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What happens when you survive the thing that changed your life—but no longer recognize the woman on the other side?
In this episode of It’s Hertime, Cody sits down with artist, author, and therapeutic arts practitioner Nerissa Balland, whose life changed when she was diagnosed with cancer while five months pregnant.
During treatment, survival became the priority. But when treatment ended, another kind of healing began: figuring out who she was now.
That experience eventually led Nerissa to speak with more than 100 young mothers facing cancer. Their stories became the inspiration for her book, Canvas of Courage: The Art of Healing, Hope, and Gratitude for Young Mothers Facing Cancer, which brings together 19 personal stories, research, lived experience, and original artwork.
But this conversation is about more than cancer.
Cody and Nerissa explore what happens to our identity when life changes us, why functioning and healing aren’t necessarily the same thing, and how creativity can help us express and process experiences we may not have words for.
They talk about survivorship, motherhood, fear, resilience, grief, gratitude, and the strange question so many women eventually find themselves asking:
Who am I now?
Because cancer isn’t the only thing that can change us.
Motherhood changes us.
Hormones change us.
Relationships change us.
Loss changes us.
Our bodies change.
Life changes.
And perhaps healing isn’t always about getting back to the woman we used to be.
Sometimes it’s about discovering who we’re becoming.
In this episode, you’ll hear about Nerissa’s experience of navigating cancer while pregnant, what she learned from interviewing more than 100 mothers, why the end of medical treatment doesn’t necessarily mean the end of healing, how illness and major life transitions can disrupt identity, why creative expression can reach places conversation sometimes cannot, and how to better support someone we love through cancer or another life-altering diagnosis.
Nerissa’s work today sits at the intersection of creativity, resilience, identity, and therapeutic arts, using creative practices to help people process difficult experiences and reconnect with themselves.
CONNECT WITH NERISSA
Explore Nerissa’s artwork, books, workshops and speaking:
NerissaBalland.com
Learn more about Canvas of Courage:
Canvas of Courage
FREE RESOURCES
🎧 Free Canvas of Courage Audiobook
Promo Code: LN7UF7TH6T8C8
Redeem the audiobook on Audible
🎨 Free Creative Reset Guide
Nerissa created this free guide with five simple creative practices to help you pause, process and reconnect with yourself. The exercises take about 5–10 minutes and include drawing, movement, reflection, mindfulness and future-self journaling—no artistic experience required.
Download Nerissa’s Free Creative Reset Guide
If this episode made you think of someone walking through cancer, illness, grief or simply a season where she no longer feels like herself, send it to her.
You don’t have to become the woman you once were.
Sometimes your greatest strength is becoming the woman you’re meant to be.
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