E.244 What First Responders Want From Therapy And Group Work

What do first responders actually need from therapy to make it stick? We unpack fresh survey results from 46 clients and more than 30 first responders to surface what’s working, what’s missing, and the changes we’re rolling out next. From session length and structure to real follow-up and safer groups, this is a candid look at the nuts and bolts of care that moves the needle.

We dig into why 60 minutes often isn’t enough and how a 90-minute option creates space to warm up, process, and land with a clear plan. We’re honest about insurance friction and share practical paths forward, including an optional add-on that protects access without cutting depth. You’ll also hear how our first responder group keeps trust high with two hard lines—strict confidentiality and a no-apologies norm—so people can speak plainly about trauma, hypervigilance, substance use, and family strain without fear of gossip or judgment.

A big theme is momentum between sessions. Listeners asked for homework, short videos, book recs, and a single “action before next session” to keep progress alive on real shifts like sleep, sobriety, anger, or communication. We share how we’re building lightweight follow-ups that fit busy schedules and how wellness visits, vetted resources, and culturally competent clinicians can make help easier to find and safer to use. We also preview more solo segments by request, upcoming presentations, and a growing network designed to connect police, fire, and EMS with trusted treatment options across Massachusetts.

If you care about first responder mental health, you’ll leave with clarity on what changes are coming—longer sessions, stronger follow-up, and a tighter, safer community of support. Listen, share your take, and help shape what rolls out next. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the one change you want to see first.

Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome & Survey Setup
• 1:39 Winners, HIPAA, And Transparency
• 2:58 What The Survey Revealed
• 4:32 Therapy Lane And Boundaries
• 6:10 Value Ratings And Service Gaps
• 8:03 Session Lengths And Insurance Hurdles
• 9:55 Sponsor: Deemed Fit Offer
• 11:35 Expanding The First Responder Group
• 14:15 Group Rules: Confidentiality And No Apologies

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to Resilience Development in Action with Steve Beesman. This is the pumpcast dedicated to first responder mental health, helping police, fire, EMS, disc mentors, and paramedics create better growth environments for themselves and their teams. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01: 0:29

