Behind The Line

Show Notes What an amazing summer it has been! It has been fun, challenging and inspiring to connect with so many incredible guests and get the chance to share their stories with you this summer. I hope that you have found something meaningful to take from our Voices From the Front Lines series.  This episode wraps up Season 2 of Behind the Line – 52 straight weeks of podcast episodes. We’re keepi...

Show Notes I love getting a chance to talk with veteran helping professionals – the wealth of insight and wisdom is invaluable. Today I am honoured to be joined by retired San Francisco Police Department Deputy Chief, Jim, who spent over 30 years working with the San Francisco PD in various capacities. He continues to be involved in law enforcement as an educator in the Criminal Justice Studies De...

Show Notes I so enjoyed today’s talk with Paramedic, Jeff. I heard Jeff’s story in a news article – you can find it here on CBC and here on CTV news. He shares bravely, openly and vulnerably about his experience of mental health decline and crisis as a result of his exposure within his work. He describes his intentions of taking his own life and shares about what helped him through this incredibly...

Show Notes I have known Shannon Brink for years, but always as an acquaintance who was a friend to other friends. It wasn’t until our interview today that I was left with the question – how were we not BEST friends?? Because, Lord help me, we had the BEST conversation and I am so grateful for it. I hope you enjoy it too. Shannon began her nursing career here in British Columbia, Canada. She is a m...

Show Notes After reading about this Fire Chief’s story in a CTV News article, I am so grateful to be joined today by Steve Serbic. Steve is also an author, speaker and mental health advocate who also hosts his own podcast. You can check out all the info below to learn more about Steve’s work. Today we chat about his journey through a career in fire service, including his own challenges with mental...

Show Notes I can hardly wait to share this episode with you! Today I am joined by retired Corrections Officer, Mike, who shares about his long and successful career working in prisons both at a state and federal level in the united States. He shares about the importance of support, the need for coping, the tools for sustainability and so much more. No matter what kind of First Response or Front Li...

Show Notes I am honoured to be joined by Law Enforcement Officer, Sachin, who is working to create systems-level change in his own unique way…by running. Hear Sachin’s story and our conversation about discovering our unique gifts, exploring ways to use our gifts to serve the collective, shifting mindsets to step out of the monotony, and all kinds of other great and inspiring bits and pieces. Learn...

Show Notes: Today I am joined by physicist turned social worker, Ash, and we are getting into it. Ash shares his journey into helping professions, his passion for the work, and we talk about the many stumbling blocks and our great ideas around how to fix it and save the world…some highlights we dig into: connecting on a human level the temptation to use the professional hat to distance from the ha...

Today I am joined by Steven. Steven is currently a licensed paramedic with Harris County Emergency Corps, a 911 EMS agency in Houston, Texas, his native home. With 15 years in healthcare, he lives by his fraternity’s motto of providing service without expectation. After his time as a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy, Steven went on to obtain undergraduate degrees in EMS, his master’s degree in health...

Show Notes: I am thrilled to be joined today by Canadian Armed Forces veteran, artillery gunner, Kelsi Sheren who is now the founder and CEO of Brass & Unity, a jewelry company on a mission to support mental health and wellness for veterans and first responders. Kelsi, a survivor of PTSD as a result of her service, had to shift gears in a big way and has done some incredible things in launchin...

Show Notes: Today I am joined by Maria Pelletier, former Ambulance Communications Officer now working in dispatch at a Fire Department in Southwestern Ontario and acting as an Account Coordinator and Social Media Manager for CRACKYL Magazine (Firefighter lifestyle and health magazine that focuses on the individual rather than the industry). PTSD survivor and single mom of 2 girls. Juggling all the...

Show Notes: Today I am joined by Mike Pertz, an American Firefighter and entrepreneur. Mike is the owner of firefighternow.com as well as the face of firefighternow on YouTube. His work focuses on supporting preparedness for prospective and new fire service members in starting out their careers. Mike and I talk today about the challenges associated with front line work, the need for an escape hatc...

