Thriving as a First Responder Family: Nurse Coaching, Mental Health Support, and Self-Care Strategies

Kristin Greathouse [00:00:00]:
Things that I see a lot is that they apologize for their feelings and that they don't take care of themselves. And so I always hope that I get that across when I'm meeting with any of them, that they are important and they are special and they are valued. And, you know, I hope as. As we work together that they feel that and they start to believe that themselves. Sometimes you need somebody to believe it for you first, just to keep supporting you in that, and then hopefully eventually they'll start believing it themselves.

Jennifer [00:00:34]:
All right, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jennifer.

Ashlee [00:00:37]:
And I'm Ashlee. And literally, I'm going to start it off the way I said I would. We have a guest who does all the incredible things. I can't. I can't even personally name them all because she's that amazing. So what we will do is we will have her introduce herself and tell us a little bit about what she does and what we're going to talk about today. So I'm going to hand it over to you. Hi.

Kristin Greathouse [00:00:59]:
Thank you. I am Kristin Greathouse. I am the wife of a first responder. I am the daughter of a first responder. My dad's a firefighter. My husband is a police officer. I am a nurse, and I am actually a board certified nurse coach. So I'm.

Jennifer [00:01:18]:
You have it all.

Kristin Greathouse [00:01:18]:
Trying to do a whole other.

Ashlee [00:01:20]:
I wasn't kidding. I started us with a banger. Were just talking about all the things about this podcast, and then here I am throwing a curveball, 0.5 seconds in this whole dynamic of dad being a firefighter but married to a police officer, that wouldn't have worked out in my house. My dad said, you are not allowed to date those firefighters. So I am. Oof. I'm impressed how you snuff that one in there.

Kristin Greathouse [00:01:44]:
It's funny. So my husband and I grew up together. He's just a couple years older than me. I've known him since I was a baby, and we never dated in high school or anything like that. It wasn't until we were much older. But he knew my dad and he was always very respectful of my dad. My dad, I think, was impressed by that. Just of this young kid who was, you know, very respectful and.

Ashlee [00:02:06]:
What?

Kristin Greathouse [00:02:06]:
Yes. Yes.

Ashlee [00:02:07]:
Yeah, right?

Kristin Greathouse [00:02:08]:
Yes. Should have known it was going to lead to somebody. But they have a great time joking around about firefighters and cops. So it's a fun time when we get together.

Jennifer [00:02:21]:
Well, it sounds like you've made a bridge between firefighting and policing. And I really want to talk about this bridge you have with being a licensed nurse and coaching. So can you tell us just a little bit about. I guess maybe back up and tell us a little bit what nurse coaching is and then it kind of explain your trajectory in terms of how it was something that interests you.

Kristin Greathouse [00:02:41]:
Absolutely. Nurse coaching is an actual recognized board certification for nurses. So you do have to be a registered nurse, an rn, which I am. So I got my adn, which is my associate degree in nursing, and then I got my bsn. I'm currently in school for my dnp, which is a doctorate of nurse practitioner. So I have about three more years. I will make my husband call me doctor, of course.

Jennifer [00:03:07]:
Doctor. Great house.

Ashlee [00:03:09]:
Doctor.

Kristin Greathouse [00:03:09]:
Yes. I got into nurse coaching. I actually saw. It was a fluke. I saw it as an ad on social media somewhere and it piqued my interest and I looked into it, but it wasn't until well over a year later that I actually signed up for it. The certification is nurse coach, but that doesn't mean that I coach nurses. It just means that I am a nurse and I am also a certified life coach. I can coach anyone about anything.

Kristin Greathouse [00:03:35]:
The beauty is a lot of people will come to nurse coaches because we have that clinical background and experience in nursing. And so we do have a little bit of a step up on things when it comes to healthy things.

Jennifer [00:03:49]:
Right.

