Book a call with Peer Connect: https://firstresponderwellness.co/peerconnect

SPECIAL EDITION: A Proactive Peer Support System First Responders Can Trust

What if peer support in your agency didn’t depend on chance, availability, or who happened to answer the phone? In this episode of the First Responder Wellness Podcast, Conrad Weaver talks with Nik Fiorito of Peer Connect about a system designed to make peer support more proactive, more confidential, and more sustainable for first responder agencies. They discuss how Peer Connect helps responders connect with trusted peers, how supervisors can initiate support without crossing confidentiality lines, and why this matters especially for small, rural, and understaffed departments. Nik also explains how agencies are using Peer Connect to reduce burnout among peer supporters, improve follow-up, and create a more consistent support process for their teams. If your department has a peer support team, wants to build one, or is looking for a better way to care for its people after difficult calls, this conversation is worth your time.

Book a call with Peer Connect: https://firstresponderwellness.co/peerconnect

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

125 - You Can't Fix Your Family Until You Fix Yourself - Gregory Seibert

What happens when a career built on strength, control, and service slowly hardens your heart? In this episode, Conrad Weaver sits down with former law enforcement officer and criminal justice instructor Greg Seibert for a raw conversation about trauma, anger, marriage, faith, and healing. Greg shares how years of exposure to darkness nearly cost him everything — and how therapy, honest reflection, faith, and community helped him begin to change. This episode is for first responders, spouses, leaders, and anyone trying to understand what happens when survival mode follows you home.

CONNECT WITH GREG

Spiritual Resources

YouVersion Bible App A strong everyday tool for reading Scripture, listening to audio Bibles, and following Bible plans. Great for responders with irregular schedules.

BibleProject Excellent for understanding the big picture of the Bible and how to read it well. Their “How to Read the Bible” resources are especially useful for people who are new to serious Bible study.

Prayers and Promises for First Responders Prayers & Promises for First Responders is the perfect encouraging resource for police officers, firefighters, EMTs, military personnel, and everyone behind the scenes. Arranged by theme, this book contains inspirational Scriptures, powerful prayers, and thought-provoking questions to help readers draw closer to God and find strength and peace. Trials and hardship are sure to come, but you can stand proudly on the foundation of God’s Word that lasts forever.

The Chosen Not a substitute for Scripture, but a helpful visual way for many people to engage with the life and ministry of Jesus. It’s available free through its app and website.

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

In this episode, Conrad sits down with Erin Jane for a conversation that feels both deeply personal and quietly important. Erin is a former police officer and detective from Australia, now living in Boston as the wife of an active-duty firefighter, a wellness coach, podcast host, radio host, and advocate for first responder mental health. What unfolds is more than a professional interview—it’s a human conversation about what service costs, what love requires, and what healing can look like when the uniform comes off.

Erin speaks with honesty about the emotional residue of police work, the delayed processing that can come years after leaving the job, and the reality of carrying darkness long after the moment has passed. She opens up about suicides being some of the hardest calls she ever handled, not only because of the tragedy itself, but because of the intimate grief left behind. She also offers a rare perspective from both sides of the first responder world: as a former officer and as the spouse of a firefighter.

This episode matters because it names what so many people feel but do not know how to articulate—burnout, fear, compartmentalization, emotional distance, marriage strain, and the quiet hope that things can get better. Listeners will walk away with practical insight, compassion for themselves and their loved ones, and a reminder that struggling is not weakness. It is human. And support is not only possible—it is necessary.

ABOUT ERIN JANE

Erin Jane Nugent is a former police officer and detective from Australia who now works in the first responder wellness space as a coach, speaker, and podcast host. She is also the wife of an active-duty firefighter and brings a rare perspective shaped by both serving in uniform and living alongside someone who still does.

Connect with Erin: https://www.erinjanecoaching.com/

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

Marriage, Badges, and Breakthroughs

In this conversation, Conrad sits down with Dylan and Kella Bates—two first responders who’ve worked in very different worlds, from the nonstop pace of the DC area to the isolation and intensity of rural Alaska. They talk candidly about what the public doesn’t see: the whiplash of going from an infant death to a “noise complaint,” the personal weight of responding to one of your own in crisis, and how lack of debriefing and ongoing training can quietly erode an officer’s wellness over time.

