The Uvalde Massacre: What’s in Store for First Responders?
I hadn’t planned to write another blog this month, but the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and the massacre in Buffalo, New York, compelled me to put my thoughts on paper. I’m thinking about trauma and first responders and the emotional wallop created by mass...
Growing Old in a Young Person’s Profession Pt. 1
One of the great pleasures of a long-lived career as a police psychologist is watching officers as they grow from wide-eyed, eager rookies to a more settled version of themselves. From recruitment to retirement, police work changes people and affects their families. A...
Women in Policing: How It Feels to Be a Reluctant Hero
Women in law enforcement face continuing doubts about their ability to be as brave, competent, and dedicated as their male counterparts. How we respond in a life-threatening crisis may be hard to predict. One woman may have exceeded expectations. Being hailed as a...
How to Make Love Last Past Valentine’s Day and Date Night
Research shows that durable, happy relationships need daily doses of positivity. To strengthen your relationship, find out what feels like affection to your mate, because it may not be the same for you. Your relationship can deepen with small, spontaneous acts of love...
Married to a Cop? Their Stress Can Become Yours
Traumatic stress is contagious. You can catch it from your mate. This has important implications for first responder families. Mouse studies suggest that males and females destress differently. Female mice destress in the company of an unstressed mouse. Males do not....
Is Being a Cop (or Anything Else) a Job or an Identity?
My colleague, Coach Bruce Sokolove of Field Training Associates, sent me a link to an article by Arthur C. Brooks titled, "A Profession Is Not a Personality." His subtitle? “Reducing yourself to any single characteristic, whether it be your title or your job...