Beyond the 1st Response

In this episode of Beyond the 1st Response, Christy talks with Dr. Cheylynn Lee, a police Psychologist specializing in operations and officer wellness.

The Start

When Cherylynn first started as a Psychologist, she volunteered at Santa Barbra Sheriff’s Department, bringing her skills to Sheriff’s Department as a way to differ them the experience of mental wellness in the field. Just a few years later, she wrote her own job description and created a force to be recokoned with. 

The Job

Dr. Lee is the  director of the Behavorial Science Unit, which houses the peer support group. Lee also handles the debriefings for other departments and is on the  negotiator team. Oversees the CIT Training and so many more jobs. 

Family

Dr. Lee, is not only part of the LEO family, but she is raising two young children. Teaching them to understand what she does and the importance of helping to make the world a safety place. Thanks to her husband, who is able to be a huge part in stepping up for the children’s care when duty calls at all hours.

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First H.E.L.P.

In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked about moving forward after loss and trauma.

Communicating Traumas

Christy and Ciara talked about how talking about your traumas is essential in healing, helping your mental health, and how you could be helping someone. 

Holding in your feelings and not talking about the things hurting you is part of the stigma, and why we talk so much about communicating them in a healthy way. 

“Trauma isn’t neat and tidy—it doesn’t arrive neatly packaged and tied up with a bow. Instead, it’s bewildering and chaotic. We may want to talk about it, but we don’t know what to say or how to say it.” 

Part of the reason people believe to not talk about it is because of not understanding the process of healing and helping. For a long time society has taught us to not share our sorrows, our traumas, or our mental states. Talking about it was frowned upon. That stigma still happens every day, but being open and sharing your story is a healthy way to get through your battles. 

We had a hard conversation about relationships and trauma. When we say “relationships” it’s not just your relationship with significant others, but friends, family, even work. How they can negatively impact you, and your “triggers,” just because they may be struggling you feel like all your past bubbles to the surface. It doesn’t minimize what they are going through, but it can affect you to the extent that you shut down. 

What can you do on a daily basis to help you in these difficult times? What tools have you used to recognize that feeling and get through?

As a society we have become desensitized to traumas, and that isn’t ok. It is when we all quit feeling and losing compassion. We need to be listening to each other, and encouraging each other to speak up. Support one another through the trauma, and encourage the healing. 

Don’t Extinguish Your Fire

Remember you are your biggest advocate, only you can help and heal you. Recognize the good and bad in your life and continue working through them, even if they are bad behaviors/coping skills, recognizing them sets you on a road to healing. 

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that your work isn’t good enough, if you are doing the hard work you are succeeding. Their inner turmoil is not for you to fix. We can only fix ourselves, and when doing so we are setting those boundaries for not just the people around us but also for our own inner peace. 

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First H.E.L.P.

In this episode of Beyond the 1st Response, Christy and Ciara talk with Dave Dyke, a form police officer from Minnesota, about life Beneath the Badge.

They Didn’t Ask

Dave had been struggling with the calls piling up inside him over the years. Until one day, he just couldn’t take it anymore. After having a mental health crisis, he spends five days inpatient at a behavioral health facility. He went in a Monday, left on Friday, and right back to the streets vested up on the following Monday. The department knew Dave had spent five days inpatient. However, they didn’t ask questions, and he didn’t offer any. Right back to the grind of what brought him down, to begin with. How is there no fit for duty or buddy checks on him during the shifts?

The Final Call

After the brutal murder of a 15-year-old boy by his step Father, Dyke couldn’t do it anymore. That wasn’t the first call that started him down the path of PTSD, but it was the last call. Dave’s wife, Christie, recognized the need for her husband to seek proper help and get out of a job that started to make him a shell of a man. 

Beneath The Badge

After going to Utah for treatment with the support of his family, Dave and Christie wanted to start conversing with first responders and their families. Changing the conversation from I don’t want to talk about my day, to it was a good, bad, or worse day. They candidately share the struggles, signs, and support to get through what so many families silently live within their four walls. 

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First H.E.L.P.

In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked about moving forward after loss and trauma.

The 3 C’s

Christy and Ciara talked about how moving forward can be so hard, but having healthy relationships with significant others and friends and family can be achieved after loss and trauma.  