Kristin Greathouse [00:03:49]:
Working out, eating healthy. You know, not that I'm going to give someone a healthy eating plan because I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not going to give somebody a workout plan because I'm not a trainer. But I can help people to figure out the best things for them. Like I said, I found it on social media. I finally went through the program. I got the board certification. I kind of use it all the time, some very intentional times. And then other times it just kind of comes out when I'm talking to somebody and it's like, oh, well, tell me more about that.

Ashlee [00:04:22]:
Honestly, that's so incredible. And that was going through my brain too. I'm like, it's something that I feel like can be used in a lot of different aspects of your life, which I find incredibly powerful. And so I love how you were just like, yeah, it kind of just comes out because, I mean, how, how does it not? Right? Like, and I, I really, really love that. We do want to ask what it's like for you though, to also be married to a first responder and how it's kind of shaped like your life and your mindset on things.

Kristin Greathouse [00:04:48]:
Lord, how much time do you have.

Ashlee [00:04:50]:
She said we need 13 episodes.

Kristin Greathouse [00:04:54]:
Yes. Yes. Well, first of all, I will say I love my husband and I actually like him. We are best friends. So I have a little bit of different perspective. Like I said, I knew my husband growing up, so I knew him before he was a first responder. Although I think everyone always knew that he was going to become a police officer when he, you know, grew up and became an adult. But we were only ever friends back in high school and didn't start dating until he had been on the job for several years.

Kristin Greathouse [00:05:22]:
So even though I knew him, I didn't get to know him well until we started dating. And like I said, he had already been an officer for several years. At that point. I should say, to answer your question, I am extremely proud to be married to a police officer. He's been in law enforcement for 26 years. I think now he's been promoted several times. He's accomplished so many things in his career. I mean, I couldn't even list them all.

Kristin Greathouse [00:05:48]:
But I'm extremely proud to be married to an officer. But that said, I say we're best friends and we are, but it's taken a lot of time to get where we are. I really always say if there's an emergency, I want him to be there because he's very calm, he's very steady in chaotic situations. I love that about him because I am not always calm and steady in those situations. Early on in our relationship, I would say he was probably very hyper vigilant, as many officers are, you know, I always had to sit with his back against the wall in a restaurant, always carried his gun with him, whether he was on duty or not. He was always kind of overly concerned, I would say, about where the kids were, what they were doing, who they were with. His favorite saying was always, nothing good happens past midnight, so nobody needs to be out late, you know. And so a lot of times back then I had to be very mindful of what I said to him because often I never really knew what was going to set him off necessarily and really upset him.

Kristin Greathouse [00:06:45]:
I would say time his age, therapy, and I would say especially EMDR have really mellowed him tremendously. I don't really worry about setting him off anymore because he doesn't necessarily get as upset as he used to. We live on a farm, we're in the country, and it's really our sanctuary. And I think ever since we've had this place, it's just calming to turn into my driveway and drive up to my house and know that, you know, we're here and it's very peaceful out here. I think that's really shaped a lot about our marriage and, you know, our mindset and. And that kind of thing. I hope that I answered your question.

Ashlee [00:07:20]:
You did.

Jennifer [00:07:20]:
And, I mean, I think that we're seeing more and more research just about being in nature is such a positive thing, and how special that, you know, your house is surrounded by that, you know, and that you guys have that kind of peace. That's beautiful. And I appreciate you kind of sharing that. It's been a journey into what marriages are. You know, we work together and feeling that kind of shift in work, and I think that that's beautiful with the coaching and you thinking about life coach. And I do think that there's probably some research about nurses and police officers being together. Right. Like, that's a thing.

Kristin Greathouse [00:07:56]:
Which way? Yeah.

Ashlee [00:07:58]:
Can we just go to cue? All the reels that I watch of, like, nurses running and, like, the police officers going after them. I have to crack up every time, every day.

Kristin Greathouse [00:08:11]:
I love that. Yes. It's so true. And firefighters, to be honest, I know probably just as many nurses with firefighters as they are with glee. So.

Jennifer [00:08:20]:
Right. What do you feel like in terms of, like, first responder families and how something distinct like coaching is helpful?

