Online Trauma Therapy for First Responders in BC and Ontario
Therapy for Trauma Recovery and Resilience
Do you find yourself losing it in traffic, snapping at friends and family, or overreacting to daily challenges?
Are you haunted by disturbing images, memories, or feelings that replay? Are you starting to dread attending particular calls or files?
Have friends or family commented that you seem distant, irritable, or depressed? Are you finding it harder to relax, feel motivated, or connect with others?
Do you feel increasingly numb, distracted, or checked out? Do you feel as though you are just existing, but not really living?
Many first responders experience these and other symptoms of occupational stress. Help is available.
How I Can Help
Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training
Mindfulness is a way of attending to your present moment experience that has been demonstrated to reduce stress and burnout, increase positive emotions, and help people make better decisions at home and at work.
Mindfulness training and mindfulness-based therapies can help you develop the skills to manage stress, promote resilience, and enhance your well-being on a daily basis.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is a gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is one of the key ways occupational stress injuries show up. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation of the brain to help you resolve symptoms. Much of the processing happens internally, without you having to discuss each aspect of a particular memory or experience.
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Whether it’s noticing your heart pounding, feeling hyper-alert, or being flooded by adrenaline, stress reactivity is a full-body experience. When you have a stress-related injury, your body’s normal survival reactions can get stuck in overdrive, even when the crisis has passed. Somatic experiencing is an emerging therapy that uses the body’s innate wisdom to reset an overactive stress response at the neurobiological level.
Couples & Relationship Counselling
Occupational stress can take a toll on the whole family. As a first responder, you want to protect your family from the painful parts of the job. Over time, it’s easy to feel increasingly shut down or disconnected. It becomes harder to share your feelings and experiences, and misunderstandings can grow.
Relationship counselling can help you reconnect with those you love, deepen intimacy, and foster mutual understanding.
“You cannot be brave without fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act in spite of it.”
- John McCain
