First Responder Counseling

As a first responder you see people at the worst moments in their lives. Depending on how busy your department is, you may see the worst moments of someone’s life 5, 10 or even 20 times during your shift. There is no question that what you see, at best, wears on you and, at the absolute worst, causes you to have difficulty functioning in your life at the level you would like to.

As the wife of a firefighter, I instantly know how the shift went by the look on my husband’s face when he walks in the door. I have seen the look in his eye that tells me he lost someone. I can see it in his face when he feels responsible for the loss. I can tell by his posture and tone of voice when that loss was a child. My husband probably shares more about his job than most do, but it is when he doesn’t share that I worry. You see things that no normal person is equipped to see and deal with every day. You are expected to see these things and just move on to the next call. This expectation takes a toll on your mind, body and especially your soul.

There are times that you need to process through what you experience. Hopefully you have a supportive department that gives you every resource that you need to deal with these incidents, but I have been around the fire service long enough to know that you probably don’t. You may be hesitant to talk to the people on your shift because you don’t want to seem weak. Or you may be uncomfortable talking to the department provided therapist because they do your promotional psych interviews. You may be unwilling to talk to your EAP because they don’t understand what you face, or you just don’t trust anything that comes from your department.