SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION FIRST RESPONDERS RESILIENCY The fires inside First Responders Resiliency has a vision— to change the culture by training those who save others, how to save themselves
By Jason Walsh T
response. Over time and with enough constancy, the body adopts fight-or-flight more permanently, taking an incredible toll on the body. However much they try, first responders can’t simply “leave it at the office.” Not every distress call is earth shattering; not every day is haunting. But if each trauma is like a small stone collected in a backpack of first-responder stress, over time the weight will bear a heavy burden—one that can carry a steep cost. Retired Oakland firefighter Michael Donner’s “backpack” is loaded with stones from a more than 30-year career that found him responding to such emergencies as the Loma Prieta earthquake, Ground Zero on 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He’s attended each of the nonprofit’s trainings since 2024, when the weight of his backpack became too much and he suffered a near-suicidal breakdown that drove his fiancé to the brink of leaving him. Through the trainings he’s gained understanding how his career has affected him physiologically and how certain daily routines can reset his nervous system. “I bought into the program,” he says. “And it has changed my life.” A few facts: First responders are demonstrated to have higher rates of alcoholism than the general population, with studies showing 58% of public-safety professionals binge drinking within the past month. Another study by The First Responders Initiative found between 60-75% of first responders’ first marriages end in divorce. Most alarming, emergency responders are 1.39 times more likely to die by suicide, according to 2024 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. First Responders Resiliency trainings carry the promise that participants will come away with tools and techniques to navigate the stress and mitigate the toll on physical and mental health brought by a career whose primary responsibility is to wade knee- deep into other people’s most traumatic moments. The goal, the nonprofit’s website contends, is if the trainings serve their purpose, they “may save your life.” The mission, it continues, is to “Put PTSD Out of Business.” And the vision: To take this culture-changing model of physiological- and mental-health awareness global.
he shirt read: “Proud member of the Forget Your Feelings Generation.” That was the display on the back of the T-shirt of the middle-aged man in the last row. Only, the first word wasn’t actually “forget,” though it did start with F. He was listening to speakers instructing him how to “go to the mind gym” and to “open your mind, open your heart.” From his look, the membership to the FYF Generation hadn’t included many passes to “the mind gym” over the years. And any opening of his heart at a forum surrounded by
dozens of strangers might require the Jaws of Life. He sat quietly, respectfully and perhaps a bit nervously—not unlike the others in attendance. He was one of 50 mostly male first responders at Bishop’s Ranch event center in Healdsburg in early November 2025 attending the opening of a three-day training workshop put on by First Responders Resiliency, Inc., the Sonoma County nonprofit dedicated to “Putting PTSD Out of Business.” “Some of you probably think you don’t need this [type of training],” predicted the nonprofit’s founder and director Susan Farren, a former paramedic and paramedics supervisor, in her opening presentation to the attendees. “But I guarantee either you do, or you know someone who does.” Attendees are invited to use a variety of tools on the tables before them— pipe cleaners, stress balls, coloring pages—common objects scientifically shown to help release stress while learning, and activating a part of the brain stimulating recovery and focus. In broad terms, the trainings address stress—understanding it scientifically, recognizing it physiologically and alleviating it personally. But these aren’t your typical find-your-spirit-animal meditation retreats held throughout the North Bay for decades. This is for people whose job is to fix bad situations asap—a family’s house is burning, someone’s spouse is violent, Grandpa is in cardiac arrest. First responders often play a prominent role in someone’s worst day, making immediate, informed and potentially life-altering decisions, driven into action by the body’s instinctual fight-or-flight
52 NorthBaybiz
December 2025
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