They talked about how, even while using healthy tools, a relationship can still struggle in unspoken ways.

The 3 C’s are perfect examples of how to continue building and growing within your relationships effectively. How we use these can vary from relationship to relationship, but it is essential to recognize them.

Choose - How can this help you heal? How can you move forward? What can you choose to do to make healthy steps forward?

Connect - How can you connect to yourself on a deeper level? Have you avoided a deeper connection with loved ones? What can you do to help connect and understand relationships?

Communicate - This is something we all can struggle with. We shut down because it is easier to not talk about our feelings and thoughts. How about instead, we communicate those feelings? It doesn’t always have to be spoken words. Even writing them down is communicating them. You should even be communicating within yourself. It is ok to talk to yourself. It is healthy to let feelings out.

So, how can you incorporate the three Cs into your life? What can you change to grow in your relationships? 

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First H.E.L.P.

Getting Blue Grit 

In this  Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy had a profound discussion with Eric Tung, a highly respected police commander, department wellness coordinator, and peer support leader. They delved into the crucial topic of open conversations and the need to normalize processing the events that occur at work and home, a subject Eric is particularly well-versed. 

Blue Grit Wellness

Eric, has been straightforward with the need to have conversations about the effects of the job, both at work and home. Leading by example, he shares the grit of the blue on the mindset with anyone who will listen. Change has to start somewhere. Moving up the ladder from Seargent to Commander, Tung still remains in the same mindset of work-out for your body, and process for your mind. This is a hard task for any first responder, but as a leader, it needs to continue regardless of what stripe you wear. 

Family

Raising children in a family that is exposed to traumatic events is a feat in itself. Teaching resilience, self-awareness, and how to make it normal to have feelings, is even more difficult in today’s world. Eric and his wife are taking the tools they have learned and giving them to their child every day. Healthy minds, make healthy children. 

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In  today’s Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked with Greg Podolak, a blended clinician for first responders at Halfwild Counseling.    

The Calling to Help

Greg’s story is inspiring and humbling at the same time. Greg came from a family of first responders and had his sights set on being a police officer. His dad was a New York City officer who served on 9/11. His brother is also an officer. However, during his schooling, his mindset changed. He already knew the other side of the badge, but his eyes were opened more, and that is when he decided to go into the mental health side of helping our first responders. Greg is also a director at VALE Virginia Law Enforcement Foundation. He is also an instructor at REBOOT Recovery, a program for first responders and veterans to help heal PTSD and trauma so they can live healthier lives. 

While in school, he worked in conjunction with the EMS office to study cumulative trauma within the EMS field. This really opened his eyes to the traumas that occurred daily for first responders. He even noticed himself holding on to the traumas and unable to cope with them at times. This helped pave the way for him to help officers in the field.

A blended clinician is one that practices in the office, but also in the field. Greg does many ride-alongs with officers to assist with traumatic calls, bridge that gap from a “therapist,” and gain the officers' trust to help them process their traumas on the job. 

Greg found his passion in helping first responders, understanding their traumas, and wanting to change how they perceive a clinician. He talks about the “out of the normal” ways he works with the men and women of the community and how he believes this helps the trust he is earning from them.

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First H.E.L.P.

In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked with Elizabeth Fiorenza, Anaheim Firefighters Association.   

Is This The End?

 In this episode, Christy and Ciara continue the conversation with Elizabeth about her and Matty’s relationship, her personal struggles, and what may have been the end.

Elizabeth recalls the day Matty had tried to take his life, and she had decisions to make. Death or divorce. Elizabeth knew Matty needed help but was also learning she needed help herself. She needed to get healthy, and that day, she decided to leave. She moved out of their home and started the path of her own program and healing from her traumas. She talks in depth about how she struggled so much with the next phase of her and Matty, she didn’t want to be a victim but also didn’t want to end her marriage because she knew Matty was good he was just sick.

Chicago Reset

 We hear about Elizabeth’s experience going to Chicago and having the treatment Stellate Ganglion Block at Stella Center to have the Stellate Ganglion Block treatment with Matty. The good, bad, and ugly of the trip and how successful it was. She found herself alone in a dangerous city because of anger with Matty. Elizabeth talks about the shot and her “tough neck” with the treatment. She tells us how amazing it was; she was able to stop people pleasing and really stop to smell the roses. Elizabeth tells us about how a walk around Lake Michigan changed her, and she was able to heal from a deep-rooted pain within her and the adoption of her first daughter. 

