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Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
Steve Bisson
253 episodes
2 days ago
Send us a text The story begins where many first responder lives converge: relentless calls, court dates, and a small department that never truly sleeps. Then the personal hits. Former New Hampshire police chief Doug Wyman opens up about parenting through a son’s addiction at the height of the opioid crisis, supporting a younger child through identity shifts, and the morning that changed everything—when his wife died by suicide with his duty weapon. What follows is a rare, unguarded look at p...
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Mental Health
Education,
Self-Improvement,
Health & Fitness,
Science,
Social Sciences
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Send us a text The story begins where many first responder lives converge: relentless calls, court dates, and a small department that never truly sleeps. Then the personal hits. Former New Hampshire police chief Doug Wyman opens up about parenting through a son’s addiction at the height of the opioid crisis, supporting a younger child through identity shifts, and the morning that changed everything—when his wife died by suicide with his duty weapon. What follows is a rare, unguarded look at p...
Show more...
Mental Health
Education,
Self-Improvement,
Health & Fitness,
Science,
Social Sciences
Episodes (20/253)
Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.232 From Chief To Healer: A First Responder’s Journey Through Loss, Addiction, And Resilience (Part 1)
Send us a text The story begins where many first responder lives converge: relentless calls, court dates, and a small department that never truly sleeps. Then the personal hits. Former New Hampshire police chief Doug Wyman opens up about parenting through a son’s addiction at the height of the opioid crisis, supporting a younger child through identity shifts, and the morning that changed everything—when his wife died by suicide with his duty weapon. What follows is a rare, unguarded look at p...
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5 days ago
29 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.231 Breaking The Stigma Around Addiction (Part 2 of 2)
Send us a text As we continue the conversation with Lisa, Trusas. Stigma is a quiet siren—it keeps people from asking for help, and it teaches the rest of us to look away. We open up about what addiction really looks like inside emergency services and at home, from dispatch centers and correctional facilities to ERs and patrol rooms. We talk about growing up in households where chaos felt normal, why “functioning alcoholic” gets a pass while heroin use gets a scarlet letter, and how the words...
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1 week ago
29 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.231 The Unseen Burden Of 911: Stigma, Stress, And Support
Send us a text The first voice on a 911 call carries a lot more than a headset. In this candid, unfiltered conversation with veteran dispatcher and recovery coach Lisa Trusas, we pull back the curtain on what really happens at the console: juggling multiple emergencies at once, coaching panicked parents through CPR, catching danger in a whisper, and making judgment calls with lives on the line. Lisa’s story reframes dispatch as the heart of public safety—where police, fire, and EMS meet—and w...
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1 week ago
30 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.230 From Restorative Sleep To Field-Proven Leadership For First Responders (Part 2 of 2)
Send us a text Change that lasts doesn’t come from a one-time high or another sleepless night patched by a pill. It comes from disciplined, daily work that your brain can actually keep—paired with leadership that people trust when it matters most. Steve sits down with Marine veteran and CEO Tony Crescenzo to unpack how audio-driven brain signals can turn short-term “state” shifts into month-later “trait” changes, especially for first responders who need real restorative sleep, calmer stress r...
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2 weeks ago
31 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E. 230 What If Healing Trauma Starts By Quieting The Story In Your Head (Part 1 of 2)
Send us a text Ever wish you could quiet the story in your head without having to relive it? We sit down with Marine veteran and defense-tech CEO Tony Crescenzo to explore a practical, science-backed way to downshift the nervous system using neuroacoustic entrainment. Tony opens up about the years he spent running hot—rage, hypervigilance, and fractured sleep—and how a targeted audio protocol shifted his sleep from barely restorative to deeply replenishing. The conversation gets real about wh...
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2 weeks ago
38 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.229 How First Responders Can Process Trauma Without Burning Out (Part 2 of 2)
Send us a text The hardest part isn’t the call. It’s what your body and mind carry after the sirens fade. We go straight at the myth that strength means silence, and trade it for a practical blueprint to complete the stress cycle, name emotions without fancy language, and rebuild trust through honest conversation. Stephanie Simpson continues to share simple, fast tools first responders can use to process stress on and off scene. We break down why compartmentalizing is necessary in the moment...
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3 weeks ago
34 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E. 229 Grief, Growth, And The Uniform (Part 1 of 2)
Send us a text What if the hardest grief in your life isn’t about death, but about change—leaving a team, dropping a title, or stepping away from a community that once defined you? That’s where our conversation with coach and educator Stephanie Simpson begins, and it’s where many first responders secretly live: in the space between who we were and who we’re becoming. Stephanie shares how her evolution from dancer and teacher to professional coach reshaped her understanding of loss. We dig in...
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3 weeks ago
30 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.228 What Happens When We Stop Keeping Pain A Secret
Send us a text Some conversations ask you to sit up a little straighter. This one asks you to relax your shoulders, tell the truth, and feel what you’ve been carrying. We dive into the messy overlap of trauma and grief in first responder and military cultures, where silence is rewarded and honesty is too often punished, and we share a different path built on authenticity, peer support, and practical skills. Blythe Landry joins us to map the line between privacy and secrecy, and why crossing ...
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1 month ago
50 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.227 How A Trilingual Clinician Bridges Police, Families, And Mental Health
Send us a text The hardest conversations often happen in the quiet minutes between calls. We sat down with clinician and co-response partner Amanda Rizoli to explore how real support for first responders is built—on language, trust, and the discipline to show up when services are thin and the need is loud. Amanda works alongside the Milford Police Department’s Family Services Unit and partners with Community Impact, Chris’s Corner Recovery Resource Center, and New England Medical Group to cre...
