Resilience Development in Action

Steve Bisson
  • 5.0 (20)
  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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.

  1. E.228 What Happens When We Stop Keeping Pain A Secret

    3D AGO

    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 it keeps people sick. We talk about ethical self-disclosure—when a helper shares only to serve the client—and how human presence beats formal scripts and stiff suits for building trust. You’ll hear why fit-for-duty vibes can re-trigger rank-based fear, why plain language matters, and how showing up as a person first invites others to do the same. We also confront the system costs of looking away: moved abusers, muted reports, moral injury, and the downstream mix of suicide risk, substance use, gambling, overwork, and other behavioral addictions that masquerade as coping. Grief work sits at the center. Acute grief isn’t a two-week arc; it softens when people gain tools, witness, and meaning. We break down how trauma shapes worldview and therefore grief, and why evidence-based skills plus an honest community can turn pain into purpose without sugarcoating the loss. Blythe shares a trauma-informed grief coaching track designed for grievers and peer supporters—exactly the kind of culture-fit training that spreads healing inside agencies that need it most. If you serve, love someone who serves, or lead a team where the unspoken rule is “suck it up,” this conversation offers a better rule: say what’s true, get support, and refuse secrecy. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with one insight you’ll bring back to your crew. Your words might be the reason someone reaches out. Reach Blythe through her website at https://www.blythelandry.com/ Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    51 min
  2. E.227 How A Trilingual Clinician Bridges Police, Families, And Mental Health

    OCT 22

    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 create a wraparound model that meets people where they are. We talk through the realities of police and EMS life: constant hypervigilance, the pull toward numbing after shift, and the challenge of switching from fight-or-flight to family dinner. Amanda breaks down how she approaches alcohol as a coping strategy without judgment, how she teaches practical skills like structured decompression and tactical breathing, and why brief, timely check-ins during ride-alongs can open doors that a formal office visit can’t. She also shares how a therapy canine lowers defenses on scene, and how clinicians earn credibility by respecting patrol’s turf and knowing when to step back. Culture and language shape access. As a trilingual clinician, Amanda navigates the nuances of Portuguese and Spanish dialects across Portugal, Brazil, and Latin America, where stigma can be high and immigration status complicates care. We dig into the shift among younger parents willing to break cycles of silence, and how targeted outreach, transparent pathways, and confidentiality build trust. Families matter here: spouses can act as early warning systems, keeping communication open and knowing when work stress is spilling into home. Periodic joint sessions help couples tune the signal without turning the house into a clinic. If you care about officer wellness, community trust, and practical ways to prevent burnout, this conversation delivers a grounded playbook: co-response done right, multilingual services, stepped care from outpatient to IOP, and the small, repeatable habits that actually make a difference after shift. Subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more first responders and families find these tools. Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    31 min
  3. E. 226 First Responder Burnout: See, Notice, and Stop Strategies

    OCT 15

    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 experience—from losing interest in the kitchen table banter to wrestling with passive suicidal thoughts in the height of COVID—and we walk through the small, specific signals leaders and peers need to catch early. From there, we shift into solutions that actually fit the job. We break down the Frontline Resilience Protocol, a three-pillar framework designed for police and fire: tactical performance tailored to real-world demands, culturally competent mental health support with warm handoffs and follow-up, and leadership development that turns communication into a daily practice. Think job-specific strength and mobility, nervous system regulation you can use in the rig or the hallway, and nutrition choices that work at 2 a.m. Equally important, we get into the human factors—dark humor, stigma, and how trust is built or broken when a captain shrugs off a plea for help. The throughline is simple: follow-up saves lives. When someone finally says “I’m not okay,” the next step must be personal, fast, and predictable. Leaders need scripts and skills, peers need permission to check back in, and departments benefit from trained outsiders who know the culture and aren’t tangled in station politics. If you’re a chief, union rep, or frontline responder, you’ll walk away with practical steps to spot burnout early, respond with care, and build a system that doesn’t quit when the shift ends. Her website is waywardwellnesscoaching.org  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waywardwellnesscoaching/  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/people/Wayward-Wellness-Coaching/61566792351111/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wayward_wellness_coaching/ Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    32 min
  4. E.225 Inside the Firehouse: Burnout, Betrayal, and Building Real Leadership

