TPCG Helps Police Officers Manage Stress

As the founder and CEO of Trance Personnel Consulting Group (TPCG) I am proud to be working with CopsAlive.com to help police officers and other law enforcement professionals learn to cope with the stress that you endure on a day to day basis.

TPCG has chosen a field thick with stress, trauma, denial, depression, overwhelming cynicism, abuse and suicide. Providing stress management and emotional survival tools to law enforcement agencies is not something that I take lightly. Never before have we encountered a group of people so steeped in all the many realms of societal dysfunction. These men and women are asked and expected to deal with worst case scenarios on a daily basis while many of us sip our morning coffee, contemplate our day, or tuck our children in at night. Of course there are other trauma-centric professions… dealing with situations beyond the layman’s comprehension, but often we give those professionals their due forgiveness. There exists this perception that Police Officers are there to serve; and should do so unscathed, without judgment or reproach, and with the ability to lead happy and productive lives. This is far from the truth.

As a country we offer very little in the area of emotional survival training for police. You are well equipped and trained to deal with firearms, new combat technology, hostage negotiation, interrogation, special investigations, crimes against children, etc. And all of this keeps you safe, keeps death-in-the-line-of-duty statistically low. But all the while numbers show it is suicide that threatens a cop’s life 2 – 3 times more than in any other profession. So with such blatant statistics, why is this still an area untouched, and often avoided?

“Vulnerable cops are weak cops, and weak cops are dangerous to themselves, their co-workers and society” is the internal mentality of law enforcement. You are not allowed to show vulnerability–or your human-ness. That will get you labeled, singled out, judged and often this will threaten your job security. So it is reinforced that to stuff one’s problems, deny them, form a calloused cynicism, is the way to stay productive and employed. Most seasoned officers who have subscribed to this process for most of their careers understand it’s killing them. . .literally.

It is TPCG’s mission to make mainstream and acceptable the powerful alternative methods one you as police officers use to pull out of this cycle and navigate healthier paths. It is far past the point of insanity for police agencies to recognize the suicide and depression rates, yet invest little time and money into addressing those issues in a preventative fashion.

Our work is often met with much resistance, mostly because to embrace this training is to admit a need or vulnerability. So our trainings are sometimes presented to police audiences who maintain their poker faces, who admit statistics make sense, yet deny they are part of those statistics. But it is the candid and anonymous feedback collected post-training that is the reason TPCG continues its work. Amidst the protection of anonymity come comments like, “If I had learned these tools years ago I might not be going to court later today for beating my wife.”, or “I’ve suffered through alcoholism, two failed marriages, and terrible relationships with my children. Had I known what to do with my stress my whole life could have been different.”

As long as police officers continue to admit such vulnerabilities and need, albeit anonymously, TPCG will continue to serve these officers in whatever way it can.

If you know someone in need of such training, please refer them to www.tpconsultinggroup.com and until then I will be adding my comments, suggestions and training ideas for your here on CopsAlive.com.

Please feel free to email me with your suggestions for these blog articles and training topics.

Email Lisa Wimberger by CLICKING HERE.

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers. We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence.

We do this by Helping Law Enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond. We think the best strategy is for each officer to create a tactical plan for their own life and career.

About Lisa Wimberger

Lisa Wimberger works on a national level with law enforcement officers suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, both at the agency and individual levels. Lisa’s ability to bring tools to law enforcement agencies offers a proactive solution to stress management and crisis intervention. These techniques are truly alternative modalities for a healthier person and organization. Lisa specializes in training individuals and organizations to understand, identify and retrain stress patterns that undermine job performance. Her specialized approach for law enforcement creates a platform upon which individuals begin to identify the early signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The techniques help those caught in a hyper-vigilant stress cycle to navigate a new path through a downward spiral. Lisa offers concrete tools that help officers gain perspective during crisis, determine the personal impact, steer clear of dysfunctional patterned behavioral responses, and derive healthier options. Lisa founded the Trance Personnel Consulting Group TPCG) in January, 2007. It is the aggregate of the many human behavior disciplines that make up her background. With hundreds of law enforcement agents trained in 2008 the statistics speak clearly; for those in high trauma jobs there is an urgent need for an effective preventative approach to crisis intervention. Many of Lisa's family and friends were NYPD or NYFD and she spent time teaching these techniques to help rebuild families that effected her personally. She has also experienced an array of massive physical trauma herself and has used the same tools as a way to deal with all of that. Her own erosional trauma experiences include: Blinded in one eye at age 11, Hit by lightening at age 15, Blinded in both eyes at age 19, and Flatlined, no pulse-no cardio, on 3 or more occassions. She has recovered completely from all of the above events and has used the techniques to help her live a normal, healthy and rewarding life.
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