Show Notes: In your line of work, you are trained to be prepared for the worst. You train for the worst case scenarios, you anticipate and plan for these, so that anything short of this will be easy peasy. All I’m asking us to do is the same as it relates to your career plan. When people go into front line work with the conscious, or not-so-conscious expectation that they are going to stay in it u...

Show Notes Our brains are made up of 2 hemispheres - right and left - which operate relatively separately from one another. These two halves are connected by a bundle of nerves (the corpus collosum) which acts as a relay station, passing information back and forth and helping your brain to organize and be responsive to information. Like any relay station, your corpus collosum can get bombarded wit...

Show Notes Our brains and bodies operate on a feedback loop. When something stressful happens, our brain knows about it because our bodies give a cascade of responses that alert that something's up - and when our brain believes we're in stress, it tells our bodies to be on high alert. When we are in persistent stress, this feedback loop starts to have a hard time knowing what safety, calm and ok f...

Show Notes Two more tools to add to your growing toolkit for stress management, emotion regulation and mental health support. Today we are covering 2 skills used for grounding and helping our brains to be more present. These are super useful when struggling with panic, anxiety, high stress or difficulty regulating emotions. These two exercises help turn your prefrontal cortex ON which helps to cou...

Show Notes Check out this weeks mini episode - a quick coping tool you can use TODAY! Try this progressive muscle relaxation exercise and allow the tension to melt away. This episode is best enjoyed from the comfort of a cozy chair, or another quiet and comfy spot - probably not great while driving or operating other heavy machinery!! Episode Challenge: Try this exercise 2-3 times this week and no...

Show Notes: Your turn! Watch the video, listen to the audio and then put it into practice. Choose 10-20 minutes ideally daily, but at least 2-3 times in a week, and try the worry jar activity described in today's episode. You can use scrap paper ripped into strips and a tupperware container, or fancy it up and make it special with some pretty or fun coloured paper and a nice mason jar or a cool bo...

Show Notes: Today we are finishing up our On Leave series – we are going to focus on managing guilt and other tough feelings that tend to come up when we’re away from the work we have loved and been committed to doing. Whether we’re off work due to injury, illness, mental health concern or some other reason, being off often comes with a host of emotions – big and small, obvious and more innocuous,...

Show Notes: Today we are talking about self-advocacy. We’re going to dig in to the difficulties people tend to have with self-advocating, the need for it in time off work, and how to go about refining these skills to implement them on behalf of ourselves well.  So let’s open with what it means to self-advocate. Self-advocacy means clearly identifying our needs and clearly expressing those needs to...

Show Notes: We are continuing our series around being on leave and how we can support ourselves in recovering well while off work. Whether we’re off work for a physical injury or a work-related mental health concern, we discussed last week that the experience of being off work can be trying and difficult. Without a plan and intention to ensure the best outcomes possible, we can be left floundering...

Show Notes: Today we are kicking off a new month with a new series and we’re focusing on how to survive and support sanity while off work. This is a topic that I have become very familiar with thanks to my extensive work as part of the WorkSafeBC provider network for almost a decade, as well as my work with clients through ICBC and other long term disability groups. I have walked alongside so many...

Show Notes: Today I am delighted to be joined once again by TC Randall. He brings his wealth of wisdom as an emergency room nurse of 14 years, as well as his experiences of having gone off work with PTSD, all of which he details in his fantastic book, The View From The Wrong Side of The Day that you can check out here . Today we are talking about the impact of first response and front line work on...

Show Notes: I am joined again today by an amazing guest who I am thrilled to get to explore the topic of "being normal" with our kiddos alongside. Child and Family Therapist, Registered Clinical Counsellor, Heather Toews is with me today. Heather has worked as a social worker doing child protection work, experienced her own burnout, transitioned to supporting adoptive families, and then transition...

Show Notes: I am honoured to be joined by my friend and colleague, Chelsea Beyer. Chelsea is a Registered Clinical Counsellor, PhD Candidate, and university instructor in the Department of Psychology. She is trained as a sex therapist, and works with people who are struggling with a range of mental health and relational challenges, and has been practicing in the Lower Mainland for five years. Her...