Depression Treatment
Is The Intensity Of A High-Stress Job Wearing On You?
Are you a police officer, firefighter, emergency medical provider, or dispatcher who has experienced extraordinary stress on the job?
Is a need for work-life balance causing you to miss out on good sleep, nutrition, and exercise, or creating tension with family members who think you’re married to the job?
Are there organizational stressors at work that have become hard to cope with?
It is well understood that First Responders are routinely exposed to stressful work situations. The cumulative stress involved in your daily work may have eroded your mood, ability to sleep, function at the top of your game, and capacity to cope. Perhaps you are feeling underappreciated, irritable, or even overwhelmed. You may have arrived at a point of burnout and are having trouble being compassionate toward those around you.
Perhaps you're feeling guilty about an emergency response that didn't go well. You may be second-guessing your abilities or doubting whether you still have the support of your community, given recent department scrutiny.
Most Responders choose these careers out of a desire to help others and feel a sense of duty to their communities. Most love the comradery of a cohesive team of like-minded colleagues. Yet, as the years go by, cumulative stress can turn into depression. You may find that symptoms of depression interfere with coping skills, self-confidence, or lead you to consider taking unnecessary risks, or even to contemplate self-harm or suicide.
While your job can certainly be stressful and exhausting, you don’t have to feel isolated trying to problem-solve alone. The supportive, confidential guidance of a therapist, working with you through depression treatment, can help you to restore peace and confidence in yourself.
First Responders, Dispatchers, And Other Emergency Personnel Are Subjected To Higher Rates Of Mental And Emotional Distress
It should come as no surprise that psychological stress places First Responders at higher risk for long-term physical and mental health conditions. As these jobs perpetuate exposure to a vast assortment of disturbing events, there remains an obvious correlation between the frequency of distressing moments at work and the rise of depression in your chosen profession.
Police officers, for example, experience symptoms of depression at twice the rate of average Americans—and similar statistics apply to EMS personnel, firefighters, and other emergency service workers.[¹] Moreover, all of these groups experience alarmingly high rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts.[²]
Take, for example, Ellen Kirschman’s observation from her book, Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know: “How does a person who was once hardy enough to pass a demanding application process, rigorous psychological screening, and an arduous training program become so overwhelmed that suicide is the only way out? … If there is a key to understanding how to find a better solution, it is a person’s ability to ask for or find confidential help.”[³] Even a single suicide is way too much. Suicide prevention is a primary goal of First Responders Thrive.
From a national perspective, this can feel like a difficult time to be a medic, critical care nurse/doctor, or police officer. Yet, we are beginning to chip away at the stigma related to seeking professional help. Responders are finally overcoming the erroneous perception of "weakness" when seeking behavioral health services. Keep in mind that Responders are in an ideal position to recognize and mitigate the symptoms of depression both in yourself and in your peers by taking initiative to seek treatment for depression once symptoms are recognized.
By taking action to help yourself or to help someone you care about, you will be promoting emotional, psychosocial, and physical resilience. Therapy can be an important first step in that process.
Depression Treatment Can Help You Gain Clarity About Your Relationship To The Job
While you may be concerned about the implications of seeking help for depression, I assure you that I will approach our therapist-client relationship with the utmost respect and confidentiality. You deserve to be seen by a supportive, culturally competent professional who understands the kinds of anguish and stress you handle on a regular basis. While I will always encourage your accessing peer support, the process of therapy involves mandated confidentiality and evidence-based treatment that may not be available elsewhere.
My initial goal as your therapist will be to create a safe space so you will feel comfortable opening up and embracing vulnerability as we explore what is contributing to your depression. This is how we build trust. To help inform the healing process, I will ask you to fill out clinical questionnaires in advance of our first session that outline your history and the impact that depression is having on your life. During our first meeting, we will use the information you have provided to guide your treatment and identify goals, as well as discuss various aspects of privacy and confidentiality that are vital to this process.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, we will complete a risk assessment in order to develop a safety plan. While distressing situations, traumatic incidents, and cumulative stress in and of themselves don’t directly cause suicide among the First Responder population, depression and feelings of hopelessness can. We will discuss resources that you can access 24 hours a day so that you will be better prepared to combat disturbing thoughts that may arise and know where to find support.
