Have you been curious about feeling your emotions safely? This conversation is an invitation to transform how you meet yourself and others.

Join Steve and Reuvain Bacal, a coach and men’s group leader from Boulder, CO for a conversation about regulating yourself so you can be in control of your emotions and building relationships rooted in honesty instead of armor.

What You’ll Learn (Key Takeaways)

• How to begin feeling your emotions
• Why suffering exists and how to end it
• What creates peace even in difficult circumstances.
• The two things required to safely process emotions
• When to know if you should join a men’s group
• The key to building trust, respect, and authentic connection.
• The key indicator of a healthy partnership.

Connect with Steve and The Neuro’s Journey

Follow Steve on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNeurosJourney

Follow Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sapourn-642215118/

Follow Steve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/

Connect with Reuvain Bacal:

Follow Reuvain on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reuvain.bacal/

Check out Reuvain’s Website: https://www.reuvainbacal.com/

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This conversation is a blueprint for understanding how trauma lives in the body and how to finally change it. Dr. Naomi Rusk, a clinical neuropsychologist and trauma psychotherapist with 35 years of experience, breaks down the science of why behavior change feels impossible when your nervous system is stuck in survival mode.The core message is liberating: trauma is a brain injury, not a moral failure. Your struggles with stillness, sleep, and self-sabotage aren't character flaws—they're predictable responses from a nervous system that learned danger early. The path forward isn't willpower. It's rewiring: subtraction over addition, curiosity over force, and small daily inputs that slowly overwhelm the old programming.What You'll Learn (Key Takeaways)

Trauma is a brain injury, not a character flaw. When you see your brain on a QEEG scan, healing becomes a map—not a moral mountain to climb.

Stillness feels dangerous for a reason. If your childhood taught you that quiet meant threat, your body will resist rest. That's not weakness—it's wiring.

The "addict's body" is a nervous system state. That constant need to change your state isn't about substances—it's about a system that never learned safety.

Sleep begins in the morning. How you rest at night is a mirror for how regulated you were during the day. Night problems require daytime solutions.

Subtraction beats addition. Healing isn't about adding more practices. It's about removing what blocks the real you from emerging.

Choice is the medicine for trauma. When you didn't have choice as a child, reclaiming agency through conscious breath, movement, and awareness becomes the antidote.Leadership Soundbites (Pull Quotes)"The fire alarms are off. That's what healing actually felt like.""Trauma is a brain injury, not a moral failure. Once I saw my brain on a scan, it became fixable.""I heard a voice—and it wasn't mine. It said, 'You're a bad person and no one should ever love you.' That program had been running my entire life.""Stillness is an extremely uncomfortable experience if you have cues of danger inside.""If I'm gonna heal, I have to forgive my father. I need to give him what he couldn't give me.""Choice is the medicine for trauma. Because we didn't have a lot of choice."Conversation Highlights (Chapters / Beats)The switch that changed everything: After 10 years of work, Steve's nervous system finally calmed—and a whole new way of being opened up.Why stillness feels threatening: Dr. Rusk explains how trauma makes rest feel dangerous, and why meditation can backfire for people with anxiety.The "addict's body" explained: Understanding substance use as nervous system regulation, not moral weakness.Sleep as the last hurrah: Why sleep problems are often daytime regulation problems, and practical strategies that actually work.The voice that wasn't his: Steve discovers the underlying program ("you're bad, no one should love you") that had been running his entire life.Forgiving the unforgivable: Why forgiving his sexual abuser was easier than forgiving his father—and what that revealed about generational trauma.Trauma as brain injury: How seeing a QEEG scan shifted Steve's relationship with his own healing from shame to science.Breathwork as agency: Dr. Rusk teaches coherence breathing—the simplest way to reclaim choice over your nervous system.The real you underneath: Healing as subtraction, not addition. Removing the programming to reveal what was always there.Who This Episode Is ForMen who've done "all the work" but still feel like something's off underneathAnyone who struggles with stillness, sleep, or an inability to just bePeople who've used substances, distraction, or achievement to regulate their nervous system Leaders and entrepreneurs who've built from fear and want to build from purpose insteadAnyone ready to stop seeing their struggles as character flaws and start seeing them as fixable wiring

This conversation is a lived exploration of how trauma shapes the nervous system and how healing actually happens over time. Steve sits down with nervous system coach and breathwork facilitator Kristin Weitzel for an unfiltered conversation about vulnerability, survival, addiction, grief and what it really takes to change your life.

They met at the Heartland Gathering and connected instantly through honesty and openness. That moment of shared vulnerability became the foundation for a conversation that moves far beyond theory.

This episode explores nervous system regulation, orienting, neurofeedback, breathwork, cold exposure, men’s work, psychedelic medicine and integration. But beneath all of it is a simple and powerful truth. Nothing about you is broken. Your nervous system learns to survive and it can learn something new.

What You Will Learn & Key Takeaways:

• Vulnerability shifts rooms and acts as a filter for safe connection

• Trauma responses are adaptations, not personal failures

• The goal is not constant calm, but the ability to come back down

• Orienting is a simple, discreet tool to signal safety anywhere

• Shame often lives in the nervous system, not the mind

• Addiction is a survival strategy rooted in dysregulation

• Somatic practices can reach places talk therapy alone cannot

• Cold exposure and breathwork build real life resilience

• Neurofeedback offers visible data that helps remove shame

• Psychedelic medicine opens a door, but integration is where change happens

• Forgiveness can free the body even when harm was real

• Generational trauma can end with you

• Nothing about you is broken. Your system adapted to protect you

Leadership Soundbites & Pull Quotes:

“Vulnerability shifts rooms and shows you who is safe.”

