Steve Bunting – How a MARSOC Medic & CIA Contractor Survived His Horrific Childhood | SRS #263

This conversation with Steven Bunting covers a broad and deeply personal journey through trauma, military service, mental health struggles, and healing. He shares his harrowing childhood experiences, his distinguished military career as a Navy Corpsman and special operations medic, his time as a CIA contractor, and the challenges he faced with PTSD and addiction. The discussion also highlights his recovery path through psychedelic-assisted therapy and his current work leading a coaching team at Sharp Performance, a company supporting first responders and military personnel. Throughout, themes of generational trauma, resilience, and purpose emerge.

Childhood Trauma and Early Life

Steven opens up about a profoundly traumatic early childhood marked by severe abuse. Born in Oceanside, California, and raised partially in Alabama, he experienced sexual assault by a family acquaintance at the age of three or four, which led to temporary foster care. Despite being surrounded by loving grandparents later in life and reconnecting with his father's family, the damage of his early years left deep emotional scars. He describes a chaotic upbringing dominated by poverty, instability, frequent moves, and abusive stepfather figures who disciplined harshly, often sparing little mercy particularly for his younger brother Mitch.

Steven recounts the trauma of witnessing his stepfather's decline due to brain cancer and the lasting impact it had on him and his family. Throughout his youth, he and Mitch found refuge in dark humor and each other's company, despite the constant presence of violence and dysfunction in their environment. Suicide became a tragic eventuality in his family when Mitch, a Marine Corps veteran who suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI), took his own life after years of struggling.

Relationship with Family and Reconnection

Though his father was largely absent and ultimately died by suicide after a brief attempt to reconnect, Steven later found healing in re-establishing relationships with his paternal grandparents and wider family in California. This reunion filled a vital void and began a process of mending his broken sense of identity. His mother, despite many hardships, remained a figure of love and grace through his journey. Steven speaks candidly about the complexity of forgiving parental shortcomings while acknowledging their own struggles and limitations.

Military Enlistment and Early Career

Inspired by 9/11 and following his brother into the military, Steven enlisted in the Navy with an initial plan to become a Marine Corps Corpsman. He narrowly missed joining the Marines directly after a recruitment clash and chose instead to become a Navy Corpsman embedded with Marine Reconnaissance units. Despite personal academic challenges, he developed a strong fascination with medicine, relating human anatomy to engines and electrical systems, which fueled his determination in medical training.

Steven chose Force Recon over the more physically demanding BUD/S SEAL pipeline, partly due to concerns about his swimming abilities and preparation time. He describes the intense culture, rigorous training, and the demanding nature of recon where mental toughness and physical endurance are prerequisites. His first assignments included stints at First Recon Battalion and eventually MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command), where his deployments and operational experiences deepened.

Combat Deployments and Experiences in Afghanistan

Steven deployed multiple times to Afghanistan with MARSOC teams operating in the difficult Helmand River Valley. Early operations involved building local militia and partnering with Afghan forces, though partnership dynamics were often fraught with mistrust and danger, including green-on-blue threats. He recounts the difficulties of operating alongside partner nation forces that sometimes acted unpredictably or even aggressively towards coalition forces, leading to unit decisions to replace them with more reliable groups.

His role as a medic thrust him repeatedly into high-stakes situations involving combat injuries, including performing emergency procedures like cricothyrotomies under pressure. Though he was initially excited to participate in combat, repeated exposure to violence, injury, and the suffering of civilians—especially children caught in the crossfire—left an emotional toll. Steven paints a picture of the mental stress, insomnia, and numbness that crept into his life, shadowing the adrenaline of combat.

Family Struggles and Marriage

Throughout his military career, Steven's home life suffered significant strain. His wife, a dental tech and later a therapist, endured the hardships of raising children largely on her own and managing the challenges that accompany a highly demanding military lifestyle. Steven acknowledges deep regrets over his emotional unavailability, alcohol abuse, and anger outbursts. He describes the pain of his young son wanting his father to leave, illustrating the profound effects of his absence and trauma on their family dynamic.

Despite these challenges, Steven and his wife have maintained a committed relationship for over 18 years, attributing their marital survival to persistence and mutual endurance through hardships. They have two children and continue to work on healing together.

