Lt. Rich Goerling, Dr Michael Christopher, and I have been working to develop a program for mindfulness and officer wellness for about six years. I have had the honor to work with Rich and the Hillsboro Police during that time on a number of brief trainings and presentations: Post Traumatic Stress & Returning Veterans Conference, a presentation at the International Scientific Conference at UMass Medical School, and more.
I will begin teaching the full 8-Week Mindfulness-Based Resilience Program here in our classrooms. The training is aimed at long-term officer wellness and more effective service to our community. It is based on my experience teaching the MBSR program, my work over the years with Lt Rich Goerling of HPD, and my on-going collaboration with my friend and colleague Dr. Rob Smith who teaches physician resiliency and MBSR. This is to my knowledge the first police department in North America to begin training of their force with this sort of program. The US Marine Corps has recently implemented this sort of program and the Army has also begun these trainings. My hats off to HPD for showing leadership and for caring enough about their officers and community to step forward with this. Read more in a Hillsboro Tribune article about Lt Goerling and the Resilience Program. Officer Wellness Article. Also, a recent national magazine article in Mindful Magazine.
Here’s to HPD! Brant