They also open up about marriage inside the first responder life—how “investigative mode” can follow you home, why trust and communication have to be intentional, and why friendships outside the job can be the thing that keeps you grounded. The episode closes with the practical work they’re doing now through their peer support community, the Blonde in Blue Network—creating a space where first responders (and families) can show up honestly, without fear of it coming back to their department.

Join the Support Group: https://www.patreon.com/badgesandbreakthroughs

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

Click here to take the Leadership Assessment: http://firstresponderwellness.co/assessment

Episode 122 - Unlearn Survival, and Relearn Peace - with Kevin Barnhill

This episode is a raw conversation about what happens when the job doesn’t just change your schedule—it changes you. Conrad Weaver sits down with Kevin Barnhill, a former pastor turned police sergeant turned clinician, to talk about the quiet identity drift so many first responders experience: the moment your badge stops being something you wear and starts becoming who you are.

Kevin shares how he “lost himself” for nearly a decade—becoming sharper, more cynical, more irritable—while still doing the work and trying to survive the pace, the calls, and the culture. And then, in a twist that feels almost too small to be true, he describes a wake-up moment that wasn’t a shooting or a barricade… but a minor citizen complaint that revealed how far he’d moved from the person he wanted to be.

They dig into the difference between bosses and leaders, why punitive environments create fear, and why mentorship—not micromanagement—is often the missing intervention. The heartbeat of the episode lands in one phrase Kevin drops near the end: “Unlearning survival and relearning peace.” If you’ve felt yourself hardening, disconnecting, or living on edge, this conversation offers language for what’s happening—and a path back.

ABOUT KEVIN Kevin Barnhill is a former pastor and retired police sergeant with 28 years in law enforcement, including leadership roles such as internal affairs. Today he serves as a clinician, helping first responders and other high-stress professionals move from survival mode into healing, clarity, and sustainable peace.

CONNECT WITH KEVIN https://www.cadencecounseling.org/

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

Click here to take the Leadership Assessment: http://firstresponderwellness.co/assessment

Episode 121: You're Only as Sick as Your Secrets - Matt Bloesch

Retirement is supposed to feel like relief. For Matt Bloesch, it does—but not because he simply “made it to the finish line.” After 26 years in the San Francisco Bay Area and retiring at captain, Matt describes what most first responders rarely say out loud: the job doesn’t just change what you’ve seen—it changes who you are at home, what you believe about the world, and how safe your family feels when you walk through the door.

In this conversation with Conrad Weaver, Matt traces the slow drift: bitterness, a shorter fuse, drinking that looked “controlled”… until a phone call reopened an old wound—his father, a San Francisco police officer, accidentally shot and killed by his partner when Matt was 13. That moment cracked the façade and pushed him into real help—where he learned the line that still guides his recovery: you’re only as sick as your secrets.

Matt unpacks what actually works: culturally competent clinicians, peer support that’s funded like it matters, and tools like EMDR that helped him get unstuck. The takeaway is simple and hard: secrecy compounds trauma; connection interrupts it—and it’s never “too small” to deserve help.

ABOUT MATT BLOESCH

Matt Bloesch is a change agent in the first responder wellness world. He worked as a cop for 26 years, happily retiring into a life of helping others and bringing hope. Matt went through his struggles with alcohol and post-traumatic stress while on the job, but was able to recover with the help of other cops who were brave enough to tell their stories. He continued working and had a wildly successful career, with a lot of that time spent on his department’s peer team. He is also the son of a police officer who died in the line of duty. Matt now uses those experiences to help police and fire departments build wellness teams, and he volunteers as a youth mentor for Concerns of Police Survivors, an organization dedicated to rebuilding the shattered lives of surviving family members and coworkers of police officers killed in the line of duty. He is married with two adult children and lives in Northern California.