Transition Out of Military and CIA Contracting

After a failed psychological evaluation derailed his chances of joining a Navy special operations medical role at Damn Neck (DEVGRU), Steven left active military service. He then pursued higher education, initially aiming to become a trauma surgeon but later redirecting toward becoming a Physician Assistant due to the rigorous demands of medical school. While studying, he faced an anxiety attack and mounting mental health struggles.

He transitioned into contracting with the CIA's Global Response Staff, working in some of the most dangerous environments globally, including Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Africa. The culture was gritty and often marked by disenchantment. The work was demanding and political, lacking the esprit de corps of his military units but offering an intense operational tempo. Eventually, ethical disillusionment and exhaustion prompted him to resign.

Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Healing Journey

Seeking relief from decades of trauma and mental health struggles, Steven engaged with psychedelic-assisted therapy, including ibogaine, DMT, and psilocybin-assisted treatments through organizations like Mission Within and Heroic Hearts. His experiences included revisiting and processing repressed childhood trauma in a safe, guided environment, facilitating profound emotional release and forgiveness toward his abuser.

He describes the awakening of compassion and the dismantling of emotional barriers, crediting these therapies with allowing him to "feel his heart again." Both Steven and his wife later participated in retreats that fostered mutual healing and deepened their relationship. He emphasizes integration—the process of working through insights gained in sessions—as essential for lasting transformation.

Steven also discusses the spiritual dimension of psychedelic therapy, describing a renewed connection to God and a sense of entering a non-ordinary realm that defies easy explanation but is widely reported. He cautions against overuse or recreational misuse of psychedelics, highlighting the importance of intention, careful guidance, and respect for the power of these medicines.

Sharp Performance and Coaching Work

Leveraging his extensive military, medical, and personal healing experience, Steven now leads the coaching division at Sharp Performance, an innovative for-profit company focused on providing mental health support and resilience training for first responders, military personnel, and high-risk professionals. Sharp distinguishes itself by employing coaches who have lived similar experiences as their clients—military veterans, first responders, or their spouses—thus fostering cultural competency and trust.

The organization provides digital tools, training apps, and access to personal coaches who offer one-on-one sessions tailored to their needs, bypassing the stigma associated with traditional mental health care. Sharp coaches do not diagnose or assess for duty but hold confidential spaces for clients to process trauma and build resilience, collaborating with existing therapeutic services when needed.

Steven describes building a large network of certified coaches, expanding rapidly across the U.S., and engaging departments face-to-face to establish trust and rapport. The company's mission focuses not only on mental wellness but also on providing purpose and community for veterans and first responders, helping them continue serving by supporting one another.

Perspectives on Operator Syndrome and Mental Health

Steven highlights the concept of operator syndrome as outlined by PTSD researcher Chris Free, who identified a complex interplay of physiological and psychological factors in people exposed to sustained high stress, including military operators, first responders, firefighters, and law enforcement. Operator syndrome covers a range of issues from hormonal imbalances to mental health struggles caused by chronic high allostatic load—long-term stress exposure.

Sharp Performance utilizes this scientific framework to emphasize holistic health approaches beyond just psychiatric diagnoses like PTSD, focusing on sleep, nutrition, nervous system regulation, and social connection as critical components of recovery and resilience. Steven advocates for a more compassionate and nuanced understanding of trauma and mental health within these communities.

Legacy of Trauma, Purpose, and Service

Throughout the conversation, Steven returns repeatedly to themes of generational trauma, personal accountability, and the value of finding purpose. He describes how abuse and loss echoed through his family line but also how breaking that cycle has given him meaning. His work helping others and coaching those with shared struggles fulfills his own need to serve and connect.

He stresses that healing is ongoing work with no shortcuts—a lifelong practice of self-love, presence, and community. The importance of grieving well, confronting pain rather than running from it, and re-engaging with life authentically is central to his philosophy.

Impact and Vision

Steven expresses strong hope for the future of mental health care in high-risk professions, emphasizing that support must come from people who truly understand the unique demands and culture of the military and first responders. By fostering peer-led coaching and integrating cutting-edge therapies with traditional support systems, he believes meaningful change is possible.

He acknowledges that challenges remain—stigma, bureaucracy, political complexities—but remains committed to showing up, building community, and advocating for holistic healing, purpose-driven life, and generational renewal.