Meet Me In The Field

It is a great pleasure to introduce you to my friend Nick. Nick is one of my favourite people in the whole world to listen to. He is a rabbit hole of information, facts, knowledge, quirks, trivia and authenticity, and I love him for it. I want to, and can say a lot more about him, but this is a long episode, so I shall allow our chat to do the talking. If you want to contact Nick as a photographer, find him on his website (http://nickaldridge.net/) or on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/phototraveller/). For coaching, track him down on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/outlierinsight/) or email him on nick@nickaldridge.co.za. This podcast is supported by “Orangutans in the field”. The podcast where Merwe and I talk about life stuff, how it impacts our mental health and how we deal with it. Catch this unedited, raw, sometimes hard-hitting and always blatantly honest podcast on Anchor.fm (https://anchor.fm/orangutans-in-the-field) and Iono.fm (https://iono.fm/c/5651). Please also look out for information

I am happy to introduce you to Yule Banda. I met Yule in the same online men’s group in which I met Jurgens, The Rune Grandmaster ( https://www.freddie.org.za/mmitf/2021/08/19/the-rune-grand-master.html) of two episodes ago. I experienced Yule as someone with a vast amount of serenity and I wanted to find out how he got to that place and how he maintains it. So, I asked him to be our guest on Meet me in the field. We meet a man of deep faith, who uses this faith to carry him through times and to live a life of standing in service of his fellow man. In his capacity as a Coach, he guides people to understand their free choices and to nurture their natural talent to live full and fulfilling lives. If you want to find Yule and maybe use his services, log on to his [website]( http://transcendentcoach.com/) or find him on his [Facebook page]( https://www.facebook.com/TranscendentCoach). This podcast is supported by “Orangutans in the field”. The podcast where Merwe and I talk about life stuff, how it impacts

I am so blessed to live a life in which I, somehow, end up getting to know some remarkable and fascinating people. I met Mike as a result of a South African rehabilitation center seeing a gap in the market in terms of addiction treatment for people for whom engagement in chemsex have become unmanageable. David, the owner of Twin Rivers Rehab in Plettenberg Bay, contacted me and asked if I would be interested in running a chemsex programme for Twin Rivers. Obviously, due to my involvement with Sex Addicts Anonymous and cofacilitating Patrick Carnes sex addiction based treatment groups, he felt I would be a perfect fit. Part of the process of getting this group up and running, was for me to learn more about chemsex. So, in steps chemsex specialist and gay men’s addiction counsellor, Mike Power from London. Having worked in London in gay men’s health clinics and running a chemsex programme at a treatment center in Thailand, Mike was the perfect master for me to learn from. Mike and I got along really well. I sen

I met Jurgens at the beginning of lock down 2020 in a men’s group. I felt there was something about him which I found intriguing. What it is that I found interesting, was that Jurgens works in IT, but is also a Reiki practitioner. I wanted to get to know him a bit better, so, I invited him to be our guest. It turns out, he is a Rune Grandmaster of the Armanen runes. In 2005, he joined The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), also known as the Rosicrucian Order. In 2019 he graduated from The Order of the Knights Runes and is now a Grandmaster. Jurgens has introduced me to concepts of spirituality which I have either only vaguely heard of or never even come across. During our chat, he referred to the readings of GI Gurdjieff and JG Bennett and the book that changed his life is Miraculous Management by Saul Kuchinsky. I name these here because you may not hear it clearly during the conversation. As mentioned, Jurgens is also a Reiki practitioner, as well as a Trauma/tension Release Exercise (TRE) fac

Our guest today is Tia Boutlton. I honestly cannot think of what to say as per and introduction. For me, this conversation is all about feeling and not about putting those feelings into words. I thoroughly loved the warmth Tia brought into the field during our chat, despite the covid hardship she had to and is still enduring. It is horrific how Tia is stuck in the UK while her loved ones are here in South Africa. I recon her being stuck resonates deeply with me, being stuck in South Africa, while we are supposed to have checked into America in August last year already. We are confronted with the horrific truth of Covid-19 around every corner, so I think the light and laughter Tia contribute to the field is just what the doctor ordered.

