The Gathering Pit
Veterans • First Responders • Military
Reach further. Reach faster. Help more.
In therapy rooms, in hallways, in honest conversations that happen before and after the formal ones. Veterans. First responders. Military members. People who did hard things in hard places and came home to find the world had no idea how to hold them.
The Gathering Pit is where it all comes together. Periodically, around a fire and a meal, I bring together people from the therapy rooms, people who've never considered a therapy room, and the loved ones who watch someone they care about suffer and don't know where to turn. Maybe they tried somewhere and it didn't land. Maybe the person wasn't ready. Maybe the fit was wrong. Maybe they were scared.
This is a place where scared is okay. Where you don't have to explain yourself before you pull up a chair. Where the work of starting to heal can begin before anyone calls it that.
There are programs. There are hotlines. There are clinicians who care deeply and departments that are trying. That work matters and I'm not here to replace or replicate any of it. I'm here because there are still cracks in the foundation and people are still falling through them. Because I've been in some of the same rooms they have. Because sometimes the most powerful thing is just a seat at the table and someone who gets it sitting across from you.
Most people in this space are one thing: either an operator who's been there, or a clinician who understands it. I've been both. I spent years in conflict zones on multiple continents and worked law enforcement here at home. Then I became a licensed counselor. And I started this because I knew there was a gap between the people who needed help and the places they were supposed to find it.
When I'm not running a gathering, I'm in your building. Meeting with command staff, union reps, peer support coordinators, chaplains, anyone who has skin in the game. The work happens at the fire and it happens long before anyone gets there. And the effects don't stop with the person who pulled up a chair.
I've also built strategic referral partnerships with trusted healthcare providers and organizations. People flow in both directions: I send people where they need to go, and they send people to me when the formal system isn't the right fit. That's how reach becomes real.
This started as a fire in a courtyard in Kabul and a conviction that the people doing the hardest work deserved more than a pamphlet and a hotline number. I built it alone. And I'm building something larger: a network of clinicians, operators, survivors, and family members who've lived this from every angle. People who understand this world not because they studied it, but because they were in it. That's what this becomes.
From critical incident response to long-term wellness strategy, I help agencies build cultures where people can ask for help before the crisis, not after. If you're a department, unit, or organization looking for a partner who understands this world from the inside, let's talk.
Drop your email to stay connected. You'll hear about upcoming gatherings and the writing that goes along with the work. One list. No noise. Just the things that matter.
Gathering Pit updates • Writing from the work • No spam. Ever.
Whether you're a department, union, firehouse, peer support program, or chaplaincy, I'll come to you. Let's talk about what that looks like.
Donations don't fund a program. They fund the next fire, the next meal, the next conversation with someone who's been carrying something alone. No bureaucracy. No waitlist. A clinician who shows up and a community that holds people before the crisis, not after.
Secure payment via Stripe. Every dollar goes toward the next gathering.