E6 Mental health through the lens of radical life changes, and the virtuous cycle of pet ownership, Guatemalan travel and catnip smuggling

In this episode, C and Peter talk to Valerie Russell. Originally from the US, she has studied forensics in the UK and worked in law enforcement in the New York metropolitan area for many years. After severe depression and a PTSD diagnosis, Valerie started her life from scratch: she moved to Guatemala and opened Due South Travels, a unique and successful travel business. Val is one of the first people I (C) met in Guatemala, and I admire her on SO many levels. She is brave, courageous, authentic and simply good people.  In this episode, we talk about mental health, all the things the animals we share our lives with do for us, the broken system of law enforcement and health care in the US and smuggling cat nip. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as the three of us did! Get in touch with Val https://www.duesouthtravels.com/ https://www.facebook.com/DueSouthTravels https://www.instagram.com/duesouthtravels/ Get in touch with Peterpeterfrombelfast [at] gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/mcgarrypeterj Get in touch with C www.chrissisdogtraining.com chrissi.schranz [at] gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/chrissi.schranz/https://www.instagram.com/adogisabondbetweenstrangers/ Free-ranging dogs Youtube channel C's upcoming online class at Fenzi Dog Sports AcademyOut and About Resources mentioned on this episode: The Blindboy Podcast (the episode C quotes from is from April 12, 2022, and is called "Intrapersonally Speaking") Thank you ... Thank you to Lesfm for providing our royalty-free intro, outro and en-tro music, to the photographer Susanne Edele who shared this week's episode picture (catnip) royalty free on Pixabay, and to Isabelle Grubert for designing the logo of the show!