Episodes
Stories from the Shadows
Each episode is a journey into the depths of human experience. Raw conversations. Real transformations.
The Secret She Carried for Decades: Her Father Was the Father of Her Children
We teach kids to avoid strangers. To trust their gut. To believe home means safety. But what if home was the danger? In this first episode of The Shadow Sessions, host Hiba Balfaqih sits down with Aziza Kibibi — a survivor whose story of incest, betrayal, and survival shatters the illusion of safety.
We All Have Something We Are Hiding
The Shadow Sessions is a podcast for the stories we hide, the ones too painful, too early, or too private to ever make it to therapy. Hosted by psychologist and trauma alchemist Hiba Balfaqih, each episode sits with the truths people were never given permission to speak.
A Childhood Without Safety: Growing Up Inside the Prison System
What happens when a child grows up without safety, and the system responds with punishment instead of protection? In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, host Hiba Balfaqih sits down with Sonny Van Cleaveland, whose life was shaped by incarceration before it was shaped by care.
Mikey, The Death
Doula
Not all shadows are dark. Some are quiet. Some are tender. Some ask us to slow down and sit with the one certainty we spend our lives trying to outrun. In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, host Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Mikey, a death doula who supports people at the end of life—helping them die on their own terms, with dignity, presence, and meaning.
Hacker & Identity James
Linton
We’re taught to imagine hackers as men in hoodies—isolated, brilliant, dangerous. But what if the real story isn’t about code or breaches at all? What if it’s about psychology? In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with a man who infiltrated some of the most powerful systems in the world—impersonating CEOs, deceiving institutions, and accessing spaces he was never meant to enter.
After the Collapse: Bankruptcy, Identity Loss and Building Again
Not all shadows look like darkness. Some look like ambition. Some look like discipline, perseverance, and the pressure to hold everything together while quietly falling apart. In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Amber Duncan, who went from success as it’s culturally defined to total collapse.
The Sin Of Being a Girl: Surviving Honor-Based Violence
What if your biggest sin is being born a girl? What happens when violence is justified as tradition and silence is enforced as honor? In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Nina Aouilk, a survivor of honor‑based violence who grew up in a system where abuse was normalized, and truth was punished.
“My Father Said All Dads Do This!” Incest Survivor Breaks The Silence Nobody Wanted To Hear
We teach kids to avoid strangers. To trust their gut. To believe home means safety. But what if home was the danger? In this first episode of The Shadow Sessions, host Hiba Balfaqih sits down with Aziza Kibibi. A survivor whose story of incest, betrayal, and survival shatters the illusion of safety.
“I Had No Problem Stabbing People” Ex Prisoner Reveals His Darkest Secrets
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Sonny shares his story of childhood sexual abuse, early entanglement with the justice system, and spending eighteen years in prison. But this conversation isn’t about redemption or reinvention.
"Everyone Says This Before They Die" Death Doula Reveals What Happens When We Die
Most of us spend our entire lives pretending death isn't coming. We don't talk about it, we don't plan for it, and when it arrives...we're completely unprepared.
Mikey is a death doula. She sits with people as they die. Holding their hand, tending to their soul, and making sure their final days have dignity, meaning, and peace. But before she could help others face death, she had to face it herself.
Inside the Psyche of the hacker who infiltrated The White House
What happens when curiosity meets power with no supervision?
In Episode 4 of The Shadow Sessions, James reflects on the moment he hacked the White House, and what followed after access was granted, lines were crossed, and no one was watching.
"I Lost Everything in One Day" Amber Duncan Reveals the Money Wound Nobody Talks About
Amber didn’t come here to tell a comeback story.
She talks about what happened when the business fell apart not publicly, not dramatically but internally. When the thing that had given her structure, confidence, and direction was suddenly gone.
We talk about identity built on competence.
The sin of being a girl: Surviving honor based violence
In this episode I sit down with Nina Aouilk for a conversation about survival, identity, and what it really means to reclaim your voice after abuse and attempted honour killing.
Nina shares what it does to the nervous system when safety is taken from you early, how control reshapes self trust, and what breaking generational silence actually costs.
From Prison to MMA legend: The Making of Frank Shamrock
In this episode I sit down with Frank Shamrock, former UFC champion, pioneer of modern MMA, and a man whose life began long before the spotlight ever found him.
Frank’s story doesn’t start in an arena. It starts in instability, in foster homes, in survival mode. What unfolds in this conversation is not a highlight reel of victories, but an honest exploration of identity, how violence shapes a nervous system, how discipline can become salvation, and what it really takes to interrupt the patterns you were raised inside.