 We learn about personal health problems Elizabeth had faced and how a little gift happened in Chicago, Ultimately, it changed her path and her desire to be healthier and healthier within their marriage. 

She knew that they both had a lot of work to do bringing a child into the world, and they both needed to really work their programs to move forward healing. 

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First H.E.L.P.

In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked with Elizabeth Fiorenza, Anaheim Firefighters Association.   

The Past Comes Forward

 In this episode, Christy and Ciara had hard and raw talks with Elizabeth about how her past trauma came forward to a head with her relationship with Matty and how she worked through her traumas, both the past and present, to be part of the change in their marriage.

Elizabeth shared some emotional and painful memories of her childhood and how those “molded and shaped” who she was and what she thought love and life were. The life experiences she went through, even as a child, unfortunately, taught her unhealthy coping skills, addictions, and codependency. While so many of us can resonate with it, we each have our journeys. Elizabeth talks about how her relationship with Matty started and how unhealthy they both were from the beginning, but how she truly felt she was helping him. Elizabeth talks about how she lost family members and didn’t even want to hear what anyone had to say about Matty and her relationship and all the red flags.  

Elizabeth shared the absolute and ugly truths about her and Matty’s dysfunction and how she coped with the relationship, even as she was starting to see how unhealthy it was. They stuck through the mud and began the process of healing separately and together. 

***Note that this is a two-part episode. With so much to talk with Elizabeth about, we decided to split it up. So please join us next week to hear the rest of our conversation about Elizabeth, her journey, and her next steps. 

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First H.E.L.P.

In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara talked with Matthew Fiorenza retired City of Anaheim Firefighter.

Struggles, Resilience, and Purpose

During his years at the Anaheim Fighter Department, Matty Fiorenza has learned to overcome and find strength in resiliency. He opened up about the traumas and battles he fought within himself. Matty shared the failures in his personal life because of addiction and PTSD and the consequences of it, along with not being able to face his traumas. Fiorenza has an angel on his side, his wife has helped him so tremendously through the darkest times, and how she even saved his life. Matty has since retired and now dedicates his time to helping others. Matty attended Recovery First, a First Responder Treatment Center, to combat the addiction and start working through the traumas.  

PTSD911

While listening, you may recognize Matty or his story, as he is the firefighter featured in PTSD911. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should not just watch it for first responders but for all. We spoke about how important it is for people to understand the traumas they go through daily and that seeking help is so important. Matty talked about the different events documented in the film, along with the passing of his good friend, dispatcher Nicole Ford, EOW 8-2-23. 

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In this Beyond the 1st Response episode, Christy and Ciara spoke to Craig Lewis, former police officer and co-founder of Guardian Garage

A Wake Up

We had the pleasure of meeting Craig, former police officer for Maricopa County Sheriff Office where he served for 24 years. He spoke on how he used unhealthy tools after a shift, while knowing what he was doing but not knowing really how to change it. Craig had his own lingering issues from incidents on the job that were affecting his everyday life. Craig’s wife had “that” talk with him.  

Guardian Garage 

Craig and his brother Rob were together one day looking over Craig’s “hobby space” and came up with the idea of Guardian Garage. Rob served 12 years in the Army which included deployments. He too knew the effects of PTSD and how it affected lives. So the idea was to build a place where first responders and veterans can go and start a healing journey using the brain and hands in a healthy and creative way. 

As Craig tells us about the mission to serve first responders and veterans their idea came to fruition, and then grew. He talks about how they are planning to expand past just working on cars, and metal work. But to start in the wood working, and ceramics. Any creative ways to bring the ones who need it in and give them a hobby. 

They both had the passion and knowledge of just how hard it can be to work through the stresses and traumas from their callings to serve. Craig explains to us the garage and how it has helped others heal. Some come with never picking up a tool ever, and some bring experience. But all collaboratively they start a new journey. As Guardian Garage’s page says “Where Cars are more than metal - they’re a means to restore lives and ignite hope”.   

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