Boulder Crest Foundation

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Taryn, thanks for meeting and giving us a chance to talk about some things that are really important at Boulder Crest here, especially the issue of suicidality because, as you know, that's a big problem for our veteran first responder population.

Sure is.

And we've had a lot of conversations over the years of how PTG and suicide might interplay with one another.

[chuckles] And just to think they wouldn't be there without, without the struggle.

So I think I took that after Boulder Crest, you know, with my retreat and everything, learning about embracing the struggle.

But it-- everything in the garden just started popping out to me, going, "You wouldn't be here if you didn't go through this." And the vines, you know, I mean, they, they, they just wrap around whatever, and you guide them, and you change them, and you put them where you want them to grow, or they will just take over, and that can be a metaphor for so many things.

I mean, it, it just doesn't end.

It's amazing.

[chuckles]

Well, what did end up taking you to Boulder Crest? How did you find your way there?

So I think I had just kind of come to a, a big transition in life by the time, I, I think I was 2017, and I had gone through all of my cancer journey, good to go there, and had been married for 15 years, and kids in school and, you know, have the, the house that I planned to have everybody come to, and, like, I, I arrived.

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The intrusive thoughts and the racing thoughts, all that stuff slowed down and just kind of went away.

And then in July of 25, I attended a Boulder Crest Foundation, had a program called Struggle Well.

It has now been rebranded as Warrior Path, but it's- Oh yeah, I've seen that.

It's free to first responders and veterans and It's all paid for 100% travel, everything.

And it was life changing.

We got I got home that Friday night Saturday, you're supposed to have an intentional conversation with someone in your life over the first weekend that you get home.

And you practice this intentional conversation at Boulder Crest.

And so on Saturday, I sat down with my wife and we had this intentional conversation and got a lot of things out.

And I was, so I was listening to it, and honestly, we were driving home.

I was a little bit pissed, or driving to Mont- or to Arizona, 'cause I was like, "What the fuck is this?" Like, are they saying that PTSD isn't a thing or trying to understand it all? And that was kind of the turning point, and just so happened that about a couple months after that, I went through a program by, uh, that was put on by the Boulder Crest Foundation, and it focuses on post-traumatic growth rather than PTSD.

Mm-hmm.

And it just, not that anything that we give or the organization gives is earth-shattering new news, no different than you talk about in your book.

I'm like, "Well, I guess this is as good as it gets." And then one of my former SWAT lieutenants, he said, "Hey, I know what you're doing now.

You're out here advocating.

I want you to talk to this guy from Boulder Crest Foundation, and just I think your missions are somewhat aligned." So I got on a Zoom with this dude and one of the board of directors from Boulder Crest, and we were talking and just back and forth what I do, our beliefs.

And then the, the gentleman from Boulder Crest said, "Hey, I'd love you to come to one of our programs." And this one specifically was set up for first responders, and you go for a week into Texas.