The soulnotskin Podcast

Addiction changes a person, but it also reshapes everyone who loves them. We’re joined by Jolene, a business owner and mom from Canada we met in the most unexpected place, and we talk about what it means to grow up in an alcoholic family, take on adult roles too soon, and carry a heaviness you can’t name until much later.  We get real about the family side of alcoholism and addiction recovery: bro...

Freedom is not the same thing as release and families learn that the hard way. Jen SluMac sits down with Shelia Bruno, founder of Wife After Prison , to unpack what happens when a loved one comes home after years or decades incarcerated and the relationship starts to feel like a roller coaster. Sheila shares her deeply personal story of reconnecting with her high school sweetheart, building a life...

A moment with your host, Jen SluMac - one-off episodes I'll publish to share thoughts or learnings as I go through my life. We sit with the raw reality of losing a mother and the strange ways grief can sharpen focus, stir creativity, and reshape what matters. We talk through the shift from physical presence to spiritual memory, and the faith questions that hit hardest when goodbye becomes pap...

Ten years living under a freeway can teach you things most of us never have to learn: how fast addiction strips away options, how “freedom” can become a trap, and how easy it is for the rest of the world to look away. We sit down with Tom Gorham, a man in long-term recovery who went from owning multiple homes and businesses to chronic homelessness, cycling through jail, and expecting to die outsid...

Enjoying the show? Head over to soulnotskin.com and:    - Download my free guide: 7 Ways Childhood Pain Shows Up in Adult Life     - Join my Newsletter: Healing Notes  This Episode: A young man sits in a county jail on the edge of tears and says the words so many of us wish we heard more often: “I want to apologize.” Then the system shuts him down. That moment opens a bigger question we can’t igno...

Enjoying the show? Head over to soulnotskin.com and:    - Download my free guide: 7 Ways Childhood Pain Shows Up in Adult Life     - Join my Newsletter: Healing Notes This Episode: PTSD can live quietly for decades, hiding behind work, marriages, anger, and a proud habit of “soldiering up.” We sit outside with Thomas, a Vietnam veteran, and let him tell the truth about what post-traumatic stress d...

Enjoying the show? Head over to soulnotskin.com and:    - Download my free guide: 7 Ways Childhood Pain Shows Up in Adult Life     - Join my Newsletter: Healing Notes This Episode: Some people don’t fall apart because they’re weak. They fall apart because they’ve been carrying too much for too long without answers. That’s where Martin Perez starts: a childhood shaped by caregiving, grief, and the...

Enjoying the show? Head over to soulnotskin.com and:    - Download my free guide: 7 Ways Childhood Pain Shows Up in Adult Life     - Join my Newsletter: Healing Notes This Episode: She hears the words “You have breast cancer” while standing on a packed BART train in San Francisco, and the world tilts. Sheree takes us from that surreal phone call to the small but life-changing moment where she refu...

Enjoying the show? Head over to soulnotskin.com and:    - Download my free guide: 7 Ways Childhood Pain Shows Up in Adult Life     - Join my Newsletter: Healing Notes This Episode: The texts slow down, the silence stretches, and your stomach already knows what your brain is trying to deny. We sit down with Joe to talk about addiction from the side that rarely gets a clean script: the friend who ke...