H.O.P.E Beyond The Badge

Julie shares her depth of knowledge about horses, people, trauma, healing, & how she brings them all together at her Wild Hearts program to help first responders recover from trauma & reconnect with their loved ones. 

Reactions to trauma can impact the way a person experiences life. When a person suffers from PTSD – Their loved ones share in that experience.   A person can move through trauma to growth & develop a more meaningful appreciation for life. When a person moves through trauma to growth – Their loved ones share in that experience.

Dan shares with us about his career in law in law enforcement which began in 1992. He has worked for departments in Rhode Island & Florida. Dans experience includes working as a patrol officer, in detentions, street crimes, auto theft, domestic violence, homicide, sex crimes, burglary, and he currently works as a civilian background investigator.  Dan shares openly with us about those difficul...

Prior to joining Boulder Crest Foundation’s First Responder Initiative as the Director for New England, Robert spent 35 years as a Police Officer in Massachusetts. During his Law Enforcement career Robert was a key participant in the creation of the SEMLEC Peer Support / Critical Incident Stress Management Team. Robert served as the team’s Director / Commander since the team’s inception and led a...

Donna Brown began her career in Law Enforcement working the streets answering calls for service. She discovered a passion training new recruits and began teaching department wide, at the academy, and to community groups. Donna also worked in criminal investigations for 15 years, ten of those years were spent supervising the homicide unit. When she retired, Donna recognized her own struggle, reache...

John Tamoosh is an Assistant Deputy Superintendent for the Plymouth County Sherriff's office, an agency he has served with since 1994. While working as a corrections officer John developed an interest in Crisis Negotiations & began serving as a negotiator in 2006.  He was appointed as the commander of the METROLEC Crisis Negotiations Team & currently serves as a negotiator for the SEMLEC C...

Vance Row joins us on the podcast to discuss his over 20 year career in law enforcement & shares how duty trauma & injuries impacted his mental health & led to negative coping mechanisms. Eventually Vance began to calm his nervous system and reclaim his well-being when he found Yoga, which ultimately led to Yoga Rescue - where Vance wants to use Yoga to combat first responder & vet...

John Kelly joins us & shares about his 30 plus years in law enforcement. We discuss some of the lessons he learned over the course of his career, we talk about trauma, addiction, infidelity, and how they affected John and his family.  Today - John uses the challenges & struggles of his past to help others, by speaking at conferences, seminars, & departments. He is the author of the boo...

Jennifer Anderson is the founder and CEO of First Responder Coaching - where they help first responders identify challenges, positives, and create goals / structures for strong, healthy, lasting careers and relationships. Jennifer is also the spouse of a medically retired police officer. She shares with us the challenges that PTSD brought into all aspects of her families life, and how she began to...

In this episode we have a conversation with retired Police Chief Russell Jenkins, retired Fire Chief Joe Davis, and retired Police Captain Joe Comperchio. This panel of retired first responders share about their early days on the job, duty trauma, some of the calls that stuck with them, how these careers effect our family members, loss, grief, retirement and how to prepare for that process. 

Trease Smock's passion for mental wellness and suicide prevention came to light when she lost her father (LEO) by suicide in 2014. We discuss the loss of her father, how that event impacted her and her family, how she grieved, what helped her heal, and her passion to help others.  Trease is a RN, BSN, CLNC, & Integrative Functional Medicine Practitioner for Protecting the Guardian. She has ove...

Father Sean is Parish Priest at Sacred Heart Church in Weymouth Ma, Boston Police Department Chaplain, and previously worked in law enforcement himself as a police officer with the Marshfield Police Department.  Father Sean shares with us about his law enforcement family, his time and experience as a police officer, his move to the seminary, training and experience in counseling, CISM, crisis resp...

Sgt Harrington joins Linda & Jay and shares about his career and experience in law enforcement. In addition to the work he does with his comfort dog Nola supporting his peers, he has also worked in public school and college environments. Kevin is a founding member of the South Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) CISM / Peer support unit and recently became co-director.

Chief Mark Kennedy & LT Bill Ward of the Quincy Police Department join us and share about their careers in law enforcement, some of the roles they have had over the years, & how they each came to believe in the importance of the departments stress team.  This is a department that supports the mental wellness of its officers.

In this episode Jay & Linda chat about their first 8 months of podcasts, reflect on some of the episode highlights, guests, and discuss upcoming events being hosted by Hope Beyond the Badge.

Kevin Lynch is the CEO, President, and Founder of the Quell Foundation. He joins us on the podcast & openly discusses some of the struggles he and his family have experienced, shares how those experiences ignited a passion within him to see a change in conversations about mental health, and how that led to creating the Quell Foundation.   The Quell Foundation strives to reduce the number of su...

Mike Peterson joins us to discuss his military service, career in law enforcement, and shares his personal journey through trauma and loss to wellness. Mike is now a mindfulness coach, his passionate belief in the benefits of mindfulness was evident as he explained how the process can increase resiliency, performance, and well-being in first responders.  To learn more please visit: https://www.nem...

Chris Fields joins Linda and Jay to discuss his long career in the fire service and the work he's doing now to educate the next generation of first responders that it okay to not be okay - and its okay to talk about that. Chris shares openly about his mindset as a new recruit & how that changed over time. He describes the impact of loosing co-workers, provides a vivid description of the of the...

This episode is not an offer or advertisement for mental health services, it is an interview of Sean Kilbreth about his experiences in law enforcement & his path to mental wellness. Sean has been a police officer for 26 years, he joins Linda and Jay to discuss his career - including his experience in an officer involved shooting. Sean shares how the job impacted his mental health, his family r...

Walter Langley has been a firefighter in Weymouth for 28 years. He shares with Linda and Jay some of the things he's learned over the course of his career in the fire service.  Walter openly discusses trauma's that he has faced in his own life, including the loss of his father at a young age. Walter's dad was a police officer who died in the line of duty. He also discusses duty trauma, the changes...

Joe Willis joins Linda & Jay to discuss his military experience, career in law enforcement, and his current role as the Chief Learning Officer at 1stHelp.org.  Joe shares with us and our audience his thoughts about struggle, resiliency, first responder mental health, and his passion to educate others.

Fire Chief Jack Glynn joins us on the podcast and shares with us what he has learned about first responder mental health through his experiences as a Firefighter, Paramedic, and now Chief. Chief Glynn talks openly about the impact that critical incidents can have on first responders, some of his earliest calls that he still carries with him today, & how focusing on his own mental health produc...

Kristine Lydon of the Braintree Police department and Ed Obrian of the Weymouth Police department have both received formal education and advanced degree's in the mental health field.  They join us on the podcast to discuss their career's in law enforcement, the current state of mental health in first response, what it used to look like, and the progress they've seen in the field.

Shay is an Air Force veteran and Yoga Fit for warriors instructor. She also holds a Masters degree in counseling.  Shay has combined her military and counseling experience with her love and appreciation for the benefits of Yoga, to create Yoga Fit for warriors. Yoga Fit for warriors focuses on alleviating symptoms associated with PTSD & TBI in the first response and military/veteran communitie...