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

The masks we wear to survive can become prisons. And the same patterns that drove us to achieve can quietly disconnect us from love, joy, and the people we care about most.

In this live episode recorded in Boulder, Colorado, Steve is joined by Lia Mix and Omani Carson for a raw conversation about trauma, leadership, vulnerability, and what happens when we finally take off the armor. Emceed by Samantha Warren.

Together, they explore how childhood survival patterns show up in high achievers, why avoiding pain blocks connection, and how psychedelics, when integrated with intention and community, can help us move from survival mode into presence and purpose.

This is an invitation to stop waiting. You're already on your hero's journey. And healing doesn't happen alone.

In this episode:

⬛ Why vulnerability is courage, not weakness

⬛ The link between childhood trauma and perfectionism

⬛ How avoiding pain blocks love and connection

⬛ What happens when leaders succeed but feel empty

⬛ Nervous system regulation as a foundation for leadership

⬛ Psychedelics as a tool for healing, not a shortcut

⬛ Why community is medicine

Chapters:
00:00 Live introduction
01:25 Vulnerability and the armor we wear
02:45 Childhood trauma and survival patterns
05:01 When avoiding pain blocks love
06:57 Introducing Omani and shared journeys
09:32 From fear to love and abundance
13:24 Trauma, nervous system, and healing
15:25 Psychedelics and liberation from trauma
18:21 Vulnerability and intimacy
23:11 Lia’s journey into honesty
27:07 The danger of masks
33:08 Community as medicine
37:21 Psychedelics and societal healing
49:46 An evolutionary shift
53:13 Leading from the heart
01:02:28 A wish for humanity
01:06:49 Closing reflections
About Steve:
Steve is an entrepreneur and storyteller who spent decades achieving external success while privately navigating the impact of childhood trauma. Through therapy, nervous system work and psychedelic healing, he rebuilt his life from the inside out. The Neuro’s Journey is his mission to explore courage, healing and the human experience with honesty and depth.
Follow Steve:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@theneurosjourney
About Lia:
Lia is Founder and CEO of DELPHI, a healthcare innovation leader and trauma-informed guide who brings deep emotional awareness and grounded wisdom to her work.

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

About Omani Carson:
Omani is the founder of the Carson Group and the leader of OMIA, a conscious community devoted to healing, connection, and harmony with nature. His work bridges leadership, trauma healing, and collective transformation.
Follow Omani:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/omanirosecarson/
Website https://www.carsongroup.com/
About Samantha Warren:
Samantha Warren is a public speaker, podcast host and teaches impact driven coaches, podcasters and entrepreneurs how to confidently share their story, spread their message, get on stages, make more money and make a name for themselves.
Follow Samantha:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesamanthawarren
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceandvisibility

Resources Mentioned

California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) - Psychedelic therapy training program

Conscious Capitalism movement (John Mackey and Raj Sisodia)

Heartland Gathering - Omani and Jeannie's community healing event in Nebraska

The Hero's Journey framework

In this episode, Steve sits down with Talia and Tom, the co-founders of Beond, in Cancun, Mexico for a deeply personal conversation about healing, purpose and building a space where people can truly feel safe enough to change.

Together, they share how intergenerational trauma, addiction and early survival strategies shaped their lives and how ibogaine became a catalyst not just for recovery, but for reclaiming meaning, joy and connection. Talia reflects on her own journey through addiction and healing while Tom shares his path from childhood abuse and academic survival into service and leadership rooted in compassion.

This conversation explores what happens when healing is treated as a journey rather than a fix. It reveals why safety, preparation and community matter just as much as the medicine itself, and how vulnerability creates the conditions for real transformation. At its core, this episode reminds listeners that you do not need to be broken to deserve healing and that thriving is possible at every stage of life.

They explain:

⬛ Intergenerational trauma lives in the nervous system and shapes anxiety, identity and behavior.

⬛ Addiction often begins as a solution to unmanaged internal pain.

⬛ Ibogaine is not the work itself, but a catalyst that accelerates healing when paired with support and integration.

⬛ Feeling safe is the foundation for releasing long held trauma.

⬛ Vulnerability builds connection and reduces loneliness.

⬛ Healing does not require a breakdown, only honesty and willingness.

⬛ Neuroplasticity creates a critical period where lasting change is possible.

⬛ Joy, curiosity, and purpose are essential components of long term wellbeing.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and intention behind the conversation
02:45 Supporting a partner through a healing journey
06:30 Intergenerational trauma and early anxiety
10:12 Addiction as a survival strategy
15:40 Discovering ibogaine and its impact on purpose
20:55 Skepticism, spirituality, and different paths to healing
27:30 Building a relationship rooted in openness and respect
33:10 Creating Beond as a safe and integrated healing space
41:25 Safety, medicine, and responsibility
48:40 The critical period and neuroplasticity
55:10 Healing versus thriving
01:02:45 Vulnerability, community, and belonging
01:10:30 Receiving love and breaking old patterns
01:18:20 Closing reflections on purpose and service

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.

