Critical Incident Stress Resiliency (CISR)

A new approach for the modern-day first responders and frontline emergency care for job trauma

With advancements in neuroscience, we learn with every new study, PTSD, Panic Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, and Depressive Disorders are not psychological; they are neurological conditions that link emotions to events or circumstances. We view them as injuries, and injuries can heal. We see in new treatments, such as the Tactical Resiliency Process (TRP) and Emotions Management Process (EMP), the neurological connections can be severed relatively quickly and painlessly. There is one problem with this, the medical establishment and Big Pharma will fight tooth and nail to protect their profits. As a combat infantryman, former Drill Sergeant, and Law Enforcement Officer, I’m not afraid of the system. I speak, bucking the system fluently.

TRP & EMP as Resiliency Tools

Our nonprofit developed the TRP/EMP processes to apply it on a peer support basis as resiliency tools. We do not need to be a mental health counselor to neurologically intervene with a coaching client since we hear no content before or after the session; this is a brain-based intervention. We have embraced a resiliency model for coaching clients throughout the process that allows their brain to make changes on a subconscious level without feeling the brunt of the emotions. Emotions can be attached to a traumatic event or a significant emotional event. Negative emotions like anger, sadness, fear, shame, hurt, abandonment, survivors’ guilt, or any emotion perceived as negative can be identified at the root cause, reframed, and let go of, with current age learnings. The EMP is a potent tool with lifelong changes possible.

Traumatic Memories and their Resolution

Traumatic Memories are cleared using a different approach. The TRP technique involves a process we call sight, a sensory separation that will separate the emotions from memory visually and kinesthetically through a dissociation process. TRP will prevent issues from developing later in life. If already traumatized, it allows the amygdala to remove the trauma’s stored response, returning sleep cycles to normal and stopping the fight or flight response from continuing 24/7.

As a former Law Enforcement Officer and Combat Infantryman with the United States Army, I’m no stranger to trauma. I have led men in combat, and some didn’t come home alive or uninjured. I’ve witnessed horrific crimes committed against women and children, and I’ve seen decapitated bodies in traffic crashes. I was dangerously close to suicide in 2013.

The reason I’m still here has everything to do with kids in the apartment above me and not wanting to put a high powered rifle round through their floor and Corey Smathers. Ryan, one of my Soldiers from deployment, informed me that Corey Smathers shot and killed himself that same night I was staring down my rifle. Corey was a 22-year-old husband and dad. No one except maybe his inner circle of friends knew he was struggling. Corey, my brother, you saved my life. For you and your family, I will never stop helping those that put a uniform on for a purpose bigger than themselves. Our mission is to heal our heroes, and we will not relent.

Agency Policies on Peer Support and Critical Incident Interactions 

First responder agencies typically adopt policies to assist their agency members during a critical incident such as an officer-involved shooting or major traffic fatality. The objective is to manage their members’ stress to prevent the onset of major issues and diffuse the emotions. The problem is that talking about what just happened doesn’t help the agency member, except they are not alone in the process. From a neurological perspective speaking of the event helps to lock in the emotion. First responders do not want to share their emotions; fear of emotional breakdown adds insult to injury.

Critical Incident Stress Resiliency (CISR) and The Tactical Resiliency Process (TRP)

The Critical Incident Stress Resiliency process streamlines force readiness by developing the bounce-back effect. Agency members in advance of critical incidents already have the requisite skills to process the event as they have already developed mental skills to handle the call. If an agency member has difficulty processing the emotions of a critical incident, they can run through the Tactical Resiliency Process (TRP) within 8 hours of an event to reset the emotions nearly immediately. The emotions have always been the problem and not the event. The memory is stored in the hippocampus when you clear the critical incident’s emotions and is now just another long-term memory, without the visceral feeling.

For agencies that do not adopt a 100 percent training model but train a peer support team, they can assist agency members as the peer support team can lead the agency member through the TRP again within 8 hours of an event, for acute stress reactions, before it becomes Post Traumatic Stress. A peer support agency member will assist the agency member in not retaining the critical incident’s emotions through the Tactical Resiliency Process.

The Emotions Management Process (EMP)

There is another process that assists in the resiliency process called the Emotions Management Process (EMP). This process removes negative emotions from the agency member. Emotions like anger, fear, sadness, and survivor’s guilt can negatively impact the agency members and their families. Anger and fear can have detrimental effects on the community by way of law enforcement officers.

You can reframe how they approach those emotions that will impact themselves subconsciously—de-escalation by a natural process without effort. Major cost savings to an agency in public relations and civil litigation or time spent on internal reviews, or even staff retention. If we lose a law enforcement officer due to stress, the cost of training isn’t the only loss; it’s the institutional knowledge we lose.

We lose more first responders to suicide every year than the line of duty deaths, and that’s not acceptable, especially when there is a solution with CISR. https://rudermanfoundation.org/white_papers/police-officers-and-firefighters-are-more-likely-to-die-by-suicide-than-in-line-of-duty/

CISR and Healthcare Workers

The next focus of CISR is the medical profession. Doctors and nurses regularly deal with trauma, whether witnessing a tragic emergency room or ICU outcome with life loss. Or they were being exposed to horrific injuries and watching a person suffer, or dealing with COVID-19 patients and worrying if they were going to carry the disease home to their loved ones. All of these stresses can have a cumulative effect on the medical staff. Suicide amongst doctors and nurses is very high in the US. We are here to help stop that and to allow for healthy, thriving medical professionals. Our nation needs you to be healthy, so you can help us to be healthy.

Next Steps for First Responder Agencies and Medical Professionals

Contact 22Zero Follow Me, Inc. by sending a request to dan@22zero.org and get at a minimum your peer support team trained and give your people a fighting chance to overcome trauma and negative emotions easily. Costs for training depend on the number of members trained. Agencies with many employees can partake in the train the trainer program when they reach the 25 members trained. Train the trainer allows your people to train the process for a fraction of the training cost. The training can be done remotely over Zoom. www.22zero.org

We are working with the Salt Lake City Police Department Wellness team to bring peer support to the next level.  We already have two trained TRP/EMP peer support coaches with the agency and are bringing this to a group of 20 in the near future in Utah.  They are already successfully using the process with their fellow officers and families.

We are also training active firefighters from Suffolk Fire and Rescue, the mission is expanding and growing.

Recommended Reading: Anger Problems: Causes And Treatments