AEM Podcast #71 Mervin Canham – Childhood Trauma & Addictions

An Evolving Man Podcast #71

Mervin Canham – Childhood Trauma & Addictions

Addictions Specialist Talks About Recovery

and Men's Mental Health

What does the journey of recovery from addictions look like? And how can spending time in group help the recovery process?


Mervin Canham is an addictions specialist and co-leader at The Mankind Project (MKP). The MKP is an organisation aimed at changing the world one man at a time, allowing men to touch a piece of their shadow by being vulnerable with other men.


Questions to ask:


  1. I would love for you to share how you got into the work that you now do?
  2. Could you please talk about addictions and addiction recovery. What was your recovery journey like and how did you get clean?
  3. What was it like as a boy growing up in South Africa? What were you taught? You mentioned in another podcast that you lost your brother to suicide? How was that?
  4. Could you talk about men's work and the Mankind Project? What have you learned from your years in the MKP?
  5. Other areas to talk about:
  6. Vulnerability
  7. Crying
  8. Mission and purpose
  9. Confidentiality
  10. I Statements
  11. 10 Day Silent Retreat
  12. Men's circles and sitting in circles
  13. Trauma and addictions
  14. How do people find out more about your work?


#addictionrecovery #mankindproject #mensmentalhealth #tears



Connect with Mervin Canham:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brothershabazz/
Face
book: https://www.facebook.com/mervin.canham
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mervin-canham-16237722b/





eldership in leadership
By piers February 13, 2026
What if leadership fails because of ungrieved trauma? A CLG reflection on eldership, emotional intelligence, and healing cultures shaped by institutions.
By piers February 6, 2026
Charles Spencer speaks openly about boarding school abuse, fear, rage, corporal punishment, and lifelong trauma. A vital conversation about silence, survival, and truth.
By piers January 30, 2026
A powerful conversation with paediatrician Dr William Verling on boarding school trauma, safeguarding failures, emotional shutdown, impostor syndrome, and what happens when children aren’t protected.
By piers January 23, 2026
A deep conversation with Dr Mark Stibbe on the mother wound, attachment theory, and why boarding school can create emotional shutdown. Plus Skyfall, James Bond, and healing pathways.
By piers January 16, 2026
Actor and comedian Tom Greaves shares how boarding school shaped his humour, shame, and identity — and how his show “Goodbye Uncle Fudgy” became a path from dissociation to healing.
By piers January 9, 2026
Educational psychologist Morag Edwards explores girls’ boarding school trauma, neglect, attachment rupture, and misogyny in co-educational boarding schools.
By piers January 2, 2026
Sam Adams explores men’s trauma, emotional shutdown, and how reconnecting with nature, seasons, and community can heal the wounded masculine.
By piers December 26, 2025
Dr Mark Stibbe shares how boarding school abuse shaped his emotional shutdown (“the boarded heart”), and how therapy, spirituality, and forgiveness can lead to healing.
By piers December 19, 2025
Roger Sharpley shares the lifelong impact of being sent to boarding school at age two, including PTSD, memory loss, anxiety, and healing through therapy, Tai Chi, and love.
By piers December 12, 2025
Andrew Kavak shares his Westminster School boarding experience, the psychology of abandonment and dissociation, and how writing therapy can support healing. Listen to Episode 84 of An Evolving Man Podcast.