Samantha Colicchio is a San Diego-based writer who focuses on feminism, sex, and mental health. To me, she is Sam my sweet neighbor and friend that is apparently also humble and a VERY talented writer. I knew nothing of her phenomenal writing skills until she recently wrote an article that was featured in the Huffington Post. It is a brilliantly written, brave, very transparent and vulnerable account of her struggles with Relationship OCD, a relatively new subtype of the disorder.

Mary Cap is a sound healer based in Carlsbad, CA where she lives with her husband and son. After leaving a fast paced and high stress career in the hotel wedding & events industry to be a stay-at-home mom when her son was born, she found herself feeling lost in both identity and direction after about a year of being at home. Experiencing depression for the first time in her life, she began to unravel the layers of trauma and conditioning that she realized were affecting her everyday life, relationships and ability to live life to the fullest.

As a surfer, husband, father of two young girls, and an owner of two start-up businesses, Reis Paluso found himself searching for a way to maintain balance in life. By making a mind-body connection through the Wim Hof Method and summiting mountains in sub-zero temperatures wearing only shorts he began on a journey of unlocking his true potential and found the capacity to dig in just that much deeper into the things he is passionate about.

Tina Page is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of California. She has been creating and holding safe space for individuals for over 20 years. In both informal settings as well as in structured therapy settings she utilizes intuitive wisdom and best practice approaches that support each individual in their journey.

Historically and unfortunately women have always faced unique challenges in the music industry.  The Aqua Dolls eagerly joined me for some powerful conversation about how to maintain balance, respect and sanity in hopes of helping anyone being mistreated in the industry for being their true selves! The energy of music is undeniably healing on SO many levels.  Whether you’re performing your own music, singing along, dancing, moshing, belting out songs in the car …it all feels SO GOOD!

Welcome to Grey Matters Now Episode 30! My last episode with Mary Judd, the director of SongwritingWith:Soldiers (SW:S), left such an huge impact on me that I have not been able to stop thinking about it  really felt like I needed to know more – more about the ripple affects, collective and community healing and collaborations. I became really interested in the perspectives of the songwriters and what the experience and process is like for them. I have had numerous conversations with my friend Will Kimbrough, who is a musician and part of the SongwritingWith:Soldiers team…