Follow Steve:

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

About Talia

Talia is a co-founder of Beond and a longtime advocate for trauma informed healing and recovery. Her personal journey through addiction, intergenerational trauma and plant medicine shaped Beond’s philosophy around safety, integration, and whole person healing.

About Tom

Tom is a co-founder of Beond and a healthcare entrepreneur with a background in recovery, academics and spiritual practice. His work focuses on building environments that combine medical rigor, psychological safety and human compassion to support lasting change.

Website: https://www.beondibogaine.com

In this deeply personal episode, Steve opens up about his decades long battle with addiction and shares groundbreaking research on Ibogaine, a treatment showing an 88% reduction in PTSD symptoms after just one dose.

Steve traces the path from childhood trauma to compulsive comfort seeking and ultimately, to healing. As he records, his fiancée Lia's brother Justin, missing for months and struggling with methamphetamine addiction, has just made contact. The urgency is real, and the treatment they're hoping will save his life is illegal in the United States.

He explains:
⬛ Addiction is compulsive comfort seeking—a nervous system that never felt safe looking for relief.
⬛ 92% of people struggling with addiction have significant childhood trauma.
⬛ Dysregulation comes first, addiction comes after—substances are the best tool an overwhelmed nervous system can find.
⬛ Ibogaine resets dopamine receptors in one treatment, eliminating the 6-18 month "gray fog" of traditional recovery.
⬛ Stanford research shows 88% reduction in PTSD, 87% in depression, 81% in anxiety after one Ibogaine treatment.
⬛ Ibogaine triggers 2,000-3,000% increases in BDNF, the protein that helps neurons grow and repair.
⬛ Ibogaine keeps the brain in an open, changeable state longer than any other psychedelic, up to four weeks or three months.
⬛ Ibogaine opens a window of neuroplasticity, but lasting change requires integration, therapy, and ongoing work.
⬛ Most compulsive comfort seeking looks "normal"—scrolling at 2am, binge shopping, needing alcohol to be social.
⬛ Corporations engineer products to hijack dopamine systems just like drugs do.
⬛ Ibogaine was made illegal in 1970 without evaluation, despite having no recreational value.
⬛ American veterans are medical refugees, including decorated Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.
⬛ Texas committed $50 million to Ibogaine research with bipartisan support led by Rick Perry.
⬛ Just one person who shows care can be the difference between life and death.

Chapters:
00:05 - Reframing addiction as compulsive comfort seeking
02:26 - First blackout at age five
04:46 - From childhood trauma to hedge fund success and crack cocaine
07:10 - Steve's father's WWII trauma and untreated PTSD
09:35 - The addict's body: Daily pressure building
11:50 - Dysregulation comes first
14:08 - Why people relapse: 6-18 months of gray fog
16:31 - Helen Sapourn: Breaking three ribs to attend her son's wedding
17:29 - Losing his mother at 27
19:10 - The friend's first line and 40 rehabs later
21:17 - Lia's brother Justin reaches out
23:05 - We're all compulsively comfort seeking
25:33 - What Ibogaine actually i
28:00 - The Stanford study: 88% PTSD reduction
30:27 - Witnessing transformation in veterans
32:44 - One and Done integration center
34:51 - Why is Ibogaine illegal?
37:16 - Rick Perry and Marcus Luttrell unite
39:20 - Veterans as medical refugees
41:49 - You are not broken, you are not weak
43:40 - Breaking the cycle

About Steve:
Steve Sapourn is a longtime entrepreneur and storyteller who spent decades achieving external success while battling childhood trauma and addiction. Through somatic therapy, psychedelic work, and nervous system rewiring, he rebuilt his life from the inside out. The Neuro's Journey is his mission to explore healing, courage, and the human experience with depth and honesty.

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

Resources:
Americans for Ibogaine - americansforibogaine.org - 404-368-9923
One and Done (Texas) - Integration center for veterans
Beond Clinic (Cancun, Mexico) - https://beondibogaine.com/

In this episode of The Neuro’s Journey, Steve sits down with his partner, Lia, for an intimate and vulnerable conversation about trauma, safety, love and healing while in relationship. Together, they explore how past experiences shape present reactions, how fear can take over even in moments of deep connection, and what it means to grow alongside someone while still carrying old wounds.

Lia shares a powerful story about how a small interaction triggered a deep survival response right before Steve proposed. She describes the fear of abandonment that surfaced, the belief that one argument could leave her unsafe, and how her nervous system still prepares for danger even inside a loving partnership. Their conversation offers a rare look into trauma activation, relational healing, ibogaine preparation, and the courage it takes to build trust in real time.