    OCT 8

    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 with strong traditions, shared meals, and senior firefighters who taught without needing stripes; another that pushed out elders, fast-tracked promotions, and sold “progress” through spoken promises that never made it to paper. The result? Rapid rank with thin experience, confused standards, and burnout that looks like apathy but feels like betrayal. Along the way, we explore why it’s easier to part ways in anger than on good terms, how that psychology plays out in unions and leadership, and what happens when EMS integration shifts priorities without protecting mentorship. This conversation is practical at its core. We outline how to rebuild a real firehouse: formalize mentorship roles for elders, protect shared rituals that transmit norms, and require written commitments instead of handshakes. We dig into nervous system skills—breathing, grounding, pacing, boundaries—and explain why they only stick inside supportive systems. If you care about first responder wellness, leadership development, and building resilient teams that last, these lessons are for you. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with your crew, and leave a review so more first responders can find it. And make sure to be back for part 2 in the next episode. You can reach Renae on several platforms to discuss this episode and her program.  Her website is waywardwellnesscoaching.org  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waywardwellnesscoaching/  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/people/Wayward-Wellness-Coaching/61566792351111/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wayward_wellness_coaching/ And if you’re struggling right now, reach out for professional support—and remember, 988 is available for crisis help in the U.S. and Canada. Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    30 min
  5. E.224 High-Functioning Doesn't Mean You Don't Need Help

    OCT 1

    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, particularly prevalent among first responders and those in high-pressure careers, kept him struggling silently for decades before finally seeking the treatment that transformed his life. Kemp articulates the profound disconnect in how we approach different aspects of our wellbeing: "If you had a chronic knee problem, you'd go and see a knee specialist. It defies logic that we're happy to see a professional for the rest of our body, but when it comes to the brain, we have this almost inbuilt default that you should figure it out yourself." This insight cuts to the heart of why many resist mental health support despite overwhelming suffering. The conversation explores how structured environments like policing can sometimes mask mental health challenges, while shift work can exacerbate them by disrupting sleep patterns—what Kemp identifies as his "#1 foundation" for mental health stability. He shares practical advice for supporting struggling colleagues and navigating recovery resources when confidentiality concerns arise, especially in professions where stigma remains powerful. Now an advocate and author, Kemp discusses his upcoming book "Finding Peace of Mind" (releasing on World Mental Health Day) and his ambitious seven-month awareness walk across the British Isles beginning January 2026. Through both initiatives, he's transforming his decades of struggle into resources that might help others find support sooner. Visit Jonathan at the following links:  https://www.viscountrochdale.com/ https://www.facebook.com/jonathankemplondon https://www.instagram.com/Jonathankemplondon https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankemplondon You can order his book at Amazon: www.amazon.com/jonathankemp Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    43 min
  6. E.223 When Trauma Comes Home: A Therapist's View

    SEP 24

    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 connection. With candor and occasional profanity that mirrors the authentic language of the emergency services world, Erin and host Steve Bisson cut through the stigma surrounding mental health in these communities. The discussion tackles critical issues that rarely make headlines: the devastating impact of mandated 48-72 hour shifts on family life, the subtle progression from social drinking to problematic coping, and the cultural barriers that keep many first responders from seeking help until crisis points emerge. Erin shares powerful insights about building trust with a population trained to handle everyone else's emergencies while ignoring their own. What makes this episode particularly valuable is the practical framework it offers for both first responders and departments. Rather than simply identifying problems, Erin outlines specific approaches that work: proactive mental health training, peer support systems that normalize help-seeking, and therapeutic approaches like EMDR that can help process trauma when properly applied. She explains how small shifts in departmental culture could prevent the cascading personal crises that lead to the troubling statistics on first responder suicide rates. Whether you're a first responder yourself, love someone who is, or simply want to understand the human cost behind emergency services, this conversation offers rare insight into both the challenges and pathways to resilience for those who run toward danger when others run away. Visit www.beautifullyunbrokencounseling.com to learn more about Erin's work or to connect for support services specifically tailored to first responders and their families. Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    52 min
  7. E.222 Sweating It Out: Fire Boots to Therapy Couch

