Treating First Responders

Episode 149: Treating First Responders

An interview with Yael Shuman, LMFT, on the unique challenges that First Responders face and treatment considerations. Curt and Katie talk with Yael about what therapists get wrong working with first responders, especially when therapists are unable to keep their stuff together when these clients disclose their traumatic experiences. We look at resources, resilience, and preparing for trauma (rather than waiting for it to occur).       

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Yael Shuman, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, EMDR and EA-EMDR trained

Yael Shuman, is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist with more than 25 years’ experience working with individuals, couples, and organizations. Yael is passionate about helping people to live a fulfilling life. Trauma interrupts life by creating a stuck place that is uncomfortable and distressing. Without the right knowledge and skills, you cannot move beyond the distress. With skills development in emotional stability and resiliency, people can reduce the impact of a traumatic situation and have improved coping skills to help them move forward and process the trauma from distress to fulfillment.

She maintains a private practice in Denver, Colorado. She has experience in PTSD/ trauma, and specializes with Military and Veteran and First Responders issues, and how to express the experiences through communication. Her practice includes providing EMDR for trauma treatment, supervises interns, and working with life issues including developing healthy relationships, stress management, anxiety, depression (including PPD) and divorce recovery. It is well researched that people living with trauma are likely to experience more of these life issues and, if they are left unaddressed, then further disruption in life is likely to occur. Yael has years of experience and believes it is incredibly important to assist clients with emotional stability, for them to feel safe and secure, before processing their trauma.

Prior to her work as a Marriage & Family Therapist, Mrs. Shuman spent 5 years working with Los Angeles County Child Protective Services (Family Preservation Unit) and foster care. She holds a Master’s Degree in Marriage & Family Therapy from California Family Study Center and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from California State University Northridge. She is trained in EMDR and Equine-assisted EMDR. Additionally, she is a member of the American Association for Marriage & Family Therapists, EMDRIA, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor.

In this episode we talk about:

• Unique challenges of working with First Responders and the unique culture
• Training that first responders typically get (and don’t get)
• The lack of training on trauma responses and developing resilience
• The culture of silence related to first responders – they don’t report distress or trauma responses – you can’t take it, you’re broken
• The risk of first responders who die by suicide
• The impacts of lack of therapist training and experience on individual clients
• The challenge of holding space for traumatic experiences of first responders
• The disturbing events that first responders regularly experience
• A perspective on how to interact with trauma with our clients
• The importance of specific training on working with first responders