Thin Blue Mind / Smokey Heroes

Police Psychology: The Way of the World by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP It was right outside my window, in the front of my driveway.  A cop pulled over two teenaged boys on their bikes after the boys had yelled some obscenities at them and made a not-so nice gesture with parts of their hands.  […]

Police Psychology:  Good Stress: Bad Stress by Gary S. Aumiller Ph.D., ABPP  

Police Psychology:  Fake News by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP   My first TV show appearance was in March 1991, a couple of days after the Rodney King Incident in Los Angeles.  The president of the police union I worked with asked me to go along on a TV interview because the deck was stacked […]

Police Psychology | Building Resilience  by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. Psychological Services Resilience is the ability to effectively and quickly recover from difficulties, failures, illness, and injuries.  From a neurophysiological perspective, resilience is the ability to recover rapidly from sympathetic nervous system (SNS) over-activations with adequate parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) activations. Since working in law enforcement […]

Police Psychology:  Randomness in Life by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP In police psychology, as well at other divisions within psychology, we are always looking for innovative ways to make a point to our therapy clients that is not only memorable, but can be applied to their lives across numerous situations.   One of my favorites uses […]

Police Psychology: 5 Principles:  Animated Post by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP, Sara Gaertner, Skylar Aumiller   5 Principles to A Simpler Life as a Cop in animation.  

Police Psychology | Living Through Troubled Times by Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. (adapted with permission from www.ellenkirschman.com) Author of I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know These are troubled times for police officers and their families. There’s an almost endless stream of bad press about law enforcement along with the unthinkable assassinations of […]

I am trying something new this Friday with a video post.  Let me know what you think.  

Police Psychology | Critical Incidents in Law Enforcement by Doug Gentz, Ph.D.  Guest Author Unusual and sometimes disturbing experiences are just part of the job of a Police Officer. As they proceed through their careers, officers typically take these experiences in stride. At some point, an officer may have an experience that rises to the […]

Police Psychology | Anticipatory Anxiety Meets String Tricks Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP   My 9-year old daughter was in a third-grade talent show last Friday.  She was doing “string tricks” she learned on YouTube, you know starting with Cat’s Cradle, go to Cat’s Whiskers, Jacob’s Ladder, the Eiffel Tower, the witches broom, etc.  Okay, […]

Police Psychology | Rising from the Chains of Addiction Guest Blogger — Law Enforcement Officer’s Child (name redacted for potential of negative future consequences)   The Little Blue Pill.  An instrument of healing that leads to drowning.  My first experience with Oxycontin was gleefully numbing and chemically satisfying.  It served its purpose: diverting pain until […]

Police Psychology | ROCKY AND IRMA   I spent the weekend in California with Rocky and Irma Kalish, and everyone should spend a weekend with Rocky and Irma. I met Rocky and Irma over 25 years ago and we hit it off immediately. They became my writing mentors, my heroes, my idols, and we even […]

Police Psychology | A Toe for Mickey   Mike went down to the floor a couple of times. Doubled over, holding his stomach, wrenching, trying to catch a breath between the strokes of thesword that was ripping out his insides. Mike had a serious anxiety disorder compounded with a quadruple vial of hubris. He didn’t […]

Police Psychology | THE SHORT LIST OF HUMAN PROBLEMS Marla W. Friedman Psy.D., Board of Directors-Badge of Life Immediate Past Chair PPSS/ILACP,  Booklight@att.net   In the last 35 years I have provided psychotherapy services to a wide range of patients, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. I have worked with people from every profession. However […]

Police Psychology | Sleep By Doug Gentz, Ph.D., Psychological Services Chapter 1 of the excellent book on sleep Wide Awake at 3:00 A.M. by Richard M. Coleman describes the “biological clock” that all organisms have built into their nervous systems. Research indicates that the biological clock in a human being’s brain operates on a 25 […]