    SEP 17

    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 traditional therapeutic approaches and the needs of emergency responders. Drawing from his 38 years in the fire service and his clinical training, he illuminates why cultural competency isn't just helpful – it's essential for effective mental health care in this population. His colorful anecdotes highlight how clinicians who can't navigate firehouse humor, understand departmental hierarchies, or recognize the language of the profession will struggle to build trust with these clients. Adam's approach bridges these worlds perfectly. He describes teaching somatic awareness – helping responders recognize when their "check engine light" is signaling emotional distress – in a way that resonates with tactical professionals. His strict confidentiality boundaries protect the vulnerability of clients who may work alongside referral sources, while his fourth-floor perspective training (offered free to departments nationwide) makes mental health concepts accessible to those who've traditionally avoided seeking help. Perhaps most powerfully, Adam challenges the myth that because firefighters work in teams and talk around the kitchen table, they're naturally more connected to their emotions. The reality is more complex – these heroes need therapists who understand when to push, when to use humor, and when to simply sit in the discomfort together. His insight that "unexpressed expectations is premeditated resentment" captures the importance of directness in this work. Whether you're a first responder struggling with your mental health, a clinician wanting to better serve this population, or someone who cares about the wellbeing of our emergency services personnel, this episode provides invaluable perspective on what healing looks like when the rescuer becomes the one in need of rescue. Adam can be reached on his website at www.agoodspacetherapy.com Adam also founded and continues to coordinate the Springfield Area Memorial Stair Climb- http://springfieldmemorialstairclimb.org/ Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    1h 11m
  8. E.221 From Survival Mode to Sustainable Service: A First Responder's Guide to Wellbeing

    SEP 10

    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 candor, she reveals how her dedication to helping others in crisis led to working literally 24/7, developing physical health problems including arthritis in her mid-30s, and ultimately experiencing secondary traumatic stress so severe she couldn't tolerate family members standing behind her. The discussion illuminates the science behind burnout - how chronic stress essentially shuts down our frontal cortex, impairing judgment and decision-making abilities critical for first responders. Steve and Deidre explore why those drawn to helping professions are particularly vulnerable to burnout, and why changing jobs often fails to solve the underlying issues. What makes this episode uniquely valuable is the practical, realistic approach to recovery. Rather than offering platitudes, Deidre provides tangible strategies that work within the constraints of demanding professions. From establishing sleep hygiene routines that function even with irregular schedules to creating small, intentional habits that regulate the nervous system, listeners gain actionable tools for resilience. Perhaps most compelling is Deidre's revelation about recovery timelines - the small shifts at three months, the ability to work again at six months, but the full two years before feeling completely restored. This honest assessment serves as both warning and hope for those navigating their own burnout journeys. Connect with Deidre at abundantwellnessessentials.com to explore personalized strategies for overcoming burnout and reclaiming your purpose and wellbeing.  Her Social media presence:  https://www.youtube.com/@deidregestrin https://www.linkedin.com/in/deidregestrin/ https://www.facebook.com/dgestrin/ https://www.instagram.com/dgestrin/ Freed.ai: We’ll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show YouTube Channel For The Podcast

    38 min
See All (246)

5
out of 5
20 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Steve Bisson
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    246
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Resilience Development in Action
  • Show Website
    Resilience Development in Action

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