Episode 29: SongwritingWith:Soldiers / Behind The Scenes with Mary Judd, Co-Founder/Program Director of SongwritingWith:Soldiers
Release Date: 02/23/2021
Episode 41: The Power of Adventures & Pursuing Wild Ideas
Grey Matters Now
Shelby Stanger is the host and creator of the hit podcast, Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production and the author of the new book Will To Wild. Shelby started the Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast on her own though and it became SO popular and influential that REI purchased it in 2020. Like her adventurous podcast guests, Shelby is a true badass and trailblazer whose trails have led her to major wild outdoor adventures, writing a book, large speaking engagements and even most recently a Ted Talk. Over the years, her work has appeared everywhere from Outside Magazine to...
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EPISODE 40: A First Person Experience With ROCD - a Newly Recognized Type of OCD That Deeply Impacts Relationships
Grey Matters Now
Samantha Colicchio is a San Diego-based writer who focuses on feminism, sex, and mental health. She writes regularly for lifestyle and wellness blogs and she is currently working on a book of nonfiction. 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. May is...
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Episode 39: Enjoy The Ride: A Regenerating Journey From The Surf To The Turf with Ed Lewis/Enjoy The Farm and Enjoy Handplanes
Grey Matters Now
Enjoy: "To enjoy something is to take delight or pleasure in something." Upcycling: “The act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. In doing so, the finished product often becomes more practical, valuable and beautiful than what it previously was.” Ed Lewis started his first business in 1996 right out of college and since then his goals have shifted significantly. In the beginning work was all about self and making a living… admitting that in his twenties he couldn’t see too far past himself. photo credit: In 2005 after experiencing...
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Episode 38: Resonating With Full Circle Sound Healing: Healing The Mind, Body & Soul Through The Power of Sound with Mary Cap, Sound Healer
Grey Matters Now
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. This “dark night of the soul” led to a...
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Episode 37: Life's a Garden, Dig it / Cultivating Soul Food, Community, Hope, and Fun! With Stacie Vanags of Teaquila Farm
Grey Matters Now
A couple of years ago I started following a social media account Salted Spirit because I was so drawn to the beautiful images of this cool waterwoman podcasting and serving tea at the beach from my ultimate dream recording studio - a vintage Westfalia named Salted Carmela. This beautiful salted spirit is Stacie Vanags and she was creating something way deeper and more comprehensive than just beautiful images. Her mission was to make her way around Southern California, hosting Salted Spirit podcasts, workshops and cultivating COMMUNITY for waterwomen. Her workshops focus on...
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Episode 36: Breathe Well to be Well / Breathing Your Mind Home to Your Body and Into the Extraordinary with Reis Paluso /Breathwork coach and facilitator, certified Wim Hof Method instructor and co-founder of Our Breath Collective
Grey Matters Now
One common tool in everyones wellness, healing and navigation toolbox and mentioned in every podcast episode is breath. Yes - we need breath to exist, but we also need it to live and thrive. Whether we feel stuck, paralyzed, escalated or ungrounded by the weight of the world or everyday challenges, breathing is our vehicle to navigate forward. Our breath is a powerful and exciting tool that can take us many more places than just forward. A guide and expert can show us how to utilize this tool we carry with us everywhere, to unlock new spaces and experiences. As a surfer,...
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Episode 35: The Layers and Pages of Authoring Dear William: A Father's Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, Love and Loss
Grey Matters Now
Best selling author David Magee, formerly a columnist for Newsweek, a former daily newspaper and magazine publisher, and the author of many books about businesses and sports figures began to shift his focus when he wrote wrote an article for the front page of the local paper in 2016. This personal article ripped the bandage off a wound, to air out and share for a greater good and healing all around. It began with these 2 sentences: "A new freshman class started at Ole Miss this week and I wish I could tell them ALL this story. It’s about my oldest son William, who was a freshman in 2008, he...
