First Responder Family Psychology

01/14/2025

California First Responder Spouses: Feeling overwhelmed by these long stretches of deployments or forced backs? You’re not alone!
Check out my on demand and FREE webinar for practical tips and essential conversations to help you and your spouse navigate these challenges today—especially if you’re balancing home responsibilities with a young family.
Remember, you’re not in this alone. You have a support system—lean on it. You’ve got this! 💪
🔗 https://youtu.be/5VlsZVIwhB4?feature=shared
Tag a fire spouse or first responder spouse you know who could benefit from this!

12/12/2024

🎁✨ Invest in Yourself This Holiday Season ✨🎁
The holidays are magical—but let’s be real, they can also feel like too much. 💭
Between family drama, financial stress, and endless to-dos, it’s easy to feel drained. And as first responder families, we juggle even more—shift work, missed traditions, and the emotional toll of the job.
You don’t have to face it all alone. 💙
At First Responder Family Psychology, I specialize in helping you:
🎄 Cope with stress, resentment, and anxiety
🎄 Build stronger boundaries and healthier communication
🎄 Find a safe space to vent and sort through what’s weighing you down
🎉 Holiday Special: $25 OFF
💵 Each of your first 3 therapy sessions when you sign up before Jan 31! (CA residents only… sorry)
Why not invest in something that lasts beyond the season? Your mental health is the greatest gift you can give yourself—and your family.
📩 Click the link in my bio or check out my website for more info.
Because you deserve to feel grounded, supported, and ready for what’s next.
✨ You’ve got this—and I’m here to help. (In person or virtually).✨

11/28/2024

🍂✨ I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the first responders who are working today while so many are gathered with their families. Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed.
I also want to acknowledge and thank the families of these brave individuals, who are sacrificing their time together and celebrating on another day. Your support and understanding play a vital role in their ability to serve, and you are equally appreciated. Thank you all for your selflessness and support.
Leave a comment on how your family will adjust to the schedule today!
❤️🙏

05/07/2024

Join me here while I address navigating the unique challenges of first responder families. Free for all families. Register here at link below. Please reach out or come introduce yourself if you make it!!

https://menomoniewi.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0r2hPQJLvQ8C7Oe

03/24/2023

MONDAY! is launching our first annual First Responder Wellness Week!
Each day, we'll focus on a different aspect of health and well-being, with insight and tips tailored to the unique lifestyle and needs of first responders.
Over the course of next week, experts will share about: physical fitness (monday), sleep and fatigue (Tuesday), nutrition (Wednesday), mental health (Thursday), and healthy coping skills (Friday).
Join Us! Find FREE resources including, articles, webinars with Cordico subject matter experts, videos, sample wellness policies, podcasts and other resources at http://www.firstresponderwellnessweek.com?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com.

12/21/2022

How Police Couples Can Best Manage the Holiday Season:
Grab some insight on the challenges specific to this season for your partner and gain some tips on managing them successfully together.
1. Communicate and plan ahead
2. Adjust your ideas about what "holiday" means
3. Make your own traditions
4. Model flexibility
When you find ways to support one another, communicate and think outside the 9-to-5 box, you will find ways to successfully manage all the unique stressors your family may face throughout the holiday season.

https://ed.gr/efmgj

09/11/2022

01/14/2022

COME JOIN US! First responders and spouses.
Hard times right now all around for first responder families! Departments are low on staff, the politics there are draining people, mandatory shifts are being handed out like candy, first responders are BURNT OUT and spouses and kids are stuck at home dealing with all the collateral damage from all of this.
I’ll be speaking at this wellness conference In March in San Luis Obispo and there couldn’t be a better time for all of us to hear that we’re not alone, there is hope, and there are some things we can do to help ourselves.
I’m very excited about this conference because it invites and encourages spouses to attend with their first responders as well! We are left out of the conversation way to often. So please come join us! Whether you’re a first responder looking to hear stories from others, a first responder hoping to help your own (through peer support or CISM) or a first responder couple looking to find some mutual understanding about the impacts and treatment involving first responders.
I’ll be there attending the sessions myself with my firefighter husband. So if you do show, PLEASE find me and say Hello.
Remember many departments reimburse for such trainings and travel. Paramedics and EMTs will actually get CE hours for the event. Also, contact if you’re in need of a scholarship for the conference!

11/13/2021

It's never out of sight out of mind over here in first responder marriages. Even when they are gone the plans we make with family, friends, and even the meals we prepare, seem to all have to take their schedule into consideration. We keep them at the front of our minds. This is sweet! Until t turns into feelings of rejection, or hurt, or resentment. Dr. Rachelle (Fire Wife) and Dr. Alma (Police Wife) discuss the simple things spouses do in their everyday lives that can have big impacts on their feelings and relationships.

11/07/2021

Cheers 🍻 to “Doing it for the kids!”
As a fire spouse making it through fire season every year, one coping skill I utilize is re-focusing on some light at the end of the tunnel. During fire season we book something we can both look forward to connecting at in November and talk about it ALL the time (“30 days and we will be poolside!”). And we made it! &
The first responder family life is FULL of stressors, distractions, scheduling challenges, “tag team parenting” and it is incredibly hard to find “extra” time in there to connect. But it shouldn’t be “extra” time. Your marriage is the foundation of this whole gig and needs to be a priority. The time you make for real connection counts! Small things all the time, and sometimes big things, help us remain connected to our partner in the middle of our chaotic life.
When we fall into the trap of only addressing the immediate needs of the schedule and kids and let go of time to connect, we start feeling distant from one another, unseen, and under appreciated.
All too often when I ask first responder couples when is the last time they went away without the kids, just the two of them, they cannot even remember!
If that’s you… well then, it’s time to book something! Connecting with one another outside of our daily stressors is so different. We can breathe, relax, talk and just listen without 100 things calling our names to be completed. You can discuss some of the deeper life experiences you’ve been having.
I recommend Setting some rules about talking about the kids and stressful stuff on your trip or date night and instead talk about
❓how both of you are feeling about being a mother or father
❓what your goals are for the next 5 years
❓what each of your greatest accomplishments were over the last year
❓how you feel you’re each handling all the overtime and where improvements can be made
❤️And anything else you can think up that draws you two closer.
This is what I wish people were actually referring to when they say “we’re doing it for the kids.” Because ultimately that’s who it will also benefit. 💗

10/12/2021

As a First Responder spouse we often go in and out of survival mode depending on whether we are single parenting or co-parenting. This may cause us to actually adopt two different parenting styles or ways to run the household. It can often feel like our life pauses a moment and then they return and we're back. The transition in and out of this is a challenge for the whole family. In this episode, Dr. Rachelle (Fire Wife) and Dr. Alma (Police Wife) do some deep reflecting on all the challenges this may pose for first responder families and how it plays out in their own.

09/09/2021

When you are the spouse of a first responder you take on a lot of additional responsibilities at home. It can be hard to accept this reality since it wasn't your career choice. However, it can be very helpful to mentally commit to your own "shift" in order to survive. In this episode, Dr. Rachelle (Fire Wife) and Dr. Alma (Police Wife) discuss committing to the "shift," why it is not helpful to compare who's "shift" is more challenging between you and your first responder, and why this topic may come up in the first place.