The Flashpoint Podcast

29/10/2025

EP04-Feelings. The Other 'F' Word

29/10/2025

ANNOUNCING…

Unarmored: Where Resilience meets Relationship

Dropping the Shield and Still Human come together as a full-day training experience that transforms how first responders and their families understand resilience, mental health, and connection.

Led by Lt. Kenny Mitchell Jr. and Erin Maccabee, this immersive program bridges the gap between the job and the home. It combines real-world leadership, lived experience, and trauma-informed neuroscience to create lasting change.

In the morning, Kenny challenges responders to drop the emotional armor that protects them at work but often disconnects them in life. Through his signature H.E.L.P. Approach, participants gain awareness of how chronic stress, trauma, and culture affect their mental health and their teams, and how to build a proactive culture of support.

In the afternoon, Erin takes the room deeper with Still Human, a science-backed and heart-led session that explains how stress and trauma affect the brain, the body, and relationships. Responders and spouses learn practical tools such as the Reentry Window and the Emergency Connection Card to strengthen communication, regulate together, and rebuild trust where the job has taken a toll.

Together, these sessions break silence, dismantle culture, and give first responder families the tools to heal, reconnect, and thrive at work, at home, and in the spaces between the two.

https://youtu.be/qr1_r07SiP8?si=aiGi18CI0-F353Rr

Unarmored: Where Resilience meets RelationshipDropping the Shield and Still Human come together as a full-day training experience that transforms how first r...

27/10/2025

Mental Firepower Monday: October 27, 2025
https://erinmaccabee.com/podcast

27/10/2025

“𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲.”

You know that foggy, emotional crash that hits after something big?
The event, the conference, the deep conversation? Whatever it is, you come home and suddenly feel off. Sad. Heavy. Maybe even numb.

That doesn’t mean you’re broken.
It means your brain is finally processing what your body’s been holding.

Healing isn’t linear. It’s not always calm or clear. Sometimes it’s confusion, exhaustion, or tears that don’t make sense. That’s not failure. That’s recalibration.

This week’s Mental Firepower Monday is your reminder:
You’re not backsliding. You’re rewiring.
And your brain? It’s doing its damn job so let it do what it's meant to do.

Listen now: https://erinmaccabee.com/podcast

26/10/2025

This is the shift most couples never make.

We spend so much time tiptoeing around the hard stuff trying not to set each other off, trying to keep the peace, trying to guess what they need instead of just asking.

But the truth is, you can’t meet needs that never get named.

Chelsi and I talked about what it looks like to have real conversations. The kind that stop resentment before it builds and give both people permission to show up honestly.

It’s not about fixing it.

It’s about being willing to ask, “What do you need right now?” and actually listen to the answer.

Hear the full conversation on The FlashPoint Podcast: https://erinmaccabee.com/podcast

26/10/2025

I remember the first time I heard Kenny Mitchell say, “We all fluently speak the language of pain.”

It hit me right between the eyes.
What a simple, profound truth.

We spend so much time searching for our differences. Titles, uniforms, beliefs, that we forget what we all share: being human.

Pain doesn’t discriminate. It’s the one language every single one of us understands.

In fact, most of us understand pain more fluently than we do love.

And that’s exactly why healing can’t be a solo mission.

We need people in our corner who can help us translate that pain into purpose. People who remind us that connection is the antidote.

But here’s the hard truth…

You can’t wait for someone else to notice you’re struggling.

You have to be fierce in your own recognition.

You have to be brave enough to admit it…to yourself first.

That’s where healing begins.

25/10/2025

Reminding yourself that you’re human is not weakness, it’s strength in its truest form.

We spend so much time trying to control life, fix the pain, or outwork what’s breaking us down. But the truth is, healing doesn’t happen through force. It begins the moment you stop fighting yourself.

Relinquishing control isn’t about giving up, it’s about allowing what’s real to surface. It’s giving yourself permission to feel, to fall apart a little, to trust that you’ll rebuild stronger.

You are not meant to be perfect. You are meant to be 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻. And sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is exhale, unclench your grip, and finally let yourself just be.

24/10/2025

In this world, it has become normal to play the tragedy instead of the odds. We see what happens out there. The losses, the near misses, the chaos and our minds learn to brace for impact. We tell ourselves it is safer not to hope too much, to prepare for the worst, to protect the people we love.

But when bad things do happen, it is not because we failed. It is not because we did not do enough. It is because life is unpredictable, and we are human.

You did the best you could with the tools and information you had at the time. That has to count for something.

At some point, we have to stop replaying the what-ifs and start forgiving ourselves. We have to lean on each other. Because none of us are meant to carry this alone.

23/10/2025

We’ve talked about awareness long enough.

As Chelsi McFadden says in this week’s episode:
“Families are suffering while we keep talking about the problem.”

She’s right.
It’s not a lack of awareness anymore. It’s a lack of action.
A lack of tools, follow-through, and leadership that knows how to care for the people holding it all together behind the scenes.

If you’ve ever said “we need to do better,” this is where it starts.

Listen to the full episode on The FlashPoint Podcast:

https://erinmaccabee.com/podcast