The Other Side of the Gun- Susan Snow on Surviving, Healing, and Owning Your Story

Episode Summary

At 17, Susan Snow’s father—a Los Angeles robbery–homicide detective—was assassinated while picking up her younger brother from school. Overnight, her life became sirens, cameras, and a brave face that hid years of panic and hyper-vigilance. The first therapist told her she was “fine.” She wasn’t. A decade later, the Columbine shooting triggered flashbacks and a spiral that finally led to a trauma-informed clinician who named it: PTSD—not a moral failing, not something you “get over,” something you learn to manage.

In this episode, Susan shares the long arc from shock to strength: choosing safe providers, setting boundaries with media and people, regulating a fried nervous system, and repairing relationships through honest conversation and accountability. Writing her memoir, The Other Side of the Gun, became both a reckoning and a roadmap—for her family and for anyone living in trauma’s wake. This one is practical, steady, and fiercely hopeful: you can’t change what happened, but you can change how you live with it.

Show Notes & Chapters

• [00:00] Cold open: “Taking your power back” — why naming trauma matters

• [02:00] 1985: the call, the school lot, and the moment everything changed

• [06:30] Media glare, armed guards, and the mask of strength

• [10:30] “You’re fine”: when therapy misses trauma

• [15:30] Denver & Columbine: flashbacks, panic, and the wake-up call

• [19:30] “This is PTSD”: validation, vocabulary, and first tools

• [24:00] Boundaries that heal: news limits, safe people, body-based regulation

• [30:00] Repairing at home: hard conversations, apologies, accountability

• [36:00] Writing the book: timelines, memory, and telling the whole story

• [42:00] Purpose & service: coaching, speaking, and modeling mental health

• [46:00] Closing: it’s a marathon—how to keep going without burning out

Resources

• Book: The Other Side of the Gun: My Journey from Trauma to Resiliency (print, Kindle, audiobook)

• Site: Susan Snow Speaks — speaking, coaching, contact & discovery call