Co-Founder & COO
Jenna Rushton-Stevens
Co-Founder and COO of REgen Resilience Consulting, is a former firefighter, first responder spouse and active Military member. Jenna is REgen's Lead Program Developer and Lead Instructor. After starting a career as a Medic in the Canadian Armed Reserve Forces, she found a passion for the fire service. Jenna dedicated herself to a civilian fire department and was soon a certified NFPA 1001 Level 2 Firefighter, and NFPA 1041 Level 1 Instructor. On top of Municipal Firefighting, she had the privilege of creating and teaching provincial training programs and deploying throughout Alberta, fighting fires that were threatening communities. Currently completing the First Responder Trauma Prevention and Recovery Program from Simon Fraser University, she aims to reduce the negative statistics we see in the first responder world by cultivating proactive resilience.
My name is Jenna Rushton-Stevens and and I am the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer for REgen
Resilience Consulting.
Formerly I worked as a first responder and am currently an
active military member. After working a few years as a Medic in the Canadian Armed
Reserve Forces, I relocated to Northern Alberta 4 months after the birth of my second
child. This opportunity came with no social or personal support network.
I joined the local volunteer fire department immediately and conducted the majority of
the induction training with an infant strapped to me. After 2 years of working at the hospital there and simultaneously completing my NFPA 1001 Level 2 and several provincial fire service deployments, I was offered a salaried position on one of the pioneering, provincially funded Wildland Urban Interface teams. All the while, raising two young children and juggling my evolving first responder career. Years of striving and juggling everything led to a household of unhappy people whose needs were not being met. I gained weight by using food and alcohol as coping mechanisms and existed in survival mode. Nevertheless, I just kept on pushing, knowing in the back of my mind that collapse was imminent.
And collapse it did. While visiting a friend out of town, I woke up barely able to breathe. As per usual, I kept pushing on, ignoring the signs my body was giving me. However, by this point, my body was getting sick of my ignorance and started to shut down. I kept losing consciousness and struggled to breathe while I was awake. By the time I got to the hospital, I wasnā€™t even able to answer any of their questions. I felt like I was out of my body. I could hear their questions and wanted to answer, but my body didnā€™t even
have the ability to form a sentence. Doctors searched for the elusive infection that had led my body to initiate a septic response, with no luck. This was my wake-up call. The stress and mental strain of life had become too much for too long. It was time to ask for
help and make some changes.
Though it felt like I had hit a wall,
I knew I had to make one last push and get connected to support. I found a truly fantastic Psychologist and commenced regular therapy. With the help of friends and family, I put in the work and made changes to adapt my life to one that was sustainable and healthy.
A big part of this was analyzing my life and re-evaluating my priorities and values. What was important, and why did I keep sacrificing those things? This has been such a pivotal part of my journey that I hope to help others with. It's easy to lose sight of our "why" when we have drifted so far from the dockā€”away from what is most important to us, and away from what anchors us.
Though it has not been an easy journey, I have navigated the often complicated roadmap on how to manage my career while maintaining a healthy personal life and raising two beautiful children. There are a plethora of considerations and obstacles to navigate when you embark on an adventure like this, and I want to work with those going through these challenges and help them identify how to not only survive but thrive. I have navigated myself and worked with peers going through transitions to different uniforms or out of uniforms and all the challenges that go along with that.
Having relocated back to Nova Scotia,
part of my evaluation of what was important, I am looking to fill a gap in the mental health and wellness system for first responders. I was fortunate to have people supporting me during my recovery and realignment; I hope to do the same for others and ideally help them avoid this path entirely by properly educating and equipping those on the frontlines proactively. This passion to help and mentor people is likely the root of why I am a First Responder in the first place. Now, I am a student at Simon Fraser University taking First Responder Trauma Prevention and Recovery and have remustered, working as a proud member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. I have the immense privilege and honour to co-own and operate this business with an incredible human who I worked alongside as First Responders in Canada's North. This allows me the opportunity to pivot and help the Frontline Community as a whole and those who stand beside them, supporting them.
If you have read this far, thank you for sharing in my experience.Ā
Lives are busy, and it is easy to keep making other things a priority, but I implore you to pause on this fast highway we call life and try evaluating where you are at. Not with judgment, but with grace.