Kristin Greathouse [00:08:28]:
I love to give the distinction that coaching is different from counseling or from therapy. Counseling and therapy really helps people to work on the past. The things that they've been through, the things that they maybe can't get past, or the things that are just, you know, upset about. You guys know, this is what you do every day with coaching. We're looking at the future. We are figuring out where a person is and where they want to go and how to fill the gap, how to get to that place, but do it on their terms, especially with first responder families. A lot of the coaching I've done with first responder families has been with spouses, and it's in more of a group setting. First everyone is just getting to know each other, and they're not really sure what to say.

Kristin Greathouse [00:09:13]:
And then, you know, by the end of it, we're all helping each other out. Like, oh, my gosh, my husband does that too, or, oh, my gosh, my kids went through that same thing. We just. There's so many similarities, and a lot of times in those group settings, I'm learning from them because they have all been through a lot of the similar situations, especially kind of the emotional roller coasters that you can go on with the first responders and the. The situations that they've been in and the things they've seen. And then, you know, how the families are, the support for them. But also they see them a lot of times at their worst. And so there's definitely a counseling and a therapy side of that that is absolutely necessary.

Kristin Greathouse [00:09:53]:
Coaching kind of comes in after you've dealt with those things in the past, and you're like, okay, well, now what? You know, where do we go? What do we do? How do we move forward? And so I love that part of it, because a lot of people get concerned. They'll go through these emotional things. A lot of them will go through emdr and they'll come out and they feel so much better. And then there is an eventual. Like you all say with emdr, you're going to start feeling the feelings that you hadn't been feeling. And a lot of times that gets to be very overwhelming. And so coaching can come in and say, okay, these are the things that we can work on to help you get through those feelings. And I love that coaching is future focused because it's very important to fix the things in the past, but it's also important to start looking to the future.

Jennifer [00:10:40]:
Absolutely. And I appreciate that distinction. And I think it's a great way, too, to think about people that want to set goals and things like that, especially if we have addressed some things in the past. With some of my clients, it gets to a place like, you're doing really great.

Ashlee [00:10:56]:
Well, what about this?

Jennifer [00:10:57]:
What about this? And they're all things in the future where I think really coaching would be a great place to kind of step in and say, hey, like, these are the plans and the things that we want to work towards.

Ashlee [00:11:07]:
Absolutely. I think what's really powerful about our podcast, we have so many people that listen. And so, like, the cool thing is, hopefully, I don't know how many people know about coaching. Right. Like, I. I really don't. And so this is why we were so excited to have you on, because we want our first responders and their families to realize there's a lot out there. Like, there are all these other resources.

Ashlee [00:11:26]:
And so if someone is listening and they're still trying to learn, what is this about? Could you give us a little rundown of what a typical, like, coaching session may look like with a client in a first responder family?

Kristin Greathouse [00:11:36]:
Absolutely. Coaching sessions are pretty much the same no matter who the client is. Now, that said, we can definitely tailor things to different people in different situations. A session would start out with a greeting like hey, I'm glad you're here. And. And one of the first things we do is we go through agreements. So we do agreements instead of expectations because expectations are one sided. And you know, especially as an adult myself, if someone looks at me and says, I expect you to, blah, blah blah, it's probably not going to be something I want to do.

Kristin Greathouse [00:12:13]:
But if we go over, you know, certain things and we just say, can we agree on these things? And the agreements are like, we're in a safe and a confidential space that the client is completely in control of the depth of conversation. I invite them to play full out or just to give it their all, even if all they have to give is 30% because they're exhausted from work or whatever. Like just give as much as you can. That they have radical self responsibility. Like the things that come up, the thoughts they have, the feelings they have, that they accept those and try not to fight them because we can work with them instead of trying to push them away and then giving each other feedback. I love feedback at the end of my sessions just to say, did we talk about what you wanted to talk about? Do you feel good about this? You know, what do we want to do differently? So those are the first things we do. We talk about any homework they may have had from a previous session, they had a previous session. If it's not an initial session, we talk about a goal that they set at their last session.

