This is not another “how to lower your stress” site. It is not about avoiding stress or how to “get over” or “move on” from trauma or grief. It is about performing your best while challenged. It is an invitation to seek balance and connections rather than one-dimensional fixes. If we grimly regard an experience as a horror to be buried and forgotten, we’ll never find or make meaning. If we ignore trauma and pretend that life is all unicorns and sunshine, we’ll discover, sooner or later, that our brains, bodies and souls are holding onto the pain anyway.
Nick Arnett
Nick Arnett, author of the Stress Management and Crisis Response pocket guide and upcoming book, Stress into Strength: Resilience Routines for Warriors, Wimps and Everyone in Between (HarperCollins Leadership, 2021), is a Critical Incident Stress Management and resilience leader and instructor, fire chaplain, wildland firefighter/EMT with Spring Valley Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service, and former paramedic with experience in domestic and international disaster response in medical, communications, crisis intervention and chaplain roles. He has led hundreds of crisis intervention responses with the Bay Area CISM Team for schools, the public and first responder agencies, including as a contractor for CAL FIRE. He is a member of the California Fire Chaplain Association, the executive board of the California Peer Support Association, the leadership of CADRE and the Contra Costa County Public Safety Support Association. He received a Volunteer of the Year award from the Santa Clara County Emergency Managers Association in 2012 and the Crystal Bowl Award for community service from the Junior League of San Jose in 2019.
After his time as a medic, he was a journalist in radio, television and print – mostly business newspapers and high-technology publications, with some notable others including CBS News, to which he sold the first accurate account of President Reagan’s condition after he was shot, and Rolling Stone magazine, for which he wrote about music technology. Arnett won first-place journalism awards in 1985 for breaking the news that Steve Jobs was on his way out of Apple Computer. For a few years, he was one of the top industry analysts covering the intersection of computing and multimedia, which led to projects for top management at Apple, Microsoft, IBM and a White House project to add interactive multimedia to the president’s daily security briefing. His occupation for the last 20 years has been product management leadership in the software industry. He has been awarded five U.S. patents for systems and methods of collecting and analyzing social media intelligence.
Awards
- Crystal Bowl – Junior League of San Jose
- Santa Clara County Emergency Managers – Volunteer of the Year
- Certificate of Commendation – Senator Dianne Feinstein
- Certificate of Special Recognition – Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren
- Certificate of Special Recognition – Congressman Ro Khanna
- Certificate of Recognition – California State Legislature
- First-Place News Reporting – Computer Press Association
Instructor Certificates
- FEMA – CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Trainer
- International Critical Incident Stress Foundation – Crisis Intervention
- American Heart Association – BLS CPR, First Aid Instructor
Emergency Medicine
- Emergency Medical Technician (EMT/NREMT – E3256118)
- Licensed/certified in California (E125694), Arizona (E41538243), Wyoming (110258), Colorado (Q180531), Montana (MED_EMT_LIC-66928).
- Advanced Wilderness Life Support
- Heartsaver CPR
- Healthcare Professional CPR
- Mountaineering Medicine
- EMT-Paramedic II/Advanced, Pennsylvania (expired)
Fire/Rescue
- S-110 Basic Wildland Fire Orientation (NWCG)
- S-130 Wildland Firefighter Training (NWCG)
- RT-131 – Wildland Firefighter Annual Refresher (NWCG)
- Arduous Work Capacity (“Pack Test”)
- S-131 Wildland Firefighter Type 1 (NWCG)
- S-190 – Principals of Wildland Fire Behavior (NWCG)
- S-203 – Introduction to Incident Information (NWCG)
- S-211 – Portable Pumps
- S-212 – Wildland Fire Chain Saws
- S-223 – Fireline EMT/Paramedic
- S-259 – Medical Unit Leader
- S-270 – Basic Air Operations
- S-290 – Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior
- L-180 – Human Factors in the Wildland Service (NWCG)
- Q-2100 – Wildland Urban Interface Preparedness/Mitigation Series (FEMA/National Fire Academy)
- Low Angle Rope Rescue Operational (CSFM)
- WMD/Terrorism Awareness for First Responders (Texas A&M)