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1 month ago
30 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E. 226 First Responder Burnout: See, Notice, and Stop Strategies
Send us a text In this continued collaboration with Milford TV, we explore how burnout rarely makes a scene—it slips in as irritability, isolation, and the quiet urge to shut out the world. This episode is the conclusion of episode 225 and we open the door on how those whispers grow louder inside the fire service and EMS, why “just call this number” isn’t care, and what it really takes to protect crews before a bad day becomes a disaster. Our guest, Renea Mansfield, shares honest, lived exper...
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1 month ago
32 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.225 Inside the Firehouse: Burnout, Betrayal, and Building Real Leadership
Send us a text Burnout doesn’t just come from the calls—it grows in the silence after, inside a culture that either catches you or drops you. We sit down with Renae, a former firefighter-paramedic who now coaches first responders on burnout recovery and nervous system regulation, to unpack how leadership betrayal, union politics, and the loss of seasoned mentors quietly shape morale, retention, and the quality of care on scene. Renae walks us through two starkly different departments: one wi...
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1 month ago
29 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.224 High-Functioning Doesn't Mean You Don't Need Help
Send us a text How do we treat our physical health versus our mental health? Former London Metropolitan Police officer Jonathan Kemp spent 12 years in law enforcement while battling undiagnosed bipolar disorder, depression, and dyslexia—yet refused to seek professional help until his late 30s. "I was determined to fix myself on my own," Kemp reveals in this powerful conversation. "I saw it as an insult to go and see a doctor. It was a weakness or admission of defeat." This mindset, particula...
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2 months ago
43 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.223 When Trauma Comes Home: A Therapist's View
Send us a text The weight of trauma doesn't stay at work—it comes home. For first responders, this reality shapes not just their professional lives but transforms family dynamics, relationships, and personal wellbeing in profound ways that most people never see. In this revealing conversation, therapist Erin Sheridan shares her unique perspective as both a mental health professional specializing in first responder care and someone who understands the lifestyle intimately through personal con...
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2 months ago
51 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.222 Sweating It Out: Fire Boots to Therapy Couch
Send us a text When a fellow firefighter confessed suicidal thoughts to Adam Neff one night at the firehouse, it changed everything. Despite his decades of experience handling emergencies, Adam found himself unprepared for this particular crisis. That moment became the catalyst for his remarkable transition from assistant chief of operations to licensed professional counselor specializing in first responder mental health. During our conversation, Adam reveals the profound disconnect between ...
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2 months ago
1 hour 11 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.221 From Survival Mode to Sustainable Service: A First Responder's Guide to Wellbeing
Send us a text The weight of caring for others can become unbearable when we forget to care for ourselves. This powerful conversation with Deidre Gestrin, a licensed clinical professional counselor and certified health coach, takes us deep into the reality of burnout among first responders and helping professionals. Deidre shares her profound personal journey through burnout - a harrowing experience that led her doctor to deliver the stark warning: "Your job is killing you." With remarkable ...
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2 months ago
37 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.220 Not Your Typical Shrinks: Real Talk for Real Heroes
Send us a text Steve Bisson welcomes Bill Dwinnells, a licensed mental health counselor with over 30 years of experience and a background as an EMT, to discuss their joint venture, Gambit Counseling, and its innovative approach to first responder mental health. The conversation explores why traditional mental health services often fall short for first responders. As Dwinnells eloquently explains, "First responders see a very unique slice of American life that the vast majority of people know...
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3 months ago
40 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.219 The IAFF Center of Excellence: A Lifeline for Firefighters in Crisis
Send us a text The IAFF Center of Excellence stands as a sanctuary for firefighters navigating the complex terrain of mental health challenges. In this revealing conversation with Hannah Elmore, Clinical Outreach Coordinator, we explore how this specialized treatment facility has become a lifeline for nearly 4,000 firefighters across North America. Hannah takes us behind the scenes of this unique 15-acre campus in Maryland, explaining how every aspect—from the station house-style sleeping qu...
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3 months ago
36 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.218 Behind the Scenes at the IAFF Center of Excellence with Hannah Elmore
Send us a text In this powerful conversation, Hannah Elmore, Senior Clinical Outreach Coordinator for the IAFF Center of Excellence, reveals the critical role of culturally competent care in supporting firefighter mental health. Drawing from her extensive background in clinical social work and deep immersion in fire service culture, Hannah illuminates the often-overlooked nuances of how mental health challenges uniquely manifest in first responders. The discussion takes us behind the curtain...
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3 months ago
35 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.217 Bouncing Back: A Cop and Counselor Spill Their Marriage Tea
Send us a text What happens when a police officer and a counselor not only share their professional expertise but also their marriage journey? In this candid, powerful conversation, Ashley and Dustin Wright bring a unique dual perspective to the challenges facing first responder marriages. Marriage requires resilience for everyone, but for those in law enforcement, the stakes are particularly high. "Resiliency in law enforcement is super important," explains Dustin, "because we're going to h...
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3 months ago
28 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
E.216 Building Resilience as First Responder Couples: Lessons from Dustin and Ashley Wright
Send us a text What happens when a police sergeant and a therapist build a life together? Dustin and Ashley Wright open up about their 13-year journey as a first responder couple in this vulnerable and insightful conversation that challenges conventional thinking about trauma, communication, and resilience. The conversation takes an unexpected turn when Dustin shares how a seemingly routine cardiac arrest call triggered a trauma response that affected his intimate relationship with Ashley. T...
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3 months ago
36 minutes

Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
Send us a text The story begins where many first responder lives converge: relentless calls, court dates, and a small department that never truly sleeps. Then the personal hits. Former New Hampshire police chief Doug Wyman opens up about parenting through a son’s addiction at the height of the opioid crisis, supporting a younger child through identity shifts, and the morning that changed everything—when his wife died by suicide with his duty weapon. What follows is a rare, unguarded look at p...