11. How Art Transforms Trauma: Cancer Survivor's Guide to Rewire Your Brain with Nerissa Balland

About this episode

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 and setting the intention

02:10 Growing up creative and adapting to change

06:15 Identity, belonging, and early survival patterns

09:40 Graduate school, self doubt, and the corporate pivot

14:55 Cancer diagnosis during pregnancy

19:35 Loss, fear, and confronting mortality

24:30 The power of reframing internal narratives

27:20 Discovering cognitive behavioral therapy and NLP

31:10 Curiosity, courage, and taking action

35:00 Learning to be with yourself in silence

39:45 Intuition and listening to the quiet voice

45:40 Spirituality, Judaism, and living with uncertainty

52:30 Redefining loneliness and being alone

58:40 Healing relationships by healing yourself

01:03:10 Returning to art with purpose

01:09:45 Broken crayons still color

01:22:50 Introducing the artwork Hineni

01:27:30 Symbolism, trauma, and neuroplasticity in art

01:42:50 Art as a living healing process

01:59:20 Closing reflections on journey and growth

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