The Gris Alves’ Podcast Tales of Recovery

Tales of Recovery with guest Luis Illades

My friend Luis Illades and I were neighbors in Tijuana when we were kids and were both finding our way in our early twenties in the music and arts as well as working at Cafe 101 with other Tijuana greats, a wakeful fork in the road which we talk about during this podcast as we were all working on moving on to liberation from 'general' Tijuana societal structures. 

Luis is currently a New York City based interventionist and substance abuse counselor. With specific ties to the LGBTQ community, Luis has spent decades involved with a variety of outreach organizations ranging from San Francisco's Stop AIDS project in the 1990's to touring with rock bands and promoting outreach on the road. With his own story of addiction and recovery, Illades has dedicated his mission to helping others in recovery.  In recent years, as founder of Human Condition Consulting, Luis has been working with families and institutions in focusing an invitational approach to interventions for getting loved ones into treatment. Recent years have found Illades at eating disorder treatment facility Monte Nido and Affiliates, substance use outpatient facility The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in the West Village of Manhattan, as well as consulting and mentoring at sober living facilities and within the community in the NYC area.

Listen in and enjoy this conversation on love, resilience and REcovering our birthright to BE who we want to be. In liberation, power and healing. 

 

May this episode be of benefit to the world. 

 

Peace, 

G

Tales of Recovery with guest MFT Matt Bishop

This week on the TOR podcast my guest is a Mental Health Essential worker~  An in depth, real and raw conversation with San Diego based Marriage and Family Therapist Matt Bishop. Matt is one of the coolest guys in the therapy world that I know.  He has a therapy wolf dog, a great story, is funny, he helps so many people in recovery, meditates and really just GETS it. He shares his own personal journey of healing and how this led to the discovery of his deep innate wisdom and empathy to choose to become a healer himself.  Matt and I met several years ago as he led a marriage workshop that I attended with my husband Julio and I instantly LOVED his energy.  Listen in because there are so many insights about mental health, forgiveness, mindfulness and, of course, a few laughs.  Did I mention he has a therapy wolf dog?!  Matt has also recently launched a super cool podcast called "People I Love and you Should Too" where he talks to Interesting People Full of Life and Wisdom and Creativity and Beauty~  You can follow Matt on Instagram and Twitter at @itsmattbishop and to work with him go check out his webpage www.mattbishoptherapy.com

May this conversation be of benefit to all who listen to it~

I hope you are able to remain calm during this season~

Peace, 

Gris

Tales of Recovery Ancestors and Love~ When LOVE is power, alchemized anger and has the fuel to HEAL

The love we allow to flow into healing is not always made of soft and gentle caresses.   It takes courage and deep work, boundaries AF, dreams, traveling into the subconscious to RE-member and then allow our true worth and intuition’s guide into breaking free from ancestral trauma and codependency.   
A few words on my reflections on breaking ancestral patterns of disfunction and how my mother’s love was fierce enough to ‘allow’ this to happen. 

Tales of Recovery, by Gris Alves. 

Tales of Recovery with guest Kirti Srivastava

Kirti Srivastava, my fierce friend from diLSe Movement Medicine and Spirit School and I have a conversation about all the feels, but especially about what Safety can mean during this season of Fear.  What is happening in the planet and also WHO we need to quarantine with and does that feel safe?  We talk about the work and time it takes to DE-program from social conditioning and coding, especially as women of traditional cultural backgrounds.   Like always, Kirti blows my mind with her wisdom, humor and practical insight on navigating uncertainty while staying present with 'what is'.  Listen in and enjoy. You can follow her on IG @dilse.kirtidance 

May you be safe~

May you have health~

May this episode be of benefit to those listening~ 

 

Tales of Recovery WTF is happening? And WHO are we going to BE?

WTF is happening with this pandemic? Life is at a BIG PAUSE right now; and as we are faced with the reality of the fact that this life can end ... (and one day it will) who have we been up to now and how can we choose to live in gratitude and in the present moment?  