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to episode 244. If you haven't listened to episode 243, it was with A.K. Desante. Hope you go and listen to it. It was a really good interview. But for this episode, I want to review the client's survey. I know that uh it was about two months ago. If you're my client, you received a survey. If you're a first responder that I know, you received a survey. And if you're a podcast listener that you know about that I know about, you received a survey. Bottom line is if you want to be part of that newsletter, just write to me at Steve Bison Lmhc at gmail.com and I'll add you to the newsletter that goes out about once a month, give or take. But we got three winners, and I actually filmed the winners, and then I realized, oh my god, I'd be violating HIPAA. So I wasn't able to give you the the five the final results. But congratulations to Sam and Beth and someone else won. There's a third person that won that I can't remember off the top of my head right now. But I sent them the uh the gift card. If you need to see the video to prove that it was random, I can show it to you. But because it was no always Melanie, the third one. Anyway, if you want to see the video, I can show it to you. I promise it was all random, but they all but one got the card so far. So it was a true random thing, and I appreciate all your feedback. But I wanted to talk about the feedback. The first thing I want to mention is I'm very proud to say that I got 46 response for my survey, and I received over 30 responses for the first responder people. And I got a lot of different types of feedback, and most of it was positive. You'd think that you know wouldn't be so positive, but I'm kidding. One of the things going back to HIPAA and my my how proud I am in regards to the work I do is that only a few people, like less than a quarter of you, knew that I had a podcast. And that basically means I keep my I keep my lane, right? I do therapy, I don't talk about my podcast. So for those of you who are in therapy with me listening, thank you. You know, you you know for listening. But for my clients who don't listen, perfect, they know I keep in my lane. I do therapy with them. That's what I'm paid for. I'm not here to promote my podcast. I know that seems strange, but that's how it is. And for the first responder, I like that was a lot of responses, and there was a lot of truthful responses that I really appreciate. You know, I got a lot of positive stuff. Most people like I had the lowest I got is how valuable is your work with Steve. I got valuable for two people, and the rest of them were either very valuable or extremely valuable, which was really helpful. Most people know I do mental health counseling and substance abuse counseling, but they don't know the rest of it, which is kind of interesting. The group people don't know about, and I want to talk a little bit about my mental health first responder group after this because it is very, very important to me to do so. I can give you a sample of someone, you know, I cannot thank you enough for all you do. I'm always grateful for you. Keep it up. I really enjoy working towards healing and learning from one another. That's from the group, actually. Looking forward to more growth and momentum in 2026, longer sessions would be nice. There's a lot of feedback that I got that I want to talk about here on the podcast, in the sense that this may not be a first responder podcast per se today. Guys, bear with me, listen to it, please, because it's important to know what you want out of counseling. I'm working really hard on something, a project right now to for first responders and to domystify therapy, but I'll continue working on that. But wanted to share something about longer sessions. Here's the example, the thing I want to explain. The coding for a longer session is truly painful, and they don't always pay. And I'm not saying that I'm that much money hungry, but I do have to pay the bills, right? So some people say that sometimes I don't care as much, which is true. But I want to make sure you know that I do pay attention to that, and I will sh probably add within the next few months a longer session, it's probably 90 minutes, probably not much longer than that. And I'll figure out the billing maybe, or maybe we can talk about an extra fee, because a lot of people said I'll pay an extra fee for a longer session. So there's a lot of ideas there. So let me know what you think. Any insurance companies, if you're listening, yes, I just said you're a pain in the ass if I go over 60 minutes, and that's why I hate using you. Just a quick break, guys. I'm gonna talk about a new product that I really like. I actually bought one of their hoodies, it was amazing, and I really enjoyed wearing it. Uh, it this episode is gonna be supported by Deemed Fit. Deemed Fit is a first responder-owned activewear and a leisure brand. And one thing that I genuinely like about them is that they support different causes. I actually gave a few people I know who work with first responders or nonprofits their name to uh Deemed Fit, and I know they're talking to them. They do a lot of initiatives and collections that are based on mental health for first responders. And if you go there right now and you buy anything, including the mental health support stuff, uh use the code R D A15. That's right, R D A 15 to get 15% off on any products that you get. Again, it's called RDA15. Go to deanfit.com, D-E-E, M-E-D-F-I-T.com, and enjoy 15% off at checkout to save. Now, right back to the episode. The other part too is the group. We a lot of people have grown from the group. We have about 20 members, give or take, some regulars, some not so regular, and that's okay. They can come whenever they want. But group has been something that people really enjoy, and that's something I will absolutely probably starting in April. I will start doing a longer group instead of 60 minutes and 90 minutes, because we get to the the crust of it because guys, you know, and gals, we we like to shoot the shit at the beginning of the sessions, the group sessions, and then we kind of jump into the conversation, but then an hour goes by really fast. So I will probably extend that by I would say April 2026 to an hour and a half. Hopefully that will make some people happier about it. The other part that I wanted to mention that was very interesting is that people say that they don't have a lot of follow-up between sessions. They would have to would like more regular sessions, which is fine. And if you're a first responder, you can have your regular session plus your group. I invite you to both. And the group is also one of the things that I want to mention for those who've never heard my first responder group. I try not to add people from the same department because I don't want it to be a gossip game. I also tend to, if I will add people from the same department, the there's two rules from my group. The first rule, which is very important, never repeat what is said in this group. Why? You can grow if you want to from it and you can learn, but you got to keep it anonymous. You can't talk about anyone in the