It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. The lights are on, the gifts are wrapped, and everyone around you seems to be swimming in gratitude and joy. But if you’re a first responder, you might be sitting in the middle of …
How Surrender, Storytelling, and Community Save Lives When you spend years on the front lines, crisis becomes part of the job description. You learn how to run toward chaos. You learn how to stay calm when everything around you is breaking. You le…
Finding Freedom on the Trail: A Message to First Responders from Cinnamon This week’s conversation with Lieutenant Michael Slocum of the Painesville Police Department and Frontline Freedom was a breath of fresh air—literally and figurat…
Grief After Suicide Loss: What Helpers Need to Know There are moments in this work that stop you cold. Moments that change you. Moments you don’t see coming, even when you think you’ve seen it all. And then there are the moments you ne…
Let me guess: You're the person everyone thinks has their life figured out. You show up on time, crush your goals, follow the rules, and keep your emotions locked down tighter than a evidence locker. And you're miserable. Maybe not dramatically, f…
There are conversations we all know need to happen, but nobody wants to be the first one to break the silence. Suicide in first responder culture is one of them. Not because we don’t care. Not because we’re cold. But because the truth hu…
It’s no secret that first responders carry the weight of what most people can’t imagine. The calls that never leave your mind. The quiet in the middle of chaos. The exhaustion that lingers long after the uniform is hung up for the night.…
What if the most effective form of therapy doesn’t happen on a couch—but on a surfboard, a mountain, or beneath the surface of the sea? For firefighter, EMT, and Army veteran Gage Hall, healing didn’t begin in a quiet office. It b…
The National Firefighter Registry: Your Voice Matters (Even Without a Diagnosis) Let me be straight with you: I don't do fluff, and neither should you when it comes to your health. When Rick Markley joined me on After the Tones Drop, we talked abo…
What happens when the person who runs into burning buildings nearly loses everything... not to flames, but to burnout? In Episode 128 of After the Tones Drop, I sit down with Kory Pearn, firefighter, captain, and the force behind CRACKYL magazine&m…
When you’ve spent decades on the job (seeing what most people can’t unsee) it’s easy to believe silence is strength. But what if talking about it is what saves you? In Episode 127 of After the Tones Drop, I sat down with retired N…
How Authenticity, Communication, and Change Can Reshape First Responder Culture In high-stress professions like law enforcement, leadership isn't just about command presence; it's about emotional intelligence, clarity, and culture. In this episode …
Healing isn’t magic... it’s what your body (and brain) are wired to do. When we think about healing (especially trauma healing) it can feel like something mysterious or far away, like only other people know how to do it. But the truth i…
Redefining PTSD: How Dr. Lipov Is Rewriting the Future of Healing PTSD What if PTSD didn’t have to be permanent? What if we stopped calling it a “disorder” and started recognizing it as what it really is... an injury to the nervou…
For too long, first responders living with PTSD have been told the same story: it’s a disorder you’ll carry for life. Manage it. Medicate it. Endure it. But what if PTSD isn’t a lifelong disorder at all? What if it’s an inju…
Mental Health for First Responders: How Shawn Thomas Built a Nationwide Lifeline If you’ve been in public safety for any length of time, you already know the truth: the job will take more from you than it ever gives back. Shift work, trauma, …
Firefighter Health and Wellness Conference: The Must-Attend Event That’s Changing the Game Are you tired of the same old conferences—stale coffee, recycled PowerPoints, and “networking” sessions that feel more like hostage s…
Vulnerability in Leadership: Why It’s the Fire Service’s Untapped Superpower What if the very thing you’ve been taught to hide as a leader—vulnerability—is the one thing your team needs most? For decades, fire service…
Resilience Training for First Responders: Building Strength Beyond the Badge First responders are trained for chaos. They run toward the fire, the fight, the accident, the unknown. But here’s the catch—while the job demands physical rea…
I see it often in my therapy practice... Many First Responders struggle with their faith after trauma. Let’s be honest—most first responders I know don’t lose faith because they drifted away from Sunday school. They lo…
Behind the Badge, Cancer Doesn’t Discriminate. The Reality We’re Still Not Talking About Let’s just call it like it is: slapping a ribbon on a patrol car once a year isn’t going to save lives. Cancer is now one of the lead…
Awareness Won’t Save Us: What First Responders Actually Need to Heal From Trauma Let’s just say it: We’ve broken the stigma into a million awareness ribbons. And somehow, we’re still bleeding out. We don’t need anothe…
A Powerful Conversation With Law Enforcement Life Coach John Kelly Episode 115 by Cinnamon Reiheld, Trauma Therapist & Host of After the Tones Drop Would You Die for Your Family… or Actually Live for Them? We hear it a lot in this line…
Unpacking the Armor: When Childhood Trauma and First Responder Trauma Recovery Collide by Cinnamon Reiheld, Trauma Therapist & Host of After the Tones Drop Here’s a truth most departments won’t touch: Your trauma didn’t start…
