It goes without saying that police officers and staff have a demanding job including factors like shift work, unsociable hours, exposure to potentially traumatic events, dealing with people who are displaying the extremities of emotions to name a few. They also have families, responsibilities, difficult times like the rest of us, for example, loss, bereavement, additions to the family, housemoves, financial issues…you get the idea.
As a therapist in the police service, I notice clients generally come to counselling when they experience an overload of these factors and feel all out of resources. Stress has turned to distress and normal coping strategies are failing. So, in essence, it is rare that a specific issue is the cause but there is nearly always a catalyst, which has caused the plates that were spinning to fall one by one.
Quite often, those I work with in a therapeutic setting have had recent sick leave or are absent from work due to ill health and may have been diagnosed by their GP as having stress related symptoms, anxiety or depression. As a counsellor I will establish what the client wishes to achieve from their sessions, which will often be to help them build resilience and improve their coping structure.
This section of my website focusses on police wellbeing and the elements that challenge positive mental wellbeing from relationships, the stress response, work life balance, leadership and sleep (or lack of it!) among many other short blogs…
Policing and the Stress Response
Gold Standard for Police Wellbeing
Secondary and Vicarious Trauma