Claim OwnershipResilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
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© 2026 Resilience Development in Action: First Responder Mental Health
Description
Discover practical resilience strategies that transform lives. Join Steve Bisson, licensed mental health counselor, as he guides first responders, leaders, and trauma survivors through actionable insights for mental wellness and professional growth.
Each week, dive deep into real conversations about grief processing, trauma recovery, and leadership development. Whether you're a first responder facing daily challenges, a leader navigating high-pressure situations, or someone on their healing journey, this podcast delivers the tools and strategies you need to build lasting resilience.
With over 20 years of mental health counseling experience, Steve brings authentic, professional expertise to every episode, making complex mental health concepts accessible and applicable to real-world situations.
Featured topics include:
• Practical resilience building strategies
• First responder mental wellness
• Trauma recovery and healing
• Leadership development
• Grief processing
• Professional growth
• Mental health insights
• Help you on your healing journey
Each week, join our community towards better mental health and turn your challenges into opportunities for growth with Resilience Development in Action.
273 Episodes
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Send 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 can...
Send a text The hardest part of getting help often isn’t the therapy—it’s knowing who to trust when everything feels at risk. We sit down with treatment navigator Nikki Mason to open the black box of first responder mental health: how to spot programs that truly understand police, fire, EMS, and dispatch, why families are the first to notice cracks, and what happens when a call for help goes unanswered. Nikki shares a clear rule that guides her work—if she wouldn’t send a loved one, she won’t...
Send a text What do first responders actually need from therapy to make it stick? We unpack fresh survey results from 46 clients and more than 30 first responders to surface what’s working, what’s missing, and the changes we’re rolling out next. From session length and structure to real follow-up and safer groups, this is a candid look at the nuts and bolts of care that moves the needle. We dig into why 60 minutes often isn’t enough and how a 90-minute option creates space to warm up, proces...
Send a text Stigma keeps too many first responders silent, and silence can cost careers, health, and lives. We sit down with a former deputy sheriff and burnout expert AK Dozanti to map clear, practical ways leaders and peers can replace fear with trust—without waiting for a crisis to force the issue. From the first honest check-in to a policy that actually protects time for care, we unpack what real support looks like on and off shift. We talk about the gap between leadership and the ...
Send a text When a split-second choice could become tomorrow’s headline, how do you stay human under the uniform? We sit down with former deputy sheriff turned coach and author AK Dozanti to unpack the real toll of first responder life—and the science-backed tools that help you heal without losing your edge. AK traces a rare path: undercover ICAC work at 19, road patrol, officer of the year, rapid burnout, then a pivot into victim advocacy, graduate study in criminology and victimology, yoga...
Send a text The hardest stories rarely get told in the places that need them most. Susan Roggendorf and I open the door to how confidentiality truly works for police, fire, EMS, dispatchers, and medics—and why airtight boundaries are the backbone of real therapeutic change. No nods in public that out you, no name drops across departments, and no casual mentions that break trust. HIPAA is the law, but it is also a lived ethic that lets you speak freely without risking your reputation or your c...
Send a text Ever been told to “suck it up” after a call that split your world in two? We challenge that script with a grounded, respectful look at how first responders can access care that actually helps. Steve sits down with licensed clinician and podcaster Susan Roggendorf for a candid, unfiltered conversation about culture, stigma, and practical support for police, fire, EMS, dispatch, ER, ICU, NICU, and corrections. We unpack why the tired question “What’s the worst thing you’ve seen?” i...
Send a text If you’re the one everyone turns to, you might be carrying more than you realize. We sit down with psychotherapist and mental wellness consultant Leah Marone to unpack the “serial fixer” habit—why it thrives in first responder culture and how it quietly fuels burnout, resentment, and frayed relationships. Leah works extensively with police, fire, EMS, and dispatch, and she brings sharp, compassionate insights you can use today without adding hours to your schedule. We break down ...
Send a text The calls keep coming, but the solutions don’t. We sit down with crisis clinician and EMDR therapist Morgan Yaskus to trace how a frayed safety net pushes first responders into impossible roles—and how that mismatch breeds moral injury. From long drives to the nearest DMV or ER to midnight discharges with no plan, we map the structural barriers that turn compassion into exhaustion and good intentions into public criticism. Morgan shares what mobile crisis teams can do well—resolv...
