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 together, and then watching confusing behaviors emerge: isolation, irritation, emotional shutdown, and a constant sense of walking on eggshells. When you do not have words for what you are seeing, you fill in the blanks, and that can cost you your peace, your health, and sometimes the relationship itself.

Together, we name Post-Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) as a framework for the internal consequences of incarceration, shaped by institutionalization, deprivation, and survival mode living. We dig into why “just get a job” is not enough for successful reentry, how parole often demands compliance without measuring capacity, and why plain language matters for healing. Sheila breaks down real-world examples of hypervigilance, overwhelm, decision fatigue, and the painful effects of social and sensory deprivation on intimacy and family connection. We also talk about vicarious trauma, because the family system carries this too, and healing has to include spouses, partners, and kids.

You will hear Shelia’s H3 Model for rebuilding life after prison: Head (thinking patterns), Heart (emotional impact), and Hands (real-world skills and responsibility). If you care about criminal justice reform, reentry support, trauma-informed care, mental health, and strong families, this conversation offers clarity, language, and practical next steps. Subscribe, share this with someone navigating reentry, and leave a review with the one idea you want more people to understand.

Check out Shelia's Books for more support on this topic

© 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

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 paperwork and ashes.

• • a daily grief reader as a morning anchor
• • the idea that death changes a relationship rather than ending it
• • a creative surge after loss and making room for it
• • carrying forward the best parts of a parent like an inheritance
• • bedside moments with dementia and the way they reorder priorities
• • stepping back from stressful work that no longer fits
• • doubt, afterlife questions and the search for a God that still feels good and loving

© 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

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 outside.

Tom walks us through the real mechanics of alcoholism progression, including denial, tolerance, and the invisible line where drinking starts drinking you. We talk about the grief and trauma that often sit underneath substance use disorder, from family loss to the quieter wounds of neglect, religious shame, and feeling fundamentally unlovable. If you’ve ever wondered why someone can’t “just stop,” this conversation makes the disease model feel painfully clear and deeply human.

Then the story pivots to what actually helps: a program that doesn’t give up after three failures, people who hold boundaries without withholding care, and a recovery process that blends 12-step principles, practical treatment, and daily spiritual practice. Tom also shares how that second chance turned into a mission, including building accessible treatment and helping train incarcerated men at San Quentin and beyond as addiction recovery counselors, with measurable impact on rehabilitation and recidivism.

If you know someone struggling with addiction, homelessness, or reentry after prison, share this with them and keep the hope alive. Subscribe for more real conversations, leave a review, and tell us what part of Tom’s journey challenged your assumptions.

Program Tom Started: Offender Mentor Certification Program

Resources for the family:

• Families Anonymous Groups
• Al-anon Family Groups (easiest to find)
• CoDA Co-Dependents Anonymous
• Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families
• Find Treatment

Peer Support Continuing Care:

• S.M.A.R.T. Recovery
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Narcotics Anonymous
• Celebrate Recovery
• Refuge Recovery-A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction
• Life Beyond Addiction - Recovery 2.0

© 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.