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

Click here to take the Leadership Assessment: http://firstresponderwellness.co/assessment

120 - You Don't Have to be Falling Apart to Need Healing - Kemmi Sadler

In this episode of the First Responder Wellness Podcast, Conrad sits down with Kemmi Saddler, a former local law enforcement officer who went from dispatch to patrol—and then into a 20-year career with the Diplomatic Security Service, protecting people and places most of us will never see.

Her story turns on a hinge: her last day in local policing was September 10, 2001—then, hours later, 9/11 reshaped everything. From Kuwait to Iraq, she describes the slow, invisible accumulation of stress: the “duck and cover” alarms you stop reacting to, the hypervigilance that becomes normal, and the body keeping score in ways you don’t immediately recognize (TMJ, clenched teeth, numbing, alcohol as relief).

What makes this conversation land is the honesty about what happens after the career—when the identity fades and the grief, guilt, and unresolved moments finally speak up. Kemmi shares how a podcast mention of ayahuasca sparked a two-year healing journey, not as a miracle cure, but as a door that required courage, surrender, and real integration work.

The takeaway is simple and heavy: you don’t have to be “falling apart” to need healing. If silence feels impossible, that might be the point.

ABOUT KEMMI SADLER Kemmi Sadler is a retired U.S. Diplomat and Supervisory Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service. Over a 26-year career as a sworn law enforcement officer and federal agent, she served in high-threat assignments across Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, Mexico, and El Salvador, where she received multiple Superior Honor Awards for leadership and crisis response. She began her law enforcement career as a police officer in St. Augustine, Florida. In April, Kemmi will walk 780 kms along the Camino de Santiago with her dog, Nona, in a pilgrimage called Nona’s Way, continuing her commitment to service beyond the badge while raising awareness surrounding the need for mental health and trauma recovery in the first responder community. Kemmi is also the author of From the Badge to the Vine, a reflective memoir exploring moral injury, identity, and the long work of healing after a life shaped by service. Drawing from her lived experience, the book examines what it takes to carry insight into everyday life once the badge is turned in.

klsadler.com Nona’s Way Campaign nonasway.com / INSTAGRAM: @Nonas_Way_

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.

Need help? Check out these resources: www.firstresponderwellness.co/resources

or Dial 988 for immediate help.

The Moment We Arrive On Scene, We Become a Part of Their Story - Lt. Sarah Shendy

Some people wear the uniform and slowly disappear inside it—hardened, exhausted, running on fumes. Sarah Shendy is the opposite. Nearly 18 years into law enforcement, she still talks about the job with the kind of awe most people lose after year one. And in this conversation, she explains why.

Sarah’s story starts with an unexpected invitation from a professor at Kent State University—and turns into a career built on compassion, discipline, and an almost stubborn refusal to become numb. She calls it what it is: an addiction to trauma and chaos. But instead of letting that addiction hollow her out, she’s learned to counter it with grounding routines, self-leadership, and the daily choice to show up with steady energy—because when an officer arrives on scene, they don’t just respond to a call… they become part of someone’s story.

Together, Conrad and Sarah unpack what healthy policing actually looks like: weekly one-on-ones, leaders who build family-level connection, hiring for character, and real mental-health support—licensed clinicians on staff, debriefs after critical incidents, and even therapy dogs. This episode is a blueprint for any department that wants to recruit well, retain well, and protect its people without losing its soul.

ABOUT LT. SHENDY Sarah Shendy is a law-enforcement leader and trainer with nearly 18 years of experience. As a lieutenant overseeing training and professional standards, she’s passionate about building healthy agency culture, developing disciplined leaders, and helping officers stay grounded, connected, and human on the job.

https://www.kent.edu/magazine/force-good

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FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS PODCAST

Order the PTSD911 Film and Educational Toolkit here: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/ Web site: https://ptsd911movie.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptsd911movie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptsd911movie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQ8jxjxYqHgFQixBK4Bl0Q

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-responder-wellness-podcast/id1535675703

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wW72dLZOKkO1QYUPzL2ih

Purchase the PTSD911 film for your public safety agency or organization: https://ptsd911movie.com/toolkit/

The First Responder Wellness Podcast is a production of First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC

Copyright ©2026 First Responder Wellness Solutions, LLC - All rights Reserved.