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Episode 34: Rerooting Ourselves Through Harmony with Tina Page, LCSW and founder of Rerooting Circles
Grey Matters Now
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. For the past 3 years, she has provided therapeutic services on-line and has worked with people all over the world. Her ability to connect and create a safe and compassionate space while challenging her clients transcends technological limitations. She has also been a big...
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Episode 33: Processing waves of grief through the ebb and flow of life's losses
Grey Matters Now
On June 11, 2020 I recorded Episode 25: Healing Trauma Through Surf Therapy and Waves of Love With Natalie Small LMFT and Leanne Tibiatowski. Groundswell Community Project a sisterhood of inter-sectional womxn holding safe & brave space for individuals and communities to find their healing, power, and belonging in Mother Ocean’s Waves. Since our last podcast GSCP realized that the world was in need of a specific resource for processing grief. Waves of Grief: Their Waves of Grief community drop-in groups were birthed out of response to the various types of personal and communal grief that...
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Episode 32: The Aquadolls - We ARE the band...How to maintain balance, purpose, respect, and success
Grey Matters Now
Meet the Aqua Dolls The band is composed of a power trio Melissa / vocals & guitar Keilah / vocals & bass Jackie/ vocals & drums And... their amazing manager Jaysea Devoe who is always behind the scenes taking care of business! This was Jaysea's 3rd time on the podcast. In her 1st episode, a teenager's guide to balance, we discussed how valuable her foundation, light, and tools would be as she navigates through life and things become more challenging. It has been a gift to follow her growth and evolution into her new role and how her foundation and light were so important in...
info_outlineFor years I have been a huge fan of the organization SongwritingWith:Soldiers / SW:S and the depth, power and beauty of what they produce. SongwritingWith:Soldiers holds weekend retreats across the U.S. for veterans from all conflicts. Since 2012, we have connected with hundreds of veterans and military families, creating a safe and inspiring environment to share their experiences and write songs with professional songwriters. These songs have been recorded and streamed across the internet, reaching and connecting more veterans and raising civilian awareness of the challenges the military community faces. So… you can only imagine how BEYOND thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to have a conversation with the program director and co-founder Mary Judd. She is a brilliant and down to earth woman, visionary, and trailblazer.
Mary is a master at creating collaborative programs that inspire connections and highlight individual and community strengths. When witnessing Darden Smith write a song with a veteran, she was compelled to put her skills to work in creating the SongwritingWith:Soldiers program.
With vast experience in Positive Psychology, educational programming and organizational communications, Mary helps SW:S create the most effective and meaningful experiences for everyone involved. Her creative reach is reflected in her client list which includes New York State Department of Economic Development (I LOVE NY); MentorCoach training programs; VIA Institute on Character; Indian Ladder Farms: The Mayerson Academy, The HAPPY Movie; Discovery Retreats, and more. She has studied Positive Psychology with leading researchers from around the world, is an international workshop presenter on the subject and was a discussion facilitator at a United Nations meeting on Happiness and Well-Being. She serves on the editorial board for the India Journal of Positive Psychology and PsyInsight magazine. Mary co-founded The Barn School, an award-winning sustainable agriculture camp that raises funds for family farms and Heifer International®. She earned coaching certifications from Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, MentorCoach and others. She has a B.S. in Organizational Communications from the University of Texas at Austin and teaching certifications in Speech, English and Spanish.
MARY JUDD
Co-Founder/Program Director
Mary joined me from her home in New York and, as you can imagine, is incredibly busy. I am super grateful for her generosity of time to discuss this treasure of a program that she has poured her heart and soul into. I want to whole world to know about the power and beauty of this program and that post traumatic healing does exist
Make sure you listen to the song at the end of this episode to get a full understanding of the results of this program. It is one of Mary’s favorite’s. The song Strumming hand was written by Maia Sharp and Veteran John Cameron at a performed by Maia Sharp.
If you are inspired by this story, want to learn more about or support SW/S please visit
www.songwritingwithsoldiers.org
www.songwritingwithsoldiers.org/learn/press/