I love how chance meetings can lead to such meaningful meetings in this field of ours. Today is no exception. I met Lois in a PSASA (Professional Speakers Association of South Africa) chat, where the topic was around hosting a podcast. I asked her to be our guest and she immediately agreed. I am so happy to introduce Lois Wagner to you. Lois has a deeply personal journey which she shares with us, and I thank her for her vulnerability. I raise my hat to Lois for using her rape as a way to help others on a journey through fear, to forgiveness and ultimately freedom. I am not going to say a lot more, because I feel her story must be heard first-hand. Lois can be found in numerous places on the world wide web. She has two websites. One is and the other one is. The second website, Walking without skin, is also the name of Lois’ book, which is available on Amazon. Walking without skin is also the name of her Facebook page. You can also find her on her YouTube channel as well as listen to her talk on TedEx.

Every episode of Meet me in the field that I record and put out is close to my heart and incredibly important to me. Today’s episode truly takes a special place. I have known Mandy for about 25 years now. We have walked strange and interesting paths. From the heydays of flourishing financial markets, market crashes, marriages, divorces, my drug addiction and recovery, to her sudden onset blindness and wounding and steep road of recovery, we have been there for each other. I am aware of how difficult it is for Mandy to share this part of her life path, but we both agree it is not only a tale worth telling, but if we can, through this telling, help one person, then we have done well. I thank Mandy from the bottom of my heart. You can listen to Mandy’s first Meet me in the field chat here: https://www.freddie.org.za/mmitf/2018/01/11/the-buddhist.html. We also refer to James and Pierre during our chat. You can catch my chat with James here: https://www.freddie.org.za/mmitf/2017/12/07/the-altruist.html, while

It is such a pleasure to welcome Alice, from Surrey in England, to Meet me in the field. I have had the pleasure of watching Alice’s spiritual awakening and growth over the past few years and am terribly excited to share her story with you. This young lady went from a life of alcoholism, drug addiction and anorexia, to graduating from the Royal College of Art earlier this year. She starts her Masters degree in art in September at the same institute. How awesome is that? If you want to see some of her work, please follow her on Instagram at letsgetclayful. I need to apoligise for the sound at stages in the recording. The Zoom link between Cape Town and Surrey wasn’t too great, but we made the best of what we got.

Getting to know today’s guest is surely one of the highlights of my 2021. I am terribly excited to introduce you to Peta Dukes. Peta is a Cranio Secral Therapist/Practitioner, whatever you choose to call her and a Recovery Coach. If you want or need trauma work done or want to know more about your inner child, Peta is your person. I really rate her knowledge and insight. If you want to contact her, please email her on peta.dukes@gmail .com or whatsapp (only) her on 079-661-0922. I relate with Peta on so many levels and the chat got a bit out of hand because of this, so this episode is longer than the current standard one. I am thus not going to say any more and happily introduce Peta to you.

This is the 170th episode of Meet me in the field and I am still amazed about the fantastic things that happen when I get a complete stranger behind the microphone and we start talking. Today, I speak to yet another Insight Timer friend, this time it is Dave from Dudley in the UK. What amazed me about this conversation is how much Dave and I have in common. We both walked a path through addiction, we meditate, we both do intermittent fasting, we do the cold shower at the end of a warm shower-thing, we both stopped eating meat and we both wrote a book. I really found these similarities between us fascinating. Talk about Dave’s book. He wrote a book called The Awakening of Death, by David E. Jones. It is available on [Amazon]( https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Death-Wondered-Existence-Demonstrates-ebook/dp/B08RSNS5WL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Awakening+of+Death&qid=1621330265&s=books&sr=1-1) and theawakeningofdeath is also Dave’s Instagram account. Please follow him. I also want to tak

