Recent Articles and Videos 

The Need to Heal Jun 10, 2020

As a former firefighter, it didn’t matter to me who called 9-1-1. My job was to show up and try to mitigate the situation.  The most verbal abuse I ever received at scene was actually from the family of a female Caucasian after the hospital called the code (CPR) we had been working for...

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The Power of Failure lessons learned ptsd May 20, 2020

 

I Had to Fail

Over and over again, I had to fail. I made the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Maybe I need to start with the mistakes I made along the way.

After that first day of the fire, the peer support team had a presence at the incident base. They were hard to miss being...

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The Power of Time lessons learned ptsd May 06, 2020

Recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress

Lessons Learned: TIME

If an athlete tears a ligament in their knee, there is a relatively straight line of recovery. First, there is surgery to repair the damage. Then there is a rest period to allow the injury and surgical site to heal. Finally, there is...

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Pandemic Stress Apr 22, 2020

On September 12, 2015, the Valley Fire exploded in Lake County, California. By the following morning, the fire had made a 12-mile run as it destroyed 2000 structures, burned four firefighters and killed five people. Two months later, at a fundraiser to help fire victims, several of my fellow...

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CALL TO DUTY Feb 12, 2019

Why? 

I get asked WHY an awful lot.

“Why are you hurting yourself, day after day?”

“Why are you doing all of this crazy stuff?”

“But you’re retired! Haven’t you done enough?”

“Hasn’t your Post-Traumatic Stress Injury cost you too...

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