group. People know I'm very serious about that because I don't want it to become such a story for people that they're not coming in because they're afraid that their story will be getting out there. So that's, you know, it's automatic for me. If people talk about anything that's said in the group, bye-bye, there is no remorse on my part. The second one is no apologies. And I think that with the group, it's always interesting because the group, I'm sorry to take all your time, or I'm sorry for bringing that up. I'm sorry to sound like a pussy. Name the story I heard it. And I always remind people that that's why we don't apologize in our group because we all need the help. We all want to reach out. This is what we're gonna do. And group is supposed to be a safe place. And I hate, I know this is not fun for first respondents to hear safe haven for them, but nonetheless, that's what it is. And I think that it's important for them to be able to say whatever the hell they want and not be too apologizing for having issues because, hey, that's why you have the group, right? To talk about those issues. So I'm very much looking forward to that. I forgot, I jumped a little bit because I talked about the follow-up. A lot of people talked about needing some sort of follow-up after each session. What I heard is I like homework, videos and books are very helpful. Setting goals out loud makes me comfortable. We set goals, but it's not always talking about the goals. I think additional training, I love homework. I don't believe that just therapy is good enough. I need something between my sessions. I'm reading them directly. And for all of those who wrote the comments, thank you. So I will tell you that I'm working on a couple of ideas here. One of the ideas I have is to definitely create something from follow-up. I'm also working on a project with someone right now, which will probably help. That's as much as I can say right now. If you need any of the support, you can go to my website www.steve-bsunn.com, and you'll see all everything that I have, including wellness visits, including group, and everything else that I do. So it's all gonna be on there. I think that one of the things that people got to realize is I love doing this podcast. It's a labor of love. But I don't like, I think this is my second or third individual in about a year. And the reason why is just I like talking to people, getting people's story out there and people hearing that. So I will make sure that I do a little more individual sessions because when I did the podcast thing, a lot of people like the interviews, but they're like, when are you talking? When are you sharing your ideas? What are you sharing about what you do? So it sounds like it's something people want to hear. So I will probably start doing that sooner rather than later. I think the other part too that I hear is we someone said something about what's the top one action before next session. They want to know which action they have to take at the end of each session. I think I'm gonna try to integrate that if people want that. And what I mean by that is this some people just want to come to therapy, talk, and leave. But I got to find a way to bring that up for those who want something like an action plan in regards to the therapy. So looking at the survey, this is the two main, this is the two main things. And you can see some of the testimonials, they'll be on my website too at the end of the day, probably after this, when you listen to this podcast, it'll probably be out. Otherwise, I want to thank you because I'm in the transition part of my career now. And what I mean by that is this, as I my goal, my girls are gotten older, and now I can travel a little more because they they can be a little more independent. I'm gonna start doing a lot of more presentations. You you know, at the end of probably by the time this podcast comes out, I did something with McLean Hospital that'll be out. Please go and listen to it. I you can, it'll highly likely be on my website, if not, in my newsletter. If not, call me, text me, or you know, contact me through the podcast and I'll send it to you. I'm also presenting at the fraternity order of police at the end of March, which I'm extremely proud of. And I've put in a few more places where they wanted me to submit my ideas for a one-hour presentation. So hopefully I'll be going towards more presentation. So for those of you who are my clients, wait a minute, is he gonna abandon us? Of course not. I'm not abandoning anyone, but I want to get to a point where I'm doing a lot more of presentations because I really enjoy that. So if you are someone who needs a person like me, please let me know. The other part, too, that I really want to transition to is doing a lot of wellness visits. I'm gonna reach out to a lot of with my partner, uh, my business partner, Bill Dwinnells. He's been on Dwinnells. Why am I not pronouncing anything right today? Anyway, he has been on the podcast before. We're gonna be working on wellness visits in our area, how it works, how it doesn't work, what it does, what it doesn't, and making sure that it's accessible to everyone. And finally, we've been working on this networking pro uh process for several months now, over a couple of years, frankly. And we're getting closer and closer to a working model for us to become something. And I don't really want to pronounce myself just yet because we haven't decided exactly what model we're gonna use, but we want to revolutionize access to resources in Massachusetts. And what I mean by that is this we want therapists who are culturally competent to work with first responders. We want to have places where we vetted for treatment, whether it's IOP, whether it's a partial hospital or an inpatient place. That's why I went down to Maryland. Joe Razuti is another person who's been on my podcast, who is part of this group, who has been down there. He's really good at those treatment places. So that's why we're doing all that. But those are the few things I'm working on. So is it less work with the clients? It does feel that way, and it probably is. And you gotta understand that this is more of a choice of, you know, I love my job, I will never change my job, but I also want to be able to do different things, call it whatever you want. It doesn't have to be a diagnosis. I need some freshness in my work, I always need something new. So that's what I'm working on. Hopefully, by the end of 2026, we can talk about all the stuff that I did, including this podcast, but more importantly, talking about resources. Next episode will be with Nikki Mason, who is someone who is and works as a relation person and a representative for the Granted Recovery Center. So that's the interview you're going to hear next week and the following week. And hopefully I can do some more individual and my five-year anniversary is coming up. Any ideas? Contact me. Please let me know what you your thoughts are, what I should do for my fifth anniversary show. I thank you for your time, guys, and I'll see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00: 13:57

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