From Reactive to Proactive: Key Insights on Law-Enforcement Wellness from the SPCP Conference
This past weekend I had the privilege of presenting my dissertation research as a poster at the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP) Conference in Anaheim, California. What I expected to be a simple research presentation turned into a powerful reminder of why I launched Psyres, and why law-enforcement wellness needs a new playbook.
The Dirty Filter
Dr. Pietro D’Ingillo, PsyD from the Las Angeles Sheriff’s Department illustrated policing as a pyramid: laws → policies → training → mindset & wellness → call circumstances → tactics/actions.
It’s tempting to focus on tactics at the base, but the true fulcrum is the mindset and wellness layer. Dr. D’Ingillo explained that officer wellness acts like a filter, if it’s “dirty,” every action and interaction that follows will be compromised. Cleaning that filter requires proactive wellness and mental-health protocols, or as he put it: “are we handing officers a bucket of water, or a bucket of gasoline?” Providing the right tools for the job is critical up front, otherwise we are just fueling the fire of situations officers respond to.
My Role: Proactive, Not Reactive
After attending this conference one thing became abundantly clear to me: current efforts towards officer wellness are still very reactive. We wait for an officer to experience something horrific and then we send them to see the therapist. They fear losing their gun and badge, falsify symptoms, and keep up the “macho” persona, ultimately not getting the real help they need.
I am proposing proactive approaches. I am not a clinician. Yes, my doctorate is in forensic psychology with a specialization in crisis response, but my background is in criminology and law-enforcement culture. That makes me uniquely positioned to provide psychoeducation and resilience training, the kind of preventative work that reduces the need for crisis interventions later.
While therapists and police psychologists carry the critical responsibilities of clinical evaluations and fitness-for-duty decisions, as well as critical incident debriefing and law enforcement counseling, PhDs and coaches can complement them by teaching resilience, self-awareness, and holistic wellness early and often. Consider me a “value-add” to the agency and the therapists whose workloads I can help alleviate.
Other Key Themes and Takeaways
Stability before de-escalation. Officers start many shifts already fatigued or complacent, destabilizing states that can ripple into public interactions. Training should help officers recognize and correct these states before calls begin.
Cognitive distortions keep cops safe on duty but can be toxic at home. Teaching self-awareness means helping officers spot the “work brain” patterns that don’t serve them in their personal lives.
Peer-to-peer culture change works. “Use the culture to change the culture.” Officers trust officers; peer trainers are powerful agents of change. Training a select few officers in higher ranking positions who can then spread the awareness to others in the department may prove the most beneficial way of spreading the knowledge and awareness with this population.
Moral Injury matters. Different from PTSD, moral injury is the psychological and spiritual distress when someone’s deepest values are violated. Left unaddressed it leads to burnout, identity rupture, and loss of meaning. Strengthening spiritual resilience and meaning-making can protect against long-term damage. This is exactly where resilience coaching can come in handy.
Family is part of the system. Officer wellness isn’t just an individual or agency responsibility, families and social support networks need to be woven into wellness policy and practice. Collaboration is it’s own domain in resilience training.
Servant leadership is foundational. Trauma-informed servant leadership, anchored in listening, empathy, and community, builds organizational justice and long-term officer wellbeing.
Where Psyres Comes In
Psyres exists to provide functional wellness and human performance optimization for law enforcement, exactly the proactive, preventative approach so often missing. By embedding resilience coaching and holistic health training before, during, and after the line of duty, we lighten the load on over-stretched clinicians and help officers maintain their mental and physical fitness for the long haul.
As Viktor Frankl wrote, “Man is not destroyed by suffering; he is destroyed by suffering without meaning.”
My job is to help officers create that meaning and maintain the resilience to serve with integrity and health.