COUNSELING
Individual Counseling
First Responder Support Services provides confidential, informed, and professional counseling for the individual first responder and his or her spouse. We provide counseling associated with the specific challenges of public safety; critical incident exposure, compassion fatigue, sleep disruption and depletion. We also provide counseling associated with topics that anyone may be challenged with; grief or loss, illness, feeling depressed or anxious, and family of origin upsets or abuse. Essentially, under the uniform is a human being who is susceptible to the general vulnerabilities, frustrations and disappointments that accompany all of us on our journey through life. We’re honored to assist during the most challenging times.
EMDR Counseling
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of therapy used to reprocess a traumatic experience, creating resolution and healing. EMDR is effective for a variety of concerns, including work related critical incidents, traumatic personal losses, childhood abuse, grief, interpersonal conflicts, and changing relationships.
Every therapist at FRSS is trained in EMDR due to the effectiveness of this modality in resolving critical incidents associated with emergency response. EMDR utilizes the brain’s information processing system to reprocess and resolve the physical and emotional triggers embedded in trauma. Please see our resources section for links to additional information about this method.
Marital Counseling
The stress and demands of providing public safety service and emergency response may strain even the strongest marriage.
FRSS provides marital counseling to help you better understand one another's perspective and find effective ways to negotiate and cope with the impact of shiftwork and absences, high-risk, high-demand assignments, sleep deprivation, and critical incident exposure.
We will also assist you in tackling common marital challenges in the areas of healthy problem-solving, managing finances, cooperative parenting, and engaged sexuality.
We primarily utilize the Gottman Method Couples Therapy and Dr. Sue Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy to support our couples in resolving conflicts and strengthening their bond.
Child and Family Counseling
One of the many values of the first responder is being a quality provider for your family. FRSS supports you with this commitment by providing counseling for your minor children. This may be related to the job as children sometimes need help coping with emotions stirred by the dangers their parents are regularly facing or comments their peers may make about the profession. Children may also struggle with school adjustment, anxious or depressed feelings, bullying, or poor self-esteem. If you find yourself uncertain how to help or intervene to support your spouse or child, let us assist you. Even the best parents need assistance from time to time. Our first meeting will include both parents and the child to asses what may be impacting your child and create a plan with you to enchance your child's coping, support family communication, explore parental discipline strategies and strengthen family relationships.
