What Modern Therapists Should Know About Law Enforcement Mental Health: An Interview with Cyndi Doyle, LPC

What Modern Therapists Should Know About Law Enforcement Mental Health: An Interview with Cyndi Doyle, LPC

Curt and Katie interview Cyndi Doyle on the mental health of law enforcement officers. We look at how being a cop impacts their mental health as well as specific incidents and the chronic desensitization. We also explore the feelings in law enforcement related to calls to defund the police and how society views the cops. Content warning: potentially traumatic incidents (violence, death)

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

An Interview with Cyndi Doyle, LPC

Cyndi Doyle is a Licensed Professional Counselor, group practice co-owner, founder of Code4Couples®, podcaster, and author of Hold the Line: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Law Enforcement Relationship. She has spoken nationally and internationally including at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conferences (IACP), the FBI National Academy Association (FBINAA) Conference, keynoted at police spouse conferences throughout the country, and at trained various police departments. While much of her work focuses on first responders, Cyndi’s stories of embracing and wrestling with living her own bold and authentic life have resulted in her being a sought-after speaker for other mental health professionals. Her message of humanizing struggle, compassion, courage, and resilience has resulted in her speaking nationally and even keynoting at the 2020 Texas Counseling Association Professional Growth Conference. That same year, the American Counseling Association awarded her the Samuel Gladding Unsung Heroes Award for her work with first responders and contribution to the field of counseling.

In this podcast episode, we talk about Law Enforcement Mental Health

We reached out to our friend, Cyndi Doyle to explore a population of folks who we typically don’t think about as our patients: Law Enforcement Officers (LEO).

What should modern therapists know about the mental health of Law Enforcement Officers and their families?

• Different dynamics than typical couples
• The definition of cynicism
• How training impacts the mental health of officers
• Misinterpretation of control versus abuse
• Over diagnosis of trauma

The negative impacts on police officers of the heightened scrutiny and criticism

• Hypervigilance and the impact of cameras on police offers performing their jobs
• The lack of support from the community (or the legislators or even law enforcement leadership) for officers
• Lack of compassion satisfaction, considering quitting their job, PTSD
• The impact on Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) families

Exploration of the calls to defund the police and fund other resources

• Looking at the law enforcement response to defunding the police
• Exploring community policing and how that could help decrease abuses
• The cultural shifts and education happening at police departments
• The potential for mental health resources being added to policing
• When staffing is down, there is less time to recuperate and be prepared for work

Mental Health Concerns that bring law enforcement officers and their families into therapy

• Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Addiction
• Relationships, family and couple
• Incident, critical incident, trauma
• Desensitization to violent incidents, injuries, and death
• The personalization in incidents that can cause more of a trauma response
• The insufficient training to build resilience for law enforcement officers
• The shifting culture that is now recognizing mental health as health, but the ongoing stigma for seeking support

Cynicism, lack of empathy, and bias in Law Enforcement

• The mindset that narrows down to “everyone” behaves
• Working to make officers more human, so they can see more good in the world
• The importance of supporting the resilience and empathy within LEO (while recognizing that some of these things are not helpful “on the job”)

Cyndi Doyle.com