and depletion
07:20 Brain scans and validation
10:42 Neurogenesis and rewiring
14:33 Listening to the body
19:55 Space between stimulus and response
33:28 Attachment patterns shifting
47:17 Intimacy and relational healing
01:07:07 Supporting Justin through allyship
01:10:06 Building IHPI and healthcare access
01:24:54 Treating trauma, not symptoms
01:42:00 Hope for families
01:51:29 Closing reflections

Connection links:

⬛ Ibogaine Healthcare Policy Institute Launch Video
⬛ NeuroGrove brain scans with Trista Miles and Dr. Ryan Phillips
⬛ One and Done Integration Model
⬛ Americans for Ibogaine initiative

Special thanks to our sponsor One And Done, building a dedicated integration center to support veterans in their post-ibogaine healing process, donate at oneanddone.org

About Steve:

Steve is an entrepreneur and storyteller who spent years achieving external success while carrying unresolved trauma and addiction. Through deep healing work and nervous system regulation, he rebuilt his life from the inside out. The Neuro’s Journey is his platform to explore healing, leadership, and human transformation with honesty and depth.

Follow Steve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theneurosjourney

About Lia:

Lia is a trauma informed practitioner and healer who brings deep emotional awareness and embodiment to her work. This episode marks the first time she shares her personal healing journey publicly, offering a rare and intimate look at what healing can look like inside love and partnership.

Follow Lia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamix

In this episode of The Neuro’s Journey, Steve sits down with Tony Glace, founder of One And Done, for a conversation about veteran suicide, trauma, and what happens when someone stops talking about change and starts building it.

Support One And Done: Website: https://oneanddone.org

Tony shares the moment that changed his life and redirected his purpose toward saving veterans. He explains why 22 veterans dying by suicide every day is not just a statistic, but a moral emergency. After experiencing his own profound healing through plant medicine, Tony committed millions of his own dollars to create One And Done, an integration center designed to help veterans truly come home after ibogaine treatment.

This conversation explores why medicine alone is not enough, how integration determines long term healing, and what it looks like to honor veterans not with words, but with action. It is a powerful reminder that healing does not end with the experience. It begins with community, support, and a life rebuilt with purpose.

He explains:

⬛ 22 veterans die by suicide every single day and the crisis is accelerating.

⬛ Ibogaine can reset the brain, but integration determines whether healing lasts.

⬛ Veterans are medical refugees forced to leave the United States to heal.

⬛ Addiction and PTSD are not moral failures, but nervous system injuries.

⬛ Healing must include the family, not just the individual.

⬛ Ego death opens the door to living from the heart rather than survival.

⬛ Trauma can be transformed into service when met with honesty and action.

⬛ Real change happens when people build solutions instead of waiting for permission.

Chapters:

00:00 The reality of veteran suicide
02:15 Why Tony could not look away
05:10 Discovering ibogaine and its impact
08:40 Why integration matters more than the medicine
12:30 One And Done and the vision for veteran healing
17:45 Treating veterans like they should have been welcomed home
22:10 Couples integration and supporting families
27:20 Ego death and speaking from the heart
31:50 Turning personal pain into purpose
36:15 Legislative battles to bring plant medicine forward
41:30 The future of ibogaine and veteran care
45:55 A call to action for healing our heroes

About Steve

Steve is a longtime entrepreneur and former finance professional who built significant external success while carrying the hidden impact of severe childhood trauma and addiction. Through years of deep healing work, including somatic therapies, psychedelic assisted processes, and brain based interventions, he experienced a profound internal shift that reoriented his life toward service, storytelling, and mental health.

Through The Neuro’s Journey, Steve shares his ongoing process and amplifies the voices of others walking the path of honest, evidence informed, and heart led transformation.

Follow Steve:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theneurosjourney

About Tony Glace

Tony Glace is the founder of One And Done, an integration center being built to support veterans after ibogaine treatment. A former business owner turned philanthropist and advocate, Tony has invested millions of his own dollars to combat veteran suicide and create spaces where healing, dignity, and family reintegration are prioritized.

After experiencing his own transformation through plant medicine, Tony dedicated his life to ensuring veterans receive the support they were denied when they came home.

Support One And Done:

Website: https://oneanddone.org