I am excited to introduce you to Sam Marais, another Insight Timer friend. Sam was one of the first people I befriended on Insight Timer. It was his profile pic that caught my eye. Since then, we have regularly sent each other messages, thanking each other for meditating together. I obviously had no idea what to expect when we started the recording. How awesome to meet someone whom I have this much in common with. I truly had no idea of the similarities in our lives when I asked Sam to be our guest. All I learnt, after having asked him to join us, is that he teaches yoga. Sam can be found on his website (https://yogisoul.co.za/). He is also very excited to share his Insight timer meditations with us. You can find them here: https://www.freddie.org.za/.../05/06/the-yoga-teacher.html

I am excited to introduce you to another Insight Timer friend. This time I speak with Lee Griffin. Lee is a coach who, as stated in her LinkedIn profile, helps “entrepreneurs explore the possibilities and invest their energy, time and resources for maximum return.” She focusses on work/life harmony and coaches how to work smarter and not harder. Her attention to giving back to communities gets me all excited. Lee and I had a great energy going right from the start of our chat. She is an excellent communicator with a warm personality and a casualness about her which made me feel comfortable immediately. I love, love, love the story she tells about her childhood church hunting, which begged this episode to be named as it is. I find it fascinating that she calls her ego Margaret and stays engaged with her/it constantly. I also have a deep respect for her commitment to doing ethical business in line with her morality and am excited to receive my Arise Coffee soon. You can find Lee on her, in construction pha

Meet me in the field is back after a few weeks’ absence. It is great to be back. From now on Meet me in the field will come out every second Thursday instead of every week. Life is just to hectic for me at the moment to get an episode out every week. I started studying toward a Recovery Coach qualification and need about 80 hours of practical to qualify. Something’s gotta give hey? I am excited to introduce you to Chris from France. Chris, with his partner, Karen, are the founders and owners of Just Go Pink. A company they use to motivate and empower people to live healthier and happier lives. I met Chis on the meditation app Insight Timer. This, incidentally, is also how Chris and Karen met. I speak to Chris about his journey from a mainframe programmer, to a yoga teacher and the use of Ayurvedic therapy in their work. If you want to know more about Just go Pink, log on to their website. If you want to use their services, they offer all Meet me in the field listeners a 50% discount. Just use the code Fre

Imagine my surprise when I opened my laptop on 16 October 2020 to see an email from Lauren Bryant, the Content and Community Manager for Josh Trent, the founder and CEO of Wellness Force Media, from Texas. She informed me that they heard my podcast with Erica Alison about Holotropic breathwork. They were interested in my work and inquired about Josh being a guest on Meet me in the field. Obviously, I immediately did some research on Wellness Force Media, liked what I saw and moved forward on setting up the appointment. It took us 4 months to make the interview happen, but make it happen, we did. I am very happy that Josh and I got to do this talk. He had an amazing life up until now, moving from porn and food addiction through three spiritual awakenings to finding Wellness Force Media and doing great work in this strange and interesting world. If you want to know more about Wellness Force Media, Josh and his work, please find him on his website. While you are there make use of his free offer with regards t

A few months ago, I got this email out of the blue from a women who informed me that she is a Holistic Counsellor registered with the same professional body I am. In the email she asks if I will mind terribly if she sends me information about the workshop she was about to launch. I thought this was one of the most well-mannered things ever and immediately agreed. Over the next few months, I would get mails about workshops that Fe (the e is supposed to have an accent on and Fe told me to press Alt 130 to get the e with the accent, but it does not work like that on my laptop – sorry Fe) runs and links to videos that she posted. I watched one of the videos and got a warm feeling in my tummy. The women on my screen radiated amazing energy. I hardly followed a word she said, because I was already typing her an invite to our guest on Meet me in the field. I wanted to know what caused Fe can Haght to have such an aura. . I am excited to introduce Fe to you. She is not only a Counsellor, but also a speaker and faci

