Working with first responders
As a counsellor, I am passionate about working with first responders, RCMP, health-care workers, and other front-line employees. This passion is rooted in my professional experience, including three years in a primary health-care setting and two years in the justice system in Whitehorse. It is also shaped by my personal connection to this work— my father was a police officer who experienced post-traumatic stress.
The jobs you do ARE different. You are regularly exposed to high-stress, traumatic, and life-threatening situations and exposed to the worst days of people's lives. Your shifts are long and irregular. Your teams may often be short-staffed. In your job, you regularly face the risks of cumulative stress, burnout, and conditions such as vicarious trauma, PTSD, and compassion fatigue.
I strive to offer a space where you can process experiences without judgment. I offer trauma-informed care and behavioural and experiential therapy techniques to help you develop stronger coping strategies, regain your resilience, and expand and enhance any strategies or skills you may want to foster. I am mindful of the unique barriers you may face and strive to offer a steady, client-centred space to help you make sense of what you’ve seen and felt.
I often use a parts-based approach, where we can work with the different sides of you—the part that stays strong on the job, the part that feels overwhelmed, the part that just wants relief—so each one is heard, understood, and supported.
Together, we can also focus on practical coping strategies to manage stress in the moment, while gently processing experiences that may still feel intense or unresolved. The goal isn’t to erase what happened or get rid of emotions — it’s to reduce the emotional weight so you can feel some ease, more in control, and more like yourself again.