News

Trauma Days (Lima)

Gut instinct in Emergency Response and in life ‘Going with your gut’ or indeed having ‘a police(man)’s nose is definitely a thing. We say it all the time, whether it be about a dodgy person in a position of perceived power (see previous blog on psychopaths), or whether someone ‘likes-you’-likes-you when you sense a little...

Trauma Days (Juliet)

“One more time with feeling”: Dealing with flashbacks In his film, One More Time With Feeling, singer and songwriter Nick Cave spoke about his experience of losing his young son in a tragic accident and the trauma and grief that lives with him. He allowed me to quote him directly in my book The Policing Mind with something...

Trauma Days (Indigo)

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Trauma Days (Hotel)

TRAUMA DAYS: HOTEL Chasing Safety On my desk I have a little corner of me: a round desk lamp with a bobble hat which is in the shape of the human brain (of course), a picture of a lovely view from a stoney window out to see, a chalk coaster with a Land Rover Defender image on it and a quote from Joseph Goldstein that...

Trauma Days (Golf)

TRAUMA DAYS: GOLF Upping your game by letting go It sounds counter-intuitive and nonsensical (the idea that by letting go we can achieve, gain or get a better grip on life). The science and the practice shows it to be very logical and a no-brainer when you understand it. To do it, it feels far from that: it feels clumsy...

Trauma Days (Foxtrot)

TRAUMA DAYS: FOXTROT Trauma Anger and Life Anger Anger can mean so many different things. It can mean different things by the way it is expressed and it can mean different things by the way it originates. Anger can come out in different ways and it can come from different places -and yet sometimes we don't make that...

Trauma Days (Echo)

TRAUMA DAYS: ECHO Finding Fun Where It’s Not Supposed to be: Everyone wants to be happy*. It’s the most blindingly blooming obvious thing about life and the universe, right? And Emergency Response is no different. But it kinda is. Being a little honest here, when you deal day-in and day-out with others’ suffering or...

Trauma Days (Charlie)

TRAUMA DAYS: CHARLIE* “I’LL BE HAPPY WHEN” There isn’t one human I have ever personally known who hasn’t conditioned their present state on being OK, acceptable, enough without the caveat of providing they get better (at something, or being something, or having something) in the not-too-distant future. New Year is an...

Trauma Days (Bravo)

SHUSHING THE LLAMA I’ve learned some very tough lessons in the past few weeks. Not about life*, but about my own grasp on my own ability to handle threat. (*The adage ‘sh*t happens’ has its place in neuropsychology as well as everywhere else in the universe!) It’s been a humbling experience and yet one that – if I can turn...

Trauma Days (Alpha)

SO. This is me. According to my neighbour's 4 year old son. Today. And to be fair, his depiction I find both insightful and flattering. Here I am all in a bit of a tiz, dishevelled, fringed with red, my head is almost upside down and there is a big cloud of intense rumination above me. Also, my ears (I think they are ears...