Today we end our international podcast host series with Australian podcast host and business owner Michael Gregory. I am happy to introduce the host of the Addiction to Freedom podcast and the owner of True Quit. Michael is based outside Sydney in Australia and has a beautifully calm demeanour. His company was formed after Michael’s own struggle to stop smoking. He explains how his philosophically trained mind dug deeper and deeper into the brain mechanism around quitting cigarettes until he found an answer, which he rolled out to great success. He believes his method stops cravings and that it can be used in quitting any addictive substance. I am excited to hear this and really want to take the time to study this more. He started his podcast recently to spread the word that there is something like freedom from addiction. You can catch Addicted to Freedom on Michael’s website. It was a great chat that I am sure you will enjoy.

Today we do a one-episode break-away from our international podcast host series to listen to local man, Paul Roux. Paul has a background in finance and marketing... and in addiction. Now, 9 years into his sober journey, he is combining his knowledge and experience of everything financial with with his strength and hope of recovery, to bring a message of financial hope and dreams to people in the recovery community, but by all mean not limited to people in recovery. I find his story very inspirational and think you will too. Learn more about Paul on his [website]( https://www.paulrouxcoaching.com/). While on his site also look at the book Paul features in, called The Addiction Diaries. You can also find him on Facebook if you look for Paul Roux Coaching. You can even email Paul at paul@paulrouxcoaching.com. This was Zoom recording. At stages you will hear some sound lags (if that is even a thing – but you will hear what I mean when you hear it). I apologise for that, but it is due to the internet, over which

Today we are hearing the fourth episode of our international podcast host series. We get to know Carine Camara from The Infinite Love podcast. Carine is originally from New York, but now settled in Lafayette in California in America. She has a vast list of healing qualifications behind her name and use various modalities to facilitate healing and spread love. The most prominent of these are acupuncture, energy medicine, pelvic wellness and intuition. She founded the Pelvic Wellness Centre and does amazing work in specifically, but not limited to female wellness. You can find Carine on her website, or on Instagram on carinejcamara and her podcast is on most majour podcast platforms, but I get in on Audry. This is what Audry says about Infinite Love podcast: “Carine Camara’s Podcast Infinite Love is a place to be inspired on emotional/spiritual healing and transformation. We talk about Love as Medicine, and share stories on ways to overcome life’s challenges with love, positivity and kindness. Carine is an in

In the third installment of our international podcast host series, we meet Hannah Garland from the Your Uncommon Life podcast. Hannah lives about an hour from Seattle, Washington in the United States. She started thinking of doing a podcast about 2 years ago when she had a miscarriage, but only got around to it a few weeks ago. That just shows that a good idea does not die, and we should never give up on a dream. I grab her podcast on Audry (https://app.audry.io/publisher/discover/1540174361), but she can be heard on all the major podcast platforms. This is the write-up to her podcast: “Encouraging words for busy days, tough seasons, and women who do it all. With a perspective rooted in faith and rounded out with years of working high pressure jobs to amateur fighting and now motherhood, I aim to encourage women to make intentional choices to focus their lives around what matters most to them. I explore topics like hope, vulnerability, identity, and habit formation. I’m on this journey, too, and together, we

This week we have our second episode in the series of having international pod-casters as our guests on Meet me in the field. I am excited to introduce Brian Sexton from West Virginia in the dear old US of A to you. Brian is the host of The Intentional Encourager podcast. In each episode, he listens to inspirational stories told by incredible people who have overcome unbelievable obstacles. They share the greatest lessons they learned and their biggest piece of Intentional Encouragement. You can listen to it on all the most prominent podcast platforms, but here is a link to it on Audry. Brian is also the writer of a book called People buy from People. The subscript to the book reads: “10 Powerful People Lessons from the Ultimate People Person - My Dad”. While the write-up to the book reads as follows: “Connection is a basic human need. To share a part of one’s innermost self with someone else is a critical component in today’s world. Every society has a need and strong desire to connect virtually, vocally o