Throughout the course of treatment, I will assist you in making discoveries about yourself--insights that will help you connect the dots between your experiences and the reactions you are having to them. We will briefly discuss your past to better understand how you developed core beliefs about yourself and the world around you. With refreshed understanding, you will be better suited to face distressing situations and access the internal resources that you will re-discover during your time in depression treatment.
My practice provides client-centered, solution-focused care to address the unique needs of First Responders. Using a holistic approach that draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), neurobiological principles, interpersonal theory, and mindfulness, I will help you to develop practical and realistic strategies for overcoming depression.
By integrating a wellness plan into depression treatment—with an emphasis on good sleep (7-8 hours every night), nutrition, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle—you will gain not only the skills you need for calming your nervous system and coping with stress, but also a work-life balance that can reintroduce joy and relaxation into your daily life.
With over two decades of experience working with clients who are regularly exposed to cumulative stress, I have seen the positive impact that therapy can have on helping people get their lives turned around so that they can feel more productive and hopeful about the future. Before opening my practice, I spent ten years working with Veterans struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress. Furthermore, I grew up in a military family, developing a firsthand understanding of the pressures associated with a high-stress career.
My personal and professional experiences have provided me with the insight to grasp how stress impacts the body, mind, and spirit. Though you may be struggling with depression now, I am confident that therapy at First Responders Thrive has the potential to shift your thinking, reduce your symptoms, and renew your sense of purpose.
Perhaps you are considering counseling or therapy for depression, but you are hesitant…
I am used to handling problems on my own; why should I seek help for depression?
I have no doubt that you are incredibly capable and that you have already taken productive steps to reduce your symptoms of depression. Together, we can build upon what you already know how to do in order to help you gain a newfound perspective on depression and the impact it is having on your life. I know all too well how First Responders value self-sufficiency--this is my goal for you, too: to help you get your feet back under yourself again so that you can stand as strong and independent and courageous as ever before.
I am concerned that depression treatment will make me feel worse and force me to face uncomfortable aspects of my traumatic experiences.
I hear your concern; it can feel a bit daunting to begin therapy for the first time. However, because of my client-centered approach, I will do my best to keep you in the driver’s seat as we get acquainted and begin to develop a trusting relationship together. This will be a partnership. We will take one step at a time and work at your own unique pace. You bring the topics to me and that is what we will discuss. While it can be difficult to discuss some of the challenges you have faced, have faith that you will be in good hands, experienced hands, responsible, capable hands. Throughout treatment, we will keep checking in to see that you feel as if your needs are being met, that in the end you feel as if we have succeeded in reducing your distressing thoughts, feelings and symptoms of depression.
I am concerned that my job could be in jeopardy if someone finds out I need counseling for depression.
Establishing trust and assuring privacy/confidentiality are of paramount importance to the process of depression treatment. No one--not your supervisor, your co-workers, spouse, family members, or friends--ever needs to know that you are engaged in therapy unless you elect to tell them. By law I am not permitted to reveal any personally identifiable information about a client without your written consent. There are some specific limits to confidentiality which are intended for safety purposes, and we will discuss these early in treatment. Should questions arise about your ability to handle your job effectively, we will thoughtfully discuss the concerns together before any decision is made.
Your need for confidentiality will always be respected.
Feel Confident to Face Another Day at Work
If the stressful, intense nature of your job as a First Responder has caused you to feel drained, withdrawn, or isolated, depression treatment can help you develop new strategies for coping. For more information about how I can help or to schedule a free, 20-minute telephone consultation, please call (603) 491-5510 or contact me today.
References:
¹ Kirschman, E., Kamena, M., & Fay, J. (2015). Counseling cops: What clinicians need to know. New York: The Guilford Press. P. 158.
² https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin-firstresponders-may2018.pdf
³ Kirschman, p. 214
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