Kristin Greathouse [00:13:11]:
Did they work towards it? Did they actually do what they said they were going to do? And if they didn't, that's fine, you know, let's just talk about why you didn't. Maybe it wasn't the right goal for you right now. I've had people get on sessions with me and say, you're going to be so mad at me. I didn't do blah blah, blah. And I'm like, I would never be mad at you. I'm not here to judge you, I'm here to support you. One of the first things I will say to start out a session is what do you want to focus on today? Or out of all the areas in your life, what feels like it could use the most support? And then we just talk, we just have a conversation. I ask questions, they dig deep and they get brutally honest.

Kristin Greathouse [00:13:50]:
And I think a lot of times they surprise themselves with some of the things that they come up with. But typically they have an overall goal that they want to achieve. And it may take several sessions of small goals each time to work their Way up to that goal. We get there and the goal typically changes every week, especially if they're working on it and they achieve that goal, let's set the next one and let, let's keep moving forward.

Jennifer [00:14:12]:
So I love that. Oh, I mean, that's amazing. And I clearly know that you're working with first responders when you're saying agreements and not expectations, because we know a first responder will be quick to tell you what they're not going to do, rather what they're going to do. So I think that that's amazing. You know, you kind of mentioned this earlier, like how much coaching shows up just in day to day life. And so I was just kind of curious, if you don't mind sharing. This might be a little personal, but where coaching has shown up, maybe at home, especially with a first responder as.

Ashlee [00:14:46]:
A spouse at home.

Kristin Greathouse [00:14:48]:
My nursing background, I've worked in med surg and you know, hospital medicine and I've also worked in psy. My nursing psych background has helped tremendously at home, not just with my husband, although that of course is inevitable. Okay, it helps, it does in the coaching, but I think I've learned not to take things personally, especially if he's had a really hard day at work and he comes home and you know, I just know he's looking for a fight. Not necessarily with me, but he just needs to get things off of his chest. And a lot of times it might come off as anger and frustration towards me, but I know it's not. It wasn't, you know, I didn't start it and he just needs to get it off, truly try to listen to where he's coming from. And I have to remember, you know, he has his own experiences and his own perceptions and you know, again, it's not my fault. That's not necessarily.

Kristin Greathouse [00:15:44]:
Sometimes I'm sure I do things to upset him, but.

Ashlee [00:15:48]:
But what a great book. I feel like that right there, like, will resonate with so many spouses of first responders because we talk a lot from the clinical side of things. We talk a lot about how ptsd, depression, anxiety, right? Like it can manifest in different ways. And one of the biggest ways for our first responders is anger, right? Like that irritability, that quick diffuse walking on eggshells. Man, I've heard it all, right? Like I felt it as a child of a first responder that just, it just is going to resonate with so many people because it does feel like a lot of the times they are looking for that fight and it's really, really hard, I think, as a spouse, but also as a child. I know I interpreted a lot of my dad's stuff of, oh, my gosh, he doesn't really. It's me. Like, my dad's mad at me.

Ashlee [00:16:33]:
I must be the reason that he's so unhappy. I must be the reason that he's angry. And I think spouses probably hold that even to a higher degree. Right. And I. I do see that in relationships a lot, that it falls apart because of that. So I think that's such a great point. And I love that coaching has for you.

Kristin Greathouse [00:16:48]:
Absolutely. A lot of times I used to internalize everything, everything that he would say, everything you do. But especially after, you know, going through a conference for mental health for first responders, hearing their stories and just hearing exactly the things that they've been through, the things that they've seen. I have no idea. I haven't been through those things. So I don't know how I would respond. It's so easy to say, you know, I would never. And I would always.

Kristin Greathouse [00:17:14]:
But if you haven't been there, you don't know. And so I feel very fortunate to have gone to that conference and hear all of those stories and experience all those things, because I think that has helped to shape me, kind of make me a little bit softer with him and not be so ready to. To argue back to.