"I Almost Took a Life... Then I Almost Took My Own" One Man's Road Back From the Darkest Place
Jonathan Mendez nearly killed a man in a knife fight and almost killed himself months later. In this raw conversation, he unpacks the childhood abuse, buried rage, and dark night of the soul that brought him to the edge, and the love that pulled him back.
"I Was Abused for 6 Years and Never Told Anyone" Male Survivor Finally Speaks
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Seth shares his story of growing up in abuse and the psychological impact that followed him into adulthood.
At just 10 years old, Seth reached a breaking point many people never see. What followed was years of silence, confusion, and trying to understand experiences that a child should never have to process alone.
Surviving The Fire: Joe Dimeo On Living After 80% Burns And The World’s First Face & Hand Transplant
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Joe shares what it actually feels like to face that kind of change physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
This is not a story about appearance.
It’s a conversation about acceptance, ego, independence, and the long process of becoming someone new.
Forced child marriage at 15 years old…
Rubie was told she was going on a family vacation.
A suitcase.
A plane ticket.
Six weeks away from home.
But the trip was never meant to end.
Instead, Rubie found herself in another country, married to a man she had never met. decision made about her life without her voice.
"They Dressed Me Up And Drove Me To His House!" Epstein Survivor Reveals Her Deepest Wounds
Abuse doesn’t always hide in dark corners.
Sometimes it lives in mansions, on private jets, and behind the reputations of powerful people.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Jena‑Lisa Jones, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein who was drawn into a system of grooming and manipulation long before the world began paying attention.
"My Ex Husband Strangled Me" Abuse Survivor Reveals How She Was Almost Killed 3 Weeks Into Marriage
We raise girls on fairy tales....Prince Charming, fast love, and the promise of forever. They’re taught to be chosen, to be patient, to make relationships work. But what we rarely talk about is how these stories can shape what women learn to tolerate.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Annesa, who met a man online and quickly found herself swept into an intense relationship that escalated faster than she could question it. Within days she was meeting family. Within weeks he was pushing marriage, using faith and urgency to frame devotion as destiny.
“I Jumped From A Buring Plane…” Ex Special Forces Soldier Shared His Miraculous Survival Story
We love stories about survival—the miracle, the comeback, the headline. But we rarely talk about what survival actually costs.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Jamie, who survived a devastating plane crash that left 63% of his body burned and doctors giving him only a five‑percent chance of survival. What followed was six months in a coma, two years in the hospital, and more than sixty surgeries to rebuild a body that had nearly been lost.
“I Was A Jihadi Spy” Former Extremist Reveals How He Stopped The Biggest Terror Plot In Canada
We often think extremism begins with violence… with something obvious, distant, easy to recognize.
But what we rarely talk about is how it actually starts.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Mubin Shaikh, a former Islamist extremist who later became an undercover counter-terrorism operative. Before any action, before any headlines, there was belief, certainty, identity, and the feeling of finally understanding something bigger than himself.
"I Was Kidnapped In A Warzone" Yugoslav War Survivor Reveals the Truth About Human Trafficking
We often think human trafficking begins in a van… with a stranger, a kidnapping, something obvious and far away.
But what we rarely talk about is how it actually works.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Lurata Lyon, a survivor of human trafficking and organ harvesting during the Yugoslav civil war. Before any violence, someone had already decided her body had a price.
"I Was Sentenced To Life In Prison At 13" Ian Manuel Reveals How The Woman He Shot Set Him Free
We often think criminal justice fails because someone made a bad decision.
But what we rarely talk about is what happens when the system works exactly as designed.
In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Ian Manuel, a poet and activist who was sentenced to life in prison at 13 years old for a non-homicide offense. No parents in the room. No lawyer present. Just a child who confessed because his conscience wouldn’t let him stay silent and a court that looked at him and saw a monster.
Sold for s*x at 4 years old: Survivor reveals how her own mother trafficked her…
She was four years old the first time her mother sold her for sex.
Not a stranger. Not someone she couldn’t see coming. Her mother. The one person a child is wired to trust with everything.
Jazmine Clark survived nine years of sexual trafficking at the hands of the woman who gave her life. She tried to end her life 12 times before she turned 10. She protected her little sisters by offering herself instead. She left at 15 with a baby and nowhere to go. And then she walked straight into a marriage that mirrored everything she had escaped.
“I Married A P*dophile…” A Mother Finally Speaks Out…
She found out on Halloween night.
Not from catching him. Not from a confrontation.
Her 15-year-old daughter handed her a poem. And in that moment Tracy Wilson Heisler, a child welfare advocate who spent her career protecting other people’s children, had a choice to make.
She believed her daughter immediately. She cut off his money. She got a confession on a cassette tape. And she walked him to the police herself.
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