Somatization. A word that most people have not heard of, but almost everyone has experienced. Ever been on a first date and felt “butterflies in your stomach”? How about getting off a scary ride and going temporarily “weak in the knees”? Or getting a headache or stomachache right before a big presentation? That’s somatization. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as, “conversion of a mental state into physical symptoms”. It is very common and usually happens when a person is in a

A wise person once said, “To have peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart”. For those who work in the first responder community the descriptors in the first part of that sentence may sound like a regular, if not simple, day on the job. Noise, trouble, hard work? No big deal! Try adding chaos, crises, and danger to that list! In nearly every study conducted

One of the most challenging aspects of crisis counseling is understanding and dealing with the visceral and emotional responses of both client and therapist to the crisis. As humans, we have basic physiological responses to stressful situations. When we find ourselves in a crisis situation, adrenaline floods the body, heart rate increases, breathing becomes shallow, and field of perception narrows. Often, in addition to these physiological effects on the body, when a person i

This month’s terrible shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, shook the nation to it’s core. However, as the news of this terrifying event was breaking, there were immediate examples of heroic actions taken by the people in the club, emergency workers, police, bystanders, and locals; men and women who were at the scene of the event or who interacted with victims in the immediate aftermath who rushed in to help the victims and their families. In the days following this