“From the Firehouse to the Therapy Chair - My story”

After nearly 20 years as a firefighter, most spent as a company officer, I know the unique weight of running toward what others run away from. I’ve worn the uniform, worked the long hours, heard the sounds, saw the sights, and smelled the smells. I served as our Local Union President for many years and even helped lobby for Washington State’s Presumptive PTSD legislation (RCW 51.32.185). I also lived the hidden cost of that life - job-related PTSD (PTS) that no one around me seemed to fully understand. The right clinical help seemed impossible to find and that included a 40-day inpatient stay at the IAFF COE in Maryland. When I couldn’t find the right clinical help and knowing that I was no longer operating to my standard, I made the hardest decision of my life: I stepped away from the fire service so that I could heal and understand what was happening to me. So, I went back to school. Not to become a therapist (at first), but rather to understand myself and what PTSD was and how it was impacting me and my family.

I earned my Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City and completed a specialized graduate program in Military and Emergency Responder Psychology (MERP) from Colorado State University. I completed my clinical internship in community mental health at Greater Lakes Mental Health in Lakewood, WA, which felt familiar - as firefighters and police officers, we are often also social workers.

Today, I bring both clincial expertise and hard-won personal experience to my work with first responders, military, and other people helpers. Although I specialize in working with first responders and medical professionals, I believe I am still a fit for most anyone - and that comes from years of building a rapport with individuals as a firefighter/EMT in some of the darkest spaces of humanity. I have built a library of research, resources, literature, studies, and my own written papers - all focused on the psychology of the life in a uniform serving and protecting others.

I understand the culture, the camaradarie, the hypervigilance, the guilt, and all the masks we wear just to keep showing up. I speak the language and have earned the street cred - something that is difficult to find clinically. Although not on the job anymore, my whole life is still rooted in emergency services world. I spend as much time as I can on ride alongs and though station visits. I have a podcast (The PsychoHero Podcast) where I talk with emergency professionals about thier careers. And, most of my friends and social network are firefighers, police officers, or nurses.