Ashlee [00:17:31]:
That is so fair. I'm going to get myself in trouble here because we have this very beautiful question sheet, and of course, I'm the troublemaker and have to go off of it for a second here. So we edit everybody we edit. So at any point you're like, no, we're. We don't want. I don't want to talk about this. I can always edit it out. But I don't want to pass up on the opportunity to ask, especially because we work so heavily with this podcast on, like, children of first responders and kind of honing in on that aspect, a little bit of it.

Ashlee [00:18:01]:
And Jennifer and I have talked at length about how we just feel like children of first responders are so resilient. Right. And we, I mean, it is a beautiful thing. And here we are again with another child of a first responder who's kicking ass in the world and doing all these incredible things. And so I just kind of wanted to ask, what was your experience like growing up in a first responder family with a dad as a firefighter? And do you feel like that has impacted your ability? Like, did it come from Childhood and maybe it didn't, but to like thrive and to be a life coach and to do all these incredible things to help people.

Kristin Greathouse [00:18:32]:
I honestly think it probably did. I don't think I knew that early on. My dad was a firefighter, so he worked 24 hours on and 48 hours off and he almost always had a second job because, you know, firefighters, firefighters.

Ashlee [00:18:48]:
I'm like, wait, I want three days off and I'm be out. I'm going to the Bahamas.

Jennifer [00:18:54]:
Doing contracting work. Yep.

Kristin Greathouse [00:18:57]:
Yes, yes.

Jennifer [00:18:58]:
I, I don't know.

Kristin Greathouse [00:18:59]:
But he almost always had a second job and so a lot of times he wasn't home. He would get off work and maybe he would come home. You know, he would get off at 7am after a 24 hour shift. He would come home, he would shower and he would be gone again. And so my mom, she often said she felt like a single mom because, you know, he was working and he was supporting the family. And, you know, I always knew when he was there, he was there and he was attentive and loving and, you know, he was this amazing dad. He was also gone a lot and there were times that he would come home and he would just be very quiet and introspective. And I was the same way.

Kristin Greathouse [00:19:43]:
Like, what did I do? Like, he doesn't really want to talk to me. And I think as a small child, you don't know the things that you don't know and so you don't have that adult perspective to be able to say this was something that happened that had nothing to do with me now, like I said, after hearing those stories and knowing the things that my dad has seen over, you know, I mean, he had an almost 40 year career in the fire service. So what did he see? What did he have to do? The things. I have a much deeper respect for him now as an adult and knowing now some of the things that he's experienced.

Jennifer [00:20:18]:
So yeah, I appreciate you going rogue there, Ashlee, and asking that question. And first responder families, I mean, there's a cause in those families. You know, obviously your dad serving on the fire department, is that any type that kind of led you into nursing in terms of like a career path path? Like was it important for you to do something like that?

Kristin Greathouse [00:20:41]:
I think probably my mom was a nurse for again, almost 40 years. They both had these, I call them like high stress environment jobs. I actually, I didn't go to nursing school until I was 40. I was old. I was one of the oldest ones in my class.

Ashlee [00:20:58]:
Okay. People won't see the video, but she's flawless. And I'm over here like, oh, well, what? Okay. No, no.

Kristin Greathouse [00:21:07]:
Uh, not even.

Ashlee [00:21:08]:
But thank you.

Kristin Greathouse [00:21:09]:
I'll tell you what really inspired me. So I wanted to be a nurse, like, straight out of high school when I first went to college. And then my life just took a different path, and I decided that nursing was not for me at the time. And then once my son graduated high school, I just said, I'm. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go for it. And so I did. But one of the other big reasons that I wanted to do it was that conference, that mental health conference for first responders.

Kristin Greathouse [00:21:35]:
And I saw the need. I knew I wanted to get my nurse practitioner, and I knew it would take a long time. I wanted to be able to do a lot of what you all do with the psychotherapy aspect. But then I also wanted to be able to have that medication side where if somebody needs to be prescribed something, you know, I have that ability, too. So I kind of wanted that dual ability. But I think it was probably the combination of my dad, my mom, just from my childhood, and then, you know, my husband and my experiences with first responders and mental health that really kind of led me on the path I'm on.