She explains:
⬛ Trauma can distort threat perception, making small triggers feel like catastrophic danger.
⬛ Hypervigilance and fear responses often come from old experiences, not present reality.
⬛ Feeling safe enough to speak needs in the moment is a major step in nervous system healing.
⬛ Ibogaine preparation for her is centered on grounding, stability, and a desire to feel truly safe.
⬛ Shame creates self-protection patterns that hide parts of the self from love, connection, and joy.
⬛ Being with someone who is open and unguarded can become a powerful teaching in releasing shame.
⬛ Healing in partnership requires curiosity, communication, and the willingness to see each other clearly.
⬛ Growth is not linear, and even spiritually advanced teachers see life as a path of learning until their final breath.
⬛ Sharing personal stories publicly requires courage and deep inner work.
⬛ Healing expands when we are witnessed with compassion, especially by the people closest to us.

Chapters:
01:18:09 Living with trauma while in a loving relationship
01:18:46 The trigger that surfaced before the proposal
01:19:26 Fear, abandonment, and old survival patterns
01:20:25 How the body prepares for danger even when none is present
01:21:27 Safety as a core intention for her ibogaine journey
01:21:52 Longing for wholeness and connection to all parts of self
01:22:01 Navigating shame and openness in partnership
01:22:42 Learning from each other’s differences
01:22:59 Growth as a lifelong path
01:23:00 Seeing life as a game for learning
01:24:39 Meditation, lineage, and the desire to grow until the last breath
01:25:23 Preparing for ibogaine and the adventure ahead
01:25:55 The vulnerability of speaking publicly for the first time
01:26:40 A new understanding of what Steve carries by sharing his story
01:27:36 Closing reflections on courage, vulnerability, and partnership

About Steve:

Steve is a longtime entrepreneur and storyteller who spent decades achieving external success while quietly battling the internal effects of childhood trauma and addiction. Through somatic therapy, psychedelic work, and nervous system rewiring, he rebuilt his life from the inside out. The Neuro’s Journey is his mission to explore healing, courage, and the human experience with depth and honesty.

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

About Lia

Lia is a practitioner, healer, and trauma-informed guide who brings deep emotional awareness and grounded wisdom to her work. Her personal healing journey, combined with her commitment to truth and embodiment, offers a powerful lens on relational growth, safety, and transformation. This episode marks her first time

In this solo episode, Steve opens the door to a story he has carried for decades. What begins with a humorous memory from childhood quickly turns into a profound exploration of vulnerability, trauma and the armor we learn to build long before we understand what it costs us.

With honesty and grace, he speaks about surviving sexual abuse, growing up with a stutter that made speaking feel like danger and the shame he inherited from a father who could not show love in the way he needed.

This conversation is raw, human, and generous. It is an invitation to remember the parts of ourselves we hid to survive and to begin choosing courage in the moments that matter.

He explains:

⬛ Childhood experiences often register as life threatening in the nervous system, even when the danger is emotional not physical.

⬛ Armor begins as protection but becomes a prison that keeps us from the love and connection we want most.

⬛ Shame tells us we are bad rather than we did something bad, and it often forms when a child cannot understand why they do not feel loved.

⬛ Vulnerability feels like danger because the brain learned early that truth equals threat. Your body is not broken. It is protecting you.

⬛ Sharing trauma in safe spaces helps the brain convert frozen fragments into integrated memory.

⬛ Regulating the nervous system is essential because you cannot think your way out of activation.

⬛ Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is choosing truth while fear is present.

⬛ Small and honest statements are powerful first steps in taking off the armor.

⬛ Real vulnerability is not spectacle. It is authenticity without the guarantee of how it will be received.

⬛ The things we want most love, belonging, joy, creativity, meaningful connection only exist when we allow ourselves to be seen.

Chapters

00:00 The Streaking Analogy: Understanding Vulnerability

02:37 Childhood Trauma and Its Impact on Vulnerability

05:52 The Armor We Build: Protecting Ourselves

08:31 The Role of Vulnerability in Connection

11:33 The Science of Vulnerability and Courage

14:15 Shame and Its Roots in Childhood

17:22 Forgiveness and Reframing Our Stories

20:03 The Importance of Vulnerability in Relationships

23:13 Overcoming Societal Expectations of Masculinity

25:47 The Neuroscience of Vulnerability

28:51 Healing Through Storytelling

31:29 Practical Steps to Embrace Vulnerability

34:23 The Journey of Self-Discovery and Authenticity

37:13 The Call to Courage: Letting Go of Armor

About Steve:

Steve is a longtime entrepreneur and former finance professional who achieved significant external success while quietly battling the internal impact of severe childhood trauma and addiction. After years of intensive healing work through somatic therapy, psychedelic-assisted processes, and brain-based interventions, he experienced a profound internal shift that reoriented his life toward service, storytelling, and mental health advocacy.

Follow Steve:

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

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