Joining via zoom from Ohio is Austin Owens, a Prior U.S. Army Infantryman, who was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded in combat while serving in Afghanistan in 2011.

Austin joined the U.S. Army at the age of 19 in 2009 and originally wanted to be a K9 Handler, but had to settle with 11Bravo. Austin discusses the lack of mental health awareness training during his time in the Army as they made fun of each other, Command would tell you to "Fuck Off", and it was expected to be a macho man.

In January of 2011, Austin (21 years of age) found himself in Afghanistan and was able to work and train with the Afghans, which was dangerous at times. On June 5, 2011, Austin and his team were ambushed via RPG's, where one nearly struck him. After this event, Austin was awarded the Purple Heart. Austin still has shrapnel in his leg and suffered major traumatic brain injury from the injuries.

After getting out of the U.S. Military, Austin found the gym which opened up a lot of doors for him. Austin believes physical fitness and the micro achievements within fitness greatly benefit our community.

Austin is now working with Catch A Lift Fund, which is a fantastic resource for our Veteran community. The Catch A Lift Fund enables post 9/11 combat injured veterans all over the U.S. to recover and rehabilitate both physically and mentally through physical fitness, motivation and support.

https://catchaliftfund.org/

Joining via zoom from San Diego, CA, is Kendall Wood, who's been a yoga therapist working with our first responder community for the past five years. Currently, Kendall works along side CAL Fire Firefighters at the training center teaching yoga. Kendall is also married to a CAL Fire Engineer.

Kendall offers 1:1 virtual yoga sessions, in person retreats, conferences, and corporate events. If you're in the San Diego area, Kendall can also see you in person upon request.

Schedule a free consultation by going to Kendall's website at Kendallanne.com or find Kendall on Instagram by searching @Kendallanneyoga.

Thank you all and don't forget to download The Overwatch Collective App to listen to T.O.C.'s Podcast in addition to others for our community.

Joining via zoom is Kristofor from the state of Texas! Kristofor is a prior Special Agent w/ U.S. Customs & Boarder Protection where he served honorably for 15 years. Kristofer is currently married with two children.

In this podcast, we talk about a call for service where Kristofor was 10 ft. away from someone who died via a self inflicting GSW, his involvement in the largest telefraud case in U.S. History, Boarder Agents killed off-duty, locating decomposing deceased bodies near the boarder, and Officer suicides within the federal agency.

Furthermore, Kristofor talks all about his book called, "In Valor, 365 Stoic Meditations For First Responders. This book give you the tools you need on and off duty to survive! Head over to Amazon to purchase the book today! You can also follow his podcast by searching The Stoic Responder, which will be added to T.O.C.'s App soon.

Thank you to Kristofor for supporting T.O.C. and for all your work in our First Responder in the past and present.

Joining via zoom is Matt and Shavonne in beautiful Southern California at Throttle & Thrive's Facility, which is a Men's Substance Misuse Facility Exclusively For First Responders and Veterans.

Matt was born in Florida and served as a Fire Fighter for 18 years. Furthermore, Matt was married and has three children and unfortunately his substance misuse was a contributing factor to him becoming divorced in 2018. Matt has attended SIX different treatment centers and was not seeing improvement in himself.

Matt got connected with Shavonne in early 2024 and attended Throttle & Thrive, which is exactly what he needed as the facility is geared towards our first responder and military community. Matt shares his experiences being a Fire Fighter, diagnosis of PTSD, relationship challenges, substance misuse, and shares the need for our community to learn about the great work Shavonne is doing at Throttle & Thrive.

Thank you to Matt for being willing to be vulnerable and share your story for our community!

If you would like to learn more about Shavonne and Throttle & Thrive, we encourage you to listen to SZN 6 EP 5 and SZN 6 EP 10. Throttle & Thrive was a proud sponsor at T.O.C.'s "Be Here Tomorrow" symposium in February of 2024. You can also find Throttle & Thrive's website at Throttleandthrive.com.

Thank you all and don't forget to download The Overwatch Collective App to listen to T.O.C.'s Podcast in addition to others for our community.

Joining via zoom in Southern California is Rob, a retired Police Captain, who honorably served 30 years in the profession. After retirement, Rob obtained his Masters Degree in Social Work and now operates the Unified Wellness Center for our first responder and military community in Southern California.

Throughout Rob's 30 years, he was an F.T.O., Detective investigating ICAC cases, Detective Sgt., IA Sgt. Traffic Lt., and Captain of the Patrol Division and oversaw the start of the department's peer support team.

Enjoy this great episode as we talked about how peer support is mostly just a check in the box, the retirement process and known lack of preparation for it due to funding/resources, suicide numbers under reported, and the challenge of retired life for our community.

You can learn more about the Unified Wellness Center at Unifiedwellnesscenter.com.

Thank you all and don't forget to download The Overwatch Collective App to listen to T.O.C.'s Podcast in addition to others for our community.

Joining via zoom is Dr. Michele Vecchione, a psychotherapist in Florida, who is a great resource for our first responder and military community. Dr. Vecchione also authored The Compassion Conundrum, a manual that offers resources and tools for our community.

With the experience of traumatic calls for service on a daily basis within our community, we are more open to burnout and compassion fatigue. With our recent staffing shortages and negative media content, we lean into using alcohol and other negative coping mechanisms.

We are taught to put others before self, which is something Dr. Vecchione is trying to change as we need to take care of ourselves in order to best serve our community. It is vital to have tools and resources set in place in the event you need them after experience a tough call for service that affects you.

Enjoy this episode with Dr. Vecchione and contact her if you have any questions or want to learn more about her work for our community!

You can learn more about Dr. Vecchione and Vecc and Associates at Veccandassociates.com.

Joining via zoom in Colorado is Calico, who was full of energy as she was set up in the garage gym full of challenge coins, flags, patches, and weapons. Full of energy comes a lot of cuss words!

Calico applied for the United States Marine Corps, where she hoped to become an Officer after passing Officer Candidate School. Unfortunately, a concussion in June 2015 changed her life and hindered that dream. Calico spent a lot of time with her furry partners training and working with other K9's in Washington D.C. doing diplomatic security. Calico had a ll

Listen to Calico explain the three sides she had after OCS, which were the "Over the top happy, murder someone angry, or kill myself depressed."

We talked a lot about how concussions affect us later on in life, the importance of mental health awareness amongst the special operations community and first responder community.

Enjoy this episode and check out Calico by following her instagram @Liveshirtless

A fantastic in person podcast with Robyn Sonnier and Mica Salazar Istre while in Lafayette, Loiusiana! Listen in as they discuss their training, experience, and education in working work out military and first responder community. Both are contracted T.O.C. therapists and are actively seeing people in our community through T.O.C.

We talk about the importance of self awareness in realizing when you should work with a therapist. It was interesting to hear conversations around people potentially being afraid of life without therapy... It is a lifestyle change that comes with a lot of work, but it is needed for individuals in our community to get into therapy early and often.

We also mentioned about the pro's of getting into therapy early prior to a critical incident and having to react to the ways you are feeling. It is inevtiable that we will respond to a critical incident. Our community doesn't go into a combat zone with zero preparation... it is the same with therapy. We should be normalizing seeking therapy and working on yourself to sharpen your tools to be most prepared. It is vital to be more aware of yourself, your triggers, and symptoms that may lead to PTSD. Learn more about this in the podcast as we discuss proactive vs. reactive coping. You will be better for yourself, your partners, and your community if you train yourself for these situations.

Enjoy this episode with Robyn and Mica. Thank you ladies!