Behind The Line

Show Notes: In last week’s episode (Episode 7 if you want to hunt it down), we made the case for why mindfulness matters and how it helps to strengthen the parts of your brain that help to counterbalance your stress centre and the overwhelming amounts of persistent stress you face as a result of your work. This week, we focus on practical mindfulness tools and ways to incorporate these into your d...

Show Notes: Today’s episode digs into the myths and truths about mindfulness in an effort to make the case for implementing mindfulness skills as a part of our strategic wellness action plan. An episode like this is necessary because I see SO many front line workers roll their eyes when we talk about mindfulness and related skills, like they can’t imagine this kind of “new-age BS hippy-dippy junk”...

Show Notes: In today’s show we are talking about the importance of hope in surviving life on the front lines, and how to go about engaging with hope intentionally and strategically. Too often we take hope for granted or we undervalue it. But without hope, we don’t stand a chance in this line of work. And because of the work you do and what you interact with, hope tends to be quickly eroded – often...

Show Notes: This year has been a lot of things, and it has called us to be flexible, adaptable and responsive in a myriad of ways.  Thanks to my roles as a trauma therapist and the director of the largest counselling clinic in my area, as well as being a mom of school-aged kids, spouse to a stay at home parent stuck with kids all day, friend and family member, I have had so many vantage points to...

Show Notes: Anchoring is a process of connecting with intention to the people, things and experiences that matter to us. Anchoring helps us to feel a sense of stability and security even when things get bumpy. It helps us to feel connected to what feels meaningful and mattering about us and about our lives. Much like a ship attempting to anchor into varying types of underwater surfaces, we can try...

Show Notes: Thank you to Meredith for joining me today to talk about her experiences as a front line family member from multiple vantage points. Meredith was raised by two front line parents, her mom as a nurse and her dad as a paramedic. She became a nurse herself and has been working on the front lines for 13 years. She married a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and they are raising their thr...

Show Notes: In an effort to get proactive, we are talking about what it looks like to develop a strategic wellness action plan. A strategic action plan for wellness is crafted, personal and intentional . It works to respond to your unique needs, interests and situation. It is created to support your resilience. In this episode we define resilience as: "an ability to recover from or adjust to misfo...

Show Notes: First Responders & Front Line Workers face unique challenges including persistent stress and systems that tend to focus on reactive supports rather than proactive ones. Reactive support can be helpful, but fails to account for the compound effects of life on the front lines. Proactive support focuses on prevention and early intervention tools to and helps to keep our metaphorical "...