You learned how to
carry the mission.
You may not have
learned how to
put it down.
Richard Wooten brings lived experience as a United States Army veteran and retired Chicago
Police Officer to conversations about service, identity, transition, PTSD, stress, sleep, anger, emotional
distance, family strain, leadership, and purpose.
Built from lived experience, not borrowed language.
The goal is not to dramatize service or reduce every struggle to trauma. It is to offer a grounded place where people who served can speak honestly about what the work taught them to carry and what life is asking them to change now.
What people bring to these conversations
- Transition after military or public-safety service.
- Anger, shutdown, or emotional numbness.
- Loss of role, team, identity, or purpose.
- Leadership pressure and questions of moral and spiritual injury.
- Stress, disrupted sleep, irritability, and hypervigilance.
- Marriage and family strain.
- Grief and cumulative exposure.
- Brotherhood, accountability, and renewed connection.
Who this is for
Veterans, active and retired police officers, firefighters, paramedics and medics, dispatchers, corrections and public-safety staff, and the spouses and families who carry it alongside them.
The Gathering Point is not an emergency or crisis-response service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or contact an appropriate crisis resource in your area.