Episode 1 – Introduction:

In this first episode of The Texture of Resiliency, I introduce myself, Steve Sheffar, also known as The Tactical Camper, and explain what this podcast is, and who it’s built for.

I’m not a therapist. I’m not a psychologist. I’m a soldier, a cop, and someone who’s spent over 20 years operating in high-stakes, high-stress environments, from military deployments to Emergency Response Team callouts.

This podcast doesn’t come from a place of theory, it comes from lived experience. It’s for the ones who’ve worn the uniform, stood in the breach, carried the weight, and now find themselves fighting invisible battles they were never trained to face.

This episode lays the groundwork for the entire series. I talk about how therapy, while helpful in parts, often missed the mark for me, and probably for many of you too. It felt disconnected from the operational world I came from. Clinical language and sanitized environments didn’t match the chaos inside my head. What I needed wasn’t more talking, it was training.

So that’s what The Texture of Resiliency is: structured, real-world mental training for those of us who were never taught how to deal with emotional and psychological trauma, especially when the threat is internal.

We’ll talk about:
– Operational stress injuries
– How and why your brain resists recovery
– Tools to interrupt spirals in real time
– Immediate action drills to disrupt reactivity
– Deliberate action plans to prepare for known triggers
– Mental mission planning, battle procedure, and tactical structure
– Self-leadership under psychological threat

If you’ve ever sat frozen, afraid to leave your house…
If you’ve ever wondered why nothing’s working…
If you’ve ever felt like therapy doesn’t speak your language…

Then this podcast is for you.

I created The Texture of Resiliency because no one handed me a roadmap for recovery. So I built one myself, and I’m sharing it with you.

This isn’t about hope.
It’s about training.
It’s about becoming resilient by stepping back into the storm, with structure, discipline, and purpose.