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Battalion Chief Dena Ali: ‘You can’t leave your baggage at the door’

The Raleigh firefighter and peer support advocate explains her perspective on healthy boundaries, therapy and why connection is life-sustaining

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On this episode of the Better Every Shift podcast, Raleigh Battalion Chief Dena Ali joins the crew for a candid conversation about firefighter behavioral health, its connection to physical health, and her belief that the fire service needs its leaders to go beyond simply referring members to actually connecting with their members. We dig into that, plus all this:

  • The sleep stat that shocked us
  • The power of replacing the term “selfish” with “self-care”
  • How to embrace being a “not-knower”

What else …

  • Question: Does taking a nap make you lazy?
  • Hot seat sneak peek: Tear-inducing movies and “Big Bootie Blueprint”
  • Episode power quote: “Most of us would love to set boundaries, but our culture never made us feel like it was OK to have boundaries.”

Note: We did experience some minor technical difficulties, so check out how we replaced Zam’s pixelated look on the video version about halfway through the show.

Resources we mentioned on the show …

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