“The goal is not calm. The goal is regulation and the ability to come back.”

“I lived my life like the world was dangerous. Then I realized everything that happened was for me.”

“I had an addict’s body long after I stopped using substances.”

“Forgiveness was easier for my abuser than for my father.”

“Nothing about us is broken. Our nervous systems learned to survive.”

Conversation Highlights & Chapters and Beats:

• How instant vulnerability created trust at the Heartland Gathering

• Why leading with honesty filters safe community

• The abandoned interview at Psychedelic Science and nervous system triggers

• Disappointment, heartbreak, and abandonment as somatic experiences

• The psychedelic moment that changed Steve’s life at a concert

• Childhood trauma, sexual abuse, violence, and nervous system wiring

• Addiction and success as parallel survival strategies

• Neurofeedback and seeing trauma on a brain scan

• Shame, airports, and everyday dysregulation

• Orienting as a powerful regulation tool

• Cold exposure and breathwork as resilience training

• Parasympathetic rebound and emotional regulation

• Men’s work, being seen, and breaking generational cycles

• Forgiveness, grief, and reclaiming life force

• Identity, worth, and unlearning the belief of being broken

• Advice to younger selves and reclaiming curiosity and wonder

Who This Episode Is For:

• Anyone who feels like they have done the work but still feel dysregulated

• People who struggle with shame, triggers, or emotional overwhelm

• Those navigating addiction recovery or an addict’s body

• Individuals curious about nervous system healing beyond talk therapy

• Men learning how to be seen and vulnerable

• Anyone ready to stop seeing themselves as broken

This conversation is a masterclass in empowered leadership.. not as a title, but as a way of operating.

JOJO ABOT breaks down what it means to be an “oracle” and a “portal” in practical terms: someone who helps create an environment where clarity and transformation become possible, without controlling anyone’s path.

The core message is simple: stop outsourcing your power to perfect conditions, altered states, or external validation. Leadership is the sober, daily practice of listening deeper than the noise, moving with fear present, releasing identities that keep you stuck, and choosing co-creation over victimhood.

What You’ll Learn (Key Takeaways)

• Leadership isn’t identity—it’s action. “God is a verb” = your life changes when you collaborate with what you’re being called to do, not when you wait to feel ready.
• Courage is movement with fear present. Not “no fear” just decision and follow-through anyway.
• Forgiveness is an unbinding tool. It releases the “I’m the victim” identity and returns agency, energy, and focus.
• Discernment is a leadership skill. Intuition invites; fear commands. Learn the difference and you stop self-sabotaging.
• You’re not stuck—you’re at a threshold. “Stuck” is often germination: transformation happening under the surface.
• Community is strategic. Real power isn’t rugged individualism, t’s interdependence, discernment, and receiving support without manipulation.

Leadership Soundbites (Pull Quotes)

• “Leadership requires you to act on the invitation, before the conditions are perfect.”
• “Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s moving anyway.”
• “Forgiveness is how you stop letting your past define your operating system.”

Conversation Highlights (Chapters / Beats)

• The launch as leadership initiation: visibility triggers the body; the work is staying present anyway.

• Oracle + portal redefined: not mystical branding, creating space for clarity, perspective, and self-leadership.

• Owning your gifts without becoming a guru: accountability, humility, and integrity.

• Plant medicine vs sober power: insight is easy, embodiment is the real leadership path.

• Courage and forgiveness as core leadership virtues: conditions don’t need to be perfect; identity can evolve.

• Audacity as a decision: “meet the invitation with a yes.”

• Life as your guru: difficulty is often resistance + perspective, not reality.

• Capacity building: nervous system regulation, breath, and the ability to hold discomfort.

• Interdependence > independence: receiving support is part of maturity and leadership.

• Leaders, founders, and creators who feel stuck, frozen, or overwhelmed

• People who are spiritually inclined but want practical power, not performance

• Anyone learning to move from insight → embodiment → action

• Anyone rebuilding trust with themselves after fear, trauma, or a major life transition

Who This Episode Is For

• Oracle + portal redefined: not mystical branding, creating space for clarity, perspective, and self-leadership.

• Owning your gifts without becoming a guru: accountability, humility, and integrity.
• Plant medicine vs sober power: insight is easy, embodiment is the real leadership path.
• Courage and forgiveness as core leadership virtues: conditions don’t need to be perfect; identity can evolve.
• Audacity as a decision: “meet the invitation with a yes.”
• Life as your guru: difficulty is often resistance + perspective, not reality.
• Capacity building: nervous system regulation, breath, and the ability to hold discomfort.
• Interdependence > independence: receiving support is part of maturity and leadership.

Who This Episode Is For

• Leaders, founders, and creators who feel stuck, frozen, or overwhelmed
• People who are spiritually inclined but want practical power, not performance
• Anyone learning to move from insight → embodiment → action
• Anyone rebuilding trust with themselves after fear, trauma, or a major life transition

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