Send a text The toughest calls rarely end when the sirens go quiet. We sat down with Alaska-based counselor Morgan Yaskus to explore how real support for police, fire, EMS, dispatchers, and paramedics takes shape in small communities where everyone knows your truck, your shift, and your business. Morgan spent three years on a nonprofit-led mobile crisis team working alongside first responders through MOUs, navigating scenes that were neither strictly medical nor criminal. That proximity resha...
Send a text Strength without silence. That’s the thread running through our conversation with Jeff Dill, a former battalion chief turned licensed counselor and the founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance. Jeff has spent years validating firefighter and EMS suicide data, building workshops from real-world stories, and leading behavioral health efforts for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. He brings hard-won clarity on what actually helps: simple language, daily habits, and policies that...
Send a text In part 2 with Alexa Silva, we discuss how love doesn’t clock out when the tones drop. We sat down to unpack what really happens when a first responder’s world of shift work, hypervigilance, and on-call stress collides with the everyday demands of family life—and why even strong couples can drift into silence, scorekeeping, and resentment without clear structure and care. Across a candid, fast-moving conversation, we dig into how intimacy has to evolve over time, especially when ...
Send a text The badge asks for everything, then hands you a shift change and a smile. We sat down with returning guest, licensed clinical social worker Alexis Silva, to dig into the quiet realities behind the uniform: why trust is scarce, why stigma is sticky, and how substance use becomes a steady companion long before it becomes a crisis. Alexis works almost exclusively with first responders, military, and veterans, and brings her own sobriety and family experience to the table. That ...
Send a text The most downloaded conversation of the year returns for a reason: it’s the raw, practical guide first responders and their families keep asking for. We sit with Sgt. Michael Sugrue—Air Force security forces veteran, Walnut Creek Police sergeant, and author of Relentless Courage—to talk about the weight of hundreds of traumatic calls, how a 2012 shooting upended his life, and the exact steps that pulled him back from the edge. Michael breaks down why suicide remains the top threa...
Send a text From crime and trauma scene cleanup to midnight dispatch and station kitchens, we gathered the most powerful lessons from a year of conversations with first responders, clinicians. Here are the links for all the episodes: Krista Gregg (E.188): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-188 Jessica Jamieson (E.192): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-192 Beth Salmo (E.204): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e-204 Elizabeth Ecklund (E.207): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...
Send a text When the lights are flashing and the clock is ticking, we train for everything—except the weight we carry home. We sit down with Coast Guard veteran and grief coach Justin Jacobs to unpack the invisible load of moral injury, the shock of losing the uniform, and the quiet ways unprocessed grief leaks into performance, relationships, and health. From the chaos of capsized boats to the stillness after a tough outcome, Justin names what many feel and few say out loud. We explore how ...
Send a text What if the most powerful tool on a crisis scene isn’t a badge or a diagnosis, but a practiced partnership? We continue our conversation with Dr. Sarah Abbott about co-response and unpack how pairing clinicians with police changes the outcome of calls involving mental health, substance use, and high-stress events—from domestic incidents with kids present to house fires and welfare checks where information is thin. We trace the arc from a pioneering certificate at William James Co...
Send a text Crises rarely look like TV. Most calls aren’t bank robberies; they’re frantic welfare checks, neighbor standoffs over fences, a parent terrified for a missing teen, or someone hearing voices at 2 a.m. We sit down with Dr. Sarah Abbott, a pioneer of the police–clinician co-response model, to unpack how pairing a trained clinician with officers at the point of contact reshapes outcomes: fewer arrests, fewer injuries, and far more dignity for the person in distress. Sarah shares the...
Send a text The silence after the last shift can be deafening. We dive into what really happens when the badge comes off and the calls stop, tracing the steep drop from team identity and adrenaline to isolation, substance use, and rising suicide risk. With honesty and urgency, we unpack why retirement hits first responders so hard and outline a practical safety net that works in the real world. We talk through the addictive rhythm of police, fire, EMS, and corrections work—why the culture bo...
Send a text What does it take to build mental health care that first responders actually trust? We sit down with former Revere police officer Joe Rizzuti, whose journey from stacked line-of-duty trauma and alcohol use to peer support leadership strips away the clichés and gets to what works. Joe’s story starts with a tough childhood, a military turnaround, and a policing career shaped by high-stakes cases and a deep love for community. It also includes administrative betrayals, devastating ca...
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