Terry Hastings didn't set out to become New York State's first Chief Wellness Officer. He built the case for the role one needs assessment, one training module, one hard conversation at a time.
"Cultural competence" gets thrown around a lot in mental health circles. Dr. Brooke Bartlett has a harder definition: specialized, ongoing training paired with hands-on experience- not a one-hour class, not having an uncle who's a firefighter, not a personality trait you either have or don't.
What happens when every traditional treatment fails — and a first responder is still drowning? Retired FDNY-EMS paramedic and Army combat medic Carmine Fiore survived 30 treatment centers and 15 heroin overdoses before trying something the first responder world rarely talks about: Ibogaine-assisted treatment at Ambio Life Sciences in Tijuana, Mexico.
She lost him. Then she found a way through. Lt. James Crawford (Ret.) of the Chicago Police Department was a pastor, a mentor, and the man everyone leaned on. Months after retiring, he died by suicide.
In this episode, Dr. Moore pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to build wellness programs that change lives — not because a flyer went up in the break room, but because someone did the slow, patient, relationship-driven work of making it real.
Daniel Sundahl ran calls for twenty years. As a career firefighter and advanced care paramedic in Alberta, Canada, he saw what the job builds in you — and what it quietly destroys. He didn't leave the profession when it got hard. He went deeper into it, earning credentials as a Registered Counselling Therapist and Trauma Specialist, and then wrote a book about what he learned.
They respond to the worst moments of people's lives — every single shift. Then they clear the call, restock the rig, and do it again. Nobody asks if they're okay. The system just keeps moving. In this episode of Responder Resilience, we sit down with two people who decided that wasn't good enough.
Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz made history the moment she took office — the first elected Sheriff of Miami-Dade County in nearly sixty years, the first woman to hold the role, and the first Latina sheriff in Florida history. But making history was never the point. What she did next was.
Chris Littrell is a retired police sergeant, Air Force veteran, and the author of Echoes from the Street — a book that required him to walk back through everything he'd spent years trying to outrun.
Dr. Cherylynn Lee works inside the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office. Full-time. Every day. She's not observing the culture — she's inside it, earning trust in a world built, brick by brick, to never ask for help. She responds to active crises in the field. Sits on the crisis negotiation team. Has debriefed more than forty critical incidents — line-of-duty deaths, officer-involved shootings, mass casualty events — and then comes back the next day and does it again.
Your nervous system doesn't know the call is over. That's the reality for first responders — and the problem most conventional therapy wasn't built to solve. Dr. Joanna Rosen, psychologist and founder of Between Two Ears Trauma Consultancy, goes deeper than the story, deeper than the memory — all the way down to where trauma actually lives.
Cops don't break on the job. They break slowly, quietly, in the space between calls — carrying everything they've ever seen, heard, and survived until the bucket finally overflows. Dr. Stacy Raymond knows what's in that bucket.
Jimmy Van Wattum knows what it’s like to carry the weight of the job long after the shift ends. In this episode, we get inside Jimmy’s story—the pain he couldn’t shake, the breaking point that sent him searching for help, and how he turned raw trauma into a hard-fought promotion.
Retired FDNY EMT Carmine Fiore lays it all bare—addiction, painkillers, the battle to hold it together at home, and the brutal truth of what first responders carry long after the shift ends.
In this episode, Lynette Shaw Butler—retired LEO with a psychology degree, advocate, and educator—pulls back the curtain on the unseen toll of growing up in the shadow of childhood trauma and responding on some of America’s toughest streets.
In this episode of Responder Resilience's Visionary Leaders Masterclass, Fire Chief Nick Marsan from Westport, CT, shares his mantra: “Mission First, People Always.” This phrase isn’t just a slogan; it’s a guiding principle that can reshape leadership in the fire service.
In this raw episode, we speak with Doug White, a veteran and retired law enforcement officer. Doug pulls no punches as he confronts the reality of post-traumatic stress in first responders.
We sit down with Danielle Gustafson, the passionate Executive Director of the EMS FDNY Help Fund, a beacon of hope for New York City's Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics. These first responders confront an array of obstacles—from the relentless pressures of their job to the barriers in accessing the care they desperately need.
Lt. Masters discusses the critical need for culturally competent clinicians who understand the unique pressures faced by those on the front lines. With his boots on the ground, he shares firsthand insights on how appropriate training can bridge the gap between responders and mental health professionals.
We sit down with Erin Nugent, a former police officer turned First Responder Wellness Coach. Erin shares her journey from frontline service to civilian life, discussing the personal challenges she faced and the strategies that have worked for her. She aims to destigmatize mental health through open conversations on her radio show.
In this compelling episode, we go deep into the transformative journey of trauma with clinical directors Bonnie Rumilly and Jennifer Spirito from the Fairfield County Trauma Response Team.
In this episode, we sit down with Kwesi Millington—a former RCMP officer whose life changed forever after a high-profile incident and the mental health crisis that followed.
In this episode, we converse with Dr. Stephanie Conn, a leading expert in police psychology and resilience training for first responders. With nearly three decades of experience, Dr. Conn brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, especially from her newly updated book, "Increasing Resilience in Police & Emergency Personnel."