Jennifer [00:22:13]:
That's beautiful. And I just, you know, I love serving those that serve. And I just hear that in you as well, like, recognizing that these people are sacrificing so much and wanting to be there and being able to help them. Obviously, protect your clients, privacies. But is there anything that you see in terms of patterns or themes that show up with nurse coaching with first responders? Like, be it spouses or the first responders, or if you work with kids of first responders, is there something that you kind of like, I see a lot of.

Kristin Greathouse [00:22:44]:
Yeah, actually, it's one of the things that we kind of talk about early on in the sessions, like an agreements thing, especially in a group session, but with a lot of first responder spouses, first of all, they apologize. They just profusely apologize. Like, they may say something negative about their husband or the job, and they're like, I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I love to address that head on and just be like, you are a person, and you have your own opinions and ideas and thoughts and feelings, and they are valid. So if that's how you feel, please don't apologize to me, because I'm glad that you're being true and honest and expressing yourself. But that's definitely one of the things I see. Another thing I see is they often put themselves to the back burner and especially their spouse and their kids come first.

Kristin Greathouse [00:23:40]:
That's the priority. And I think a lot of them feel like they've lost themselves because they haven't taken care of themselves and they haven't. I say self care and it's such a buzzword. It's not one of my favorite. I mean, when I say self care, I just mean not arguing. When someone starts an argument with you, just to be able to stop, take a deep breath and say, you know what, I'm not going to do this. Or to go outside and get some sun on your face and walk around for a few minutes, to do some deep breathing exercises, to roll your shoulders and move around. Just little self care like that.

Kristin Greathouse [00:24:14]:
I mean, if you want to go to the spa, I'm all for it, 100% there. But that's not necessarily what I'm talking about. But those are the big things that I see a lot is that they apologize for their feelings and that they don't take care of themselves. And so I always hope that I get that across when I'm meeting with any of them, that they are important and they are special and they are valued. And you know, I hope as, as we work together that they feel that and they start to believe that themselves. Sometimes you need somebody to believe it for you first and then just to keep supporting you in that and then hopefully eventually they'll start believing it themselves.

Ashlee [00:24:56]:
I feel like that's one of the hardest things for a lot of people to conquer, right. Is just this notion of imposter syndrome, learning how to love yourself, that self confidence, it's just not always easy. And I think too, I'm just, my mind's going at 100 right now. And I just think too about how if our partner is in the first responder world, sometimes we can feel inadequate, right? And like that's not true. Our jobs are just as important and we're doing just as much, you know what I mean? But in a different way. I can see that with our spouses, that that may be something very, very hard sometimes for people to kind of balance. But either way that's extremely powerful. And I, again, I just, I'm like, oh my gosh, I hope a lot of our spouses are listening to this.

Jennifer [00:25:36]:
One because, well, and I definitely have seen that too in terms of, well, spouse's job being stressful. And you know, I don't think it's Intentional. But the first responder minimizing it was like, well, I mean, did you put it out a burning building? And yet having a crappy boss and having to work overtime and you know, those things are stressful. Even though maybe it's not life or death at times.

Kristin Greathouse [00:26:02]:
Yes, absolutely.

Ashlee [00:26:04]:
So we're kind of on the topic. I know self care is a very big word. Sometimes overused, sometimes it's you're like, yeah, yeah, self care. And I think we're all really good at saying do self care and maybe struggling to do it ourselves still. Right. Like there's some truth to that. From your perspective, your different careers and everything that you do, do you have anything that tool wise or just recommendations that you're like, hey, yeah, I. This is a good way to do some self care.

