Jared and Hannah Norton, founders of Restoration Farms, discuss their nonprofit ministry that focuses on helping first responders with their mental health. Jared shares his personal experience with a mental health crisis and PTSD, and how it affected their marriage and family. They talk about the challenges they faced in finding help and support, including their experience with the healthcare system and the lack of available resources. They also discuss the importance of sleep, the shame and guilt associated with mental health struggles, and the need for specialized therapy for first responders. The conversation ends with their journey to finding help through Samaritan's Purse's Operation Heal Our Patriots program. Jared and Hannah Norton discuss their experience with trauma and the healing process through EMDR therapy. They emphasize the importance of addressing and processing emotions and traumas to find healing and hope. They also share their vision for Restoration Farms, a ministry that aims to provide mental health resiliency training, peer support, and retreats for first responders and their families.

Takeaways

• Restoration Farms is a nonprofit ministry that focuses on helping first responders with their mental health.
• Jared Norton shares his personal experience with a mental health crisis and PTSD, and how it affected their marriage and family.
• The Nortons faced challenges in finding help and support, including the lack of available resources and the limitations of the healthcare system.
• Specialized therapy, such as EMDR, is important for first responders to address trauma and mental health issues.
• Samaritan's Purse's Operation Heal Our Patriots program provided the Nortons with the help and support they needed. EMDR therapy can be a powerful tool for turning down the volume of emotions and engaging with traumas
• Addressing and processing emotions and traumas is essential for healing and finding hope
• Community and peer support are crucial in the healing journey
• Faith and spirituality can provide a source of strength and hope
• Restoration Farms aims to provide mental health resiliency training, peer support, and retreats for first responders and their families

Sound Bites

• "We are the founders of Restoration Farms and it's a nonprofit ministry. just starting to help first responders with their mental health."
• "In 2019, I went through a really serious mental health crisis. I'm a 17 year firefighter. So pretty much all of our, our marriage, I've been a firefighter, uh, been full time for 13 years working as a paramedic firefighter in a pretty busy nine one system in Indiana."
• "I dealt with shame a ton. I think in the first responder culture, we're people who do things, we're people who rescue other people. And we also live with kind of a mentality that says, have no needs, right?"
• "I did five days of intensive EMDR therapy... And it was really pretty brutal because I had like 35 years of stuff that I just had pushed down."
• "I had created such a wall of horrific fear between myself and those parts of my heart that I couldn't engage with them at all."
• "I got some basic skills of how to deal with anger... I really was angry about a lot of things, especially like the injustices you see in the world."

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• Throttle & Thrive First Responder Addiction Recovery: https://throttleandthrive.com/
• MyPodcast.Media: https://ShawnPNeal.com

PODCAST WEBSITE:

• https://burntoutpodcast.org

BURNT OUT CREW:

• Host: Skip O
• Mental Health Minute: Melissa H
• Sunday Support Zoom Meeting Facilitator: Jeff D
• Bonus Episode Host: Capt. Chuck Bray
• Executive Producer: Shawn P Neal
• A Two On The Lobster Production

EPISODE HASHTAGS:
#firefighter #firstresponder #ems #emt #police #lawenforcement #military #trauma #mentalhealth #USMC #military