- Confined Space Rescue Awareness (California State Board of Fire Services)
- Hazardous Materials First Responder Orientation (CSTI)
- Emergency Vehicle Operations
- Large Animal Rescue Awareness
- Large Animal Rescue Technician
- Map and Compass for the Wildland Firefighter
- Radio Operator
Crisis Intervention and Ministry
- Basic Critical Incident Stress Management (POST)
- Advanced Critical Incident Stress Management (POST)
- WCPR Advanced Peer Counseling (POST)
- Ceremonies of Leave-Taking
- Death and Trauma Notification (POST)
- QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper
- Art of Compassion
- ICISF Group Crisis Intervention
- ICISF Best Training Practices for the CISM Instructor
- ICISF Assisting Individuals in Crisis
- ICISF Advanced Individual Crisis Intervention and Peer Support
- ICISF Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention
- ICISF Strategic Response to Crisis
- ICISF Stress Management for the Trauma Services Provider
- Federation of Fire Chaplains – Chaplain Essentials
- Federation of Fire Chaplains – Advanced Chaplain Training
- Stephen Minister
- California Peer Support Association Training Conferences 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
- Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement – Dr. Kevin Gilmartin seminar
- Psychological First Aid – NCTSN Learning Center
- Stress, Compassion Fatigue & Resiliency – K-Love Crisis Response Care
- Youth Suicide – K-Love Crisis Response Care
- IS-1 – Emergency Program Manager
- IS-3 – Radiological Emergency Management
- IS-10 – Animals in Disasters
- IS-11 – Animals in Disasters: Community Planning
- IS-26 – Guide to Points of Distribution
- IS-29 – Public Information Officer Awareness
- IS-42 – Social Media in Emergency Management
- IS-100 – Introduction to the Incident Command System
- IS-120.a – An Introduction to Exercises
- IS-200 – ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incident
- IS-201 – ICS Forms
- IS-244 – Developing and Managing Volunteers
- IS-247 – Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
- IS-300 – Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents
- IS-317 – Introduction to CERT
- IS-400 – ICS for Complex Incidents
- IS-505 – Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster
- IS-660 – Introduction to Public-Private Partnerships
- IS-700 – National Incident Management System (NIMS)
- IS-702 – NIMS Public Information Systems
- IS-800 – National Response Framework
- IS-909 – Community Preparedness
- PER-304 – Social Media for Natural Disaster Response and Recovery
- Medical Reserve Corps – Family Disaster Planning
- EPO-100 – Introduction to SEMS/NIMS (California Dept. of Public Health)
- Disaster Service Worker Training (California Dept. of Public Health)
- SEMS G606 – Standardized Emergency Management System (California)
- General class license – KJ6FOI
- Fundamentals of Emergency Communications
- Field Operations III
- Net Control in Disasters, Levels I and II
- Packet Operations IIIA
- Shadowing L1
- Competent Communicator
- Advanced Communicator Bronze
Other
- FAA – Private Pilot SEL
Agencies Served (*contract)
- CAL FIRE*
- Santa Clara Police
- Santa Clara Fire
- San Jose Police
- San Jose Fire
- Mountain View Police
- Mountain View Fire
- Palo Alto Police
- Milpitas Fire*
- Alameda City Fire
- Morgan Hill Police
- Gilroy Police
- Sunnyvale Public Safety
- Santa Clara County Sheriff
- Santa Clara County Fire
- Santa Clara County Parks*
- Santa Clara County Department of Family & Child Services
- San Mateo County Probation
- Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District*
- Jordan International Aid
- American Medical Response (EMS)
- Rural Metro Corporation (EMS)
- Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
- Saratoga Sub-Acute Children’s Hospital
- San Jose Unified School District
- Campbell Union High School District
- Fremont Union School District
- East Side Union High School District
- Los Gatos Union School District
- Santa Clara Unified School District
- Franklin-McKinley School District
- San Jose City College
- William Jessup University
- ACE Charter Schools
- Summit Charter Schools
- CityTeam
- Campbell Adult Education
- Harker School
- Mount Pleasant School District
- Frazier Lake Airport
- Bill Wilson Center
- Foster Families
- HomeFirst
- Boy Scouts of America
- Unitarian Universalist Church
- United Methodist Church
- Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
- Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose
- Numerous private businesses