Kristin Greathouse [00:26:31]:
So some of the things I mentioned before, I mean, breathing techniques are one of the quickest and easiest things that people can do. And they're all different kinds. One of my favorite is tactical breathing, which, you know, box breathing I think a lot of people know, but that's one of my absolute favorites. Often what I find myself doing is just stopping and taking three to five deep breaths and counting maybe eight seconds in and 10 seconds out. I mean, just stopping and recognizing that my brain is starting to go. I think doing body scans too, because when you're starting to feel feelings, it's a physical feeling in your body, right? So when you're starting to feel anger feeling what? How does that feel in your body? Does your heart start racing? Do you start breathing faster? Does your face turn red? Do you feel your muscles tightening up? Doing body scans to see how you're doing throughout the day. I love progressive muscle relaxations. Tightening certain muscle groups and then intentionally releasing that tension, like I mentioned earlier.

Kristin Greathouse [00:27:41]:
Rolling your shoulders, rolling your neck, getting up and walking around. Moving from one room just to a different room to get a different perspective. Those are all really simple self care things that people can do. Journaling is a good one if you have time getting your thoughts out. A lot of people I've talked to would rather do a video journal. Like they just want to turn on the camera and start talking to it because a lot of times they get it out better verbally than writing it down. So that's kind of a fun thing. And then you can delete the video and no one ever has to see it, but you've at least got it out there.

Kristin Greathouse [00:28:16]:
So there's the calling a friend to or family member just to chat or laugh or, you know, just anything I think all of those are really important and a lot of them are really simple and you can do them on your own, so.

Jennifer [00:28:29]:
Exactly.

Ashlee [00:28:30]:
Oh, my gosh, that was so well done. And I. There's some new things that I learned.

Jennifer [00:28:33]:
I'm like, oh, my video one. Yeah.

Ashlee [00:28:36]:
I'm like, wait a minute, I gotta bring this to my office right now. Deep breathing, right? So important we know what it does for the body, but yet when I present it to my first responders, they look at me cross eyed like, I'm on there, Ashlee, I'm not into your hippie dippy stuff. And I'm like, listen, I love how you put it. Tactical breathing. They do breath work all the time. Especially when it comes to, like, the range and stuff you are doing. They do it. Putting it that way is such a beautiful way for our first responders to be like, oh, hold up here.

Ashlee [00:29:07]:
Maybe they're on to something. Right. So I appreciate you so much, kind of redefining that. And also, hopefully my people are listening to be like, all right, fine, we'll.

Kristin Greathouse [00:29:17]:
Give her some grace. Because.

Ashlee [00:29:18]:
Right.

Jennifer [00:29:19]:
You're not the only one preaching it.

Ashlee [00:29:21]:
Yeah.

Kristin Greathouse [00:29:22]:
Maybe there's something masculine about.

Ashlee [00:29:25]:
All of a sudden they'll come back to me and be like, I listened to this episode and so now I'm doing my tactical breathing. I'm like, yes, what I've told you to do for three years now. Great. I'm glad that's what did.

Kristin Greathouse [00:29:35]:
Good job. Strong work.

Ashlee [00:29:37]:
Yeah, right? Absolutely.

Kristin Greathouse [00:29:38]:
Give them some. Attaboy. I also do that with my husband. He loves it. Yeah.

Ashlee [00:29:43]:
Yeah.

Jennifer [00:29:45]:
I'll encourage sometimes, though, parents, too, if a kid's having a moment that's upset, you know, even if they skin a knee or something like that, just that you start breathing because, you know, you get that mirroring happening sometimes with your kiddo. So again, the more that we can practice it, the more our kids get to learn those kind of skills as well.

Kristin Greathouse [00:30:05]:
Absolutely. Yeah.

Jennifer [00:30:06]:
Well.

Kristin Greathouse [00:30:06]:
And I think when we recognize our own feelings, and especially if we're getting angry with our child's child has done something and then they get upset and they start to cry. I mean, I'm sure my parents said it to me, you know, I'll give you something to cry about.

Ashlee [00:30:20]:
I was just thinking in my head, what do you cry? Do you want a reason to cry?