How difficult is it for us to stay still at home in enclosed quarters either by ourselves, a few roommates or our families?

This could be the grand opportunity we are being granted by Great Spirit to evaluate and notice what we are really here for: to Love, Learn, Evolve and Serve. 

My soul's perspective on this situation and an offering to grow roots in the Present moment. 

May we kindly have the compassion to allow all emotions and feelings to travel through our bodies as we choose a journey of self-discovery and a collective and conscious well being~

Rommel Romo shares his recent unexpected experience with a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.

My friend and guest RommelRomo had a recent and unexpected diagnosis with Stage 4 Cancer last month.  I drove up to his home in Northern California we sat together as he shared with us his experience in a real and unedited conversation.  He asked that we record this because he wants to raise awareness and continues to be generous with his life.

Thank you Rommel~ May our life experience be of a beneficial presence to others. This conversation is published with great gratitude to you, for your courage and openness to share so that others may know your journey and awaken to life just as it is, in  this moment.  

 

 

Tales of Recovery ~ With guest Rommel Romo

Rommel Romo, my Tijuana friend, and brother from another mother sit and reflect on 30+ (yes 30+) years of friendship and his journey of recovery through the process of creation, painting, music and art.  We chat about our perspective on societal constructs, good times and hard times growing up and the TJ 90's music and drug cartel scene that set off the intuition compass to get the heck out of town. His life experience in San Francisco and Oakland has impacted many with his talent, resilient human spirit, laughter and most of all: loyal friendship.  It was, as always, a pleasure and so much fun hanging out with you Rommel.  Grab a cup of coffee or tea, or whatever you prefer and listen in~  

You can follow him on IG @rommelromo to check out his paintings and visual art.  

Tales of Recovery The Practice of GRIEF

Grief is not a feeling, it's a capacity, it is not something that disables you. We are not on the receiving end of grief, we are in the practicing end of it

~Stephen Jenkins

Tales of Recovery this week is me and my grief. What it looks like, feels like and how I am traveling along with this experience of impermanence so far.  I fell held in love and connection, in friendships and practices of yoga, drumming, music and good ol' weeping and pajama days.  I am welcoming all of it. I am grateful for all your messages and notes after the last recording.  You all have helped in this process and I am a better griever for that.  

Peace,

Gris 

Tales of Recovery ~Walking my Mother Home

My mom suffered a stroke two years ago, she transcended last week on January 2nd, 2020.  This is a small bit of my experience on walking her home...

Tales of Recovery with guest Mimi Young, shamanic practitioner and founder of Ceremonie

This week on the Tales of Recovery podcast, my guest Mimi Young and I have a deep and fun conversation that includes our somehow similar bi-cultural immigrant lives~ Her family moved from Taiwan to Canada when she was two years old, she sensed her intuitive gifts from a young age which included a deep connection with plants and Spirits, clairolfaction and other physic abilities.   Navigating through family traditions and cultural obstacles Mimi tells her story of REcovering her gifts of healing and becoming a Shamanic practitioner~ It is a fascinating conversation on the journey of discovering, knowing and allowing our birthright to freedom and the Spirit world, in spite of strong cultural and religious opposition.  We talk about the importance of our ancestry, honoring our dead and other juicy bits. Listen to her wisdom which is full of light~  on this eve of Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos. 

Mimi Young is a shamanic practitioner and founder of  Ceremonie, a shamanic and ritual-based brand focusing on in-person and online shamanic education, Remote Shamanic Readings, and an aura + skincare line that is made in ceremony. Mimi works with a blend of modalities including core shamanism and botanical healing, hedge magick, and Chinese shamanic modalities, with a focus on integrating the subconscious with the conscious, past lives work, divination, dream work, ancestral healing, and divine feminine reawakening.

Mimi lives with her partner and their two boys in Vancouver, Canada.  You can find and follow her on https://shopceremonie.com/ and on IG @shopceremonie