TRIP’ Training Helps First Responders and Military Cope with Trauma

Chesapeake and Portsmouth Police department officers that have experienced trauma are getting a new tool to help them. A non-profit organization, the Liberty Organization for Veterans and Emergency Responders has sponsored a new type of training called Trauma Recovery Intervention Protocol or TRIP. The focus of the training provided to first responders is the ability to apply what they have learned to help their co-workers. 

It is not uncommon for people who have experienced trauma to internalize their thoughts and feelings about the experience. Most law enforcement officers are fully aware of people bottling up and not wanting to speak about their trauma. It is also, unfortunately, ubiquitous for law enforcement officers to clam up and keep it to themselves. The average person may experience 1-3 traumatic events in their lifetime. Cops will most likely experience hundreds, if not thousands. (Depending on a lot of factors.)

TRIP is developed to find a way around that silent hurdle. It is designed to focus on ways to help heal those that do not, or can not, talk about their painful experiences. 

The lead TRIP clinician for the program, Dr. Janell Royster, explains:

“So the Trauma Recovery Intervention Protocol was designed to quickly disconnect the negative emotions from the events, whatever those are…could be a car accident, could be the death of a loved one, could be combat, could be anything that would really cause someone to have significant psychological deficits like intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares….” 

The Founder and president of the Liberty Organization for Veterans and Emergency Responders, Michael Murry, has gone through the training. Murray had this to say about his experience with TRIP Training: 

“What it does is it separates emotions from experiences in the brain, and it alleviates a lot of the symptoms of PTSD.” he adds, “It’s taken away all of the bad stuff. I sleep better. I focus more. My anger has gone way down because PTSD manifests itself in so many ways in your behaviors once you have it.”

TRIP sounds like an excellent program that is going to help give officers more tools to help them be healthy and successful. Have you ever experienced TRIP training? Tell us what the training was like in the comments below.