Kristin Greathouse [00:30:25]:
Right, right. Instead of just let them cry, let them get it out. And actually, you can tell your first responders this too. It's good to cry if that's what you feel like you need To.

Jennifer [00:30:36]:
Absolutely.

Kristin Greathouse [00:30:37]:
That's another way I should say about self care is if you need to cry, then cry. Oh, and I will say another good one to get a pillow. I mean, if you're out in the country, you can just do it on your own. But a lot of time, get a pillow, put it over your mouth and just scream as loud as you can. Just sometimes you just need to scream.

Ashlee [00:30:57]:
You just need to scream.

Kristin Greathouse [00:30:58]:
You do. And it. It feels better when you get it out.

Jennifer [00:31:02]:
It does. That is a super healthy thing to do for sure. If somebody is interested in coaching, like, what does that look like? I mean, obviously I want them to reach out to you, but like, how do you direct people if that's something that they're interested in?

Kristin Greathouse [00:31:18]:
So I can give you my email address and people are more than welcome to reach out to me. Email me. It's. I don't have a website, you know, I don't have a Facebook page. A lot of my coaching that I'm doing right now on working on a pilot program at the hospital where I work, and I'm doing a lot of nurse coaching, so it's really word of mouth. But I'm happy to give my email address. I don't know if you want me to give it on here or if you want to put it in the show notes.

Ashlee [00:31:44]:
Yeah, I was gonna say show notes. And like, we will be introducing you and we can put it on there as well, if you're open to our socials.

Kristin Greathouse [00:31:51]:
Absolutely. Yes. Yes, please. I'd love to. I'd love to help. You know, especially now that I found this little niche, then I really want to help as many people as I can.

Jennifer [00:32:01]:
So well, and I think it's really powerful. I do think that our first responders and our nurses and our therapists are really good at helping others, but it can be hard sometime for us to help ourselves. And I think it's really powerful when we can make an appointment that's about us, you know, and so I think about that sometimes when maybe I am struggling, there's this one thing I want to do and I just can't seem to do it for myself. And it's so frustrating and I get so upset about it. And again, if, like, knowing that coaching's there, it's there to help with that because it can be hard to make a lifestyle change or whatever it is that somebody wants to do. And I think just kind of sometimes putting our time and energy into just meeting about ourselves is really powerful.

Kristin Greathouse [00:32:50]:
I like to tell people I am Your biggest cheerleader. Whatever you want to do, I am here for it, as long as it's moral and ethical and legal. And, you know, there are some limitations to what I will support you in, but for the most part, the sky's the limit. I want everyone to achieve their goals. I mean, why not? Life is short, and if there's things that we want to do, let's do them and enjoy as much as we can.

Jennifer [00:33:13]:
So, yeah.

Kristin Greathouse [00:33:14]:
Oh, my gosh.

Ashlee [00:33:15]:
Well, that is incredible. I feel like that was the best way to kind of put the exclamation point on this incredible episode because it is also true. I hope. Well, I don't hope. I know that people will listen to this. I think it'll be new for a lot of people, and I'm so pumped for that. We need more resources, and, Kristen, you are the best person for us to come to with it, and we are so incredibly grateful that you were willing to even be on today.

Kristin Greathouse [00:33:37]:
Oh, thank you all so much for having me. This has been a blast, and I am just honored to be here. And I just hope I've helped out your listeners, even just one. It would be great to know. Absolutely.

Jennifer [00:33:48]:
I know it's more than one Kristen for sure, and I'm so glad that you got to come on.

Kristin Greathouse [00:33:52]:
Thank you.

Jennifer [00:33:53]:
Me, too.

Ashlee [00:33:53]:
Absolutely. All right, you guys. Well, we kind of know how this goes. I always end it the same way because it's the best way, but just never forget that when the call hits home. Jennifer and I are here for you, and we look forward to that next episode.

Jennifer [00:34:05]:
Bye.

Kristin Greathouse [00:34:05]:
Thank you.