What makes us different
Our experience - our team of trainers has years of experience training mindfulness in first responders. We were first in this space of training mindfulness to police officers, and we’ve learned right alongside those we’ve trained. We constantly seek the wisdom of the lived experience of those we train and integrate this insight into our methods. We continually adapt and stay on the nascent edge of science that supports training in health, humanity, and performance.
Our credentials- we are certified mindfulness teachers or certified coaches through academic schoolhouses. Both of these professional pathways required extensive personal mindfulness practice, education, and training. Many of us have additional professional certifications.
Our professional backgrounds - Several of us have served for decades as law enforcement officers and/or military members. We get what it's like to work in demanding, high-tempo operational landscapes - and, at times, to suffer the grind. Others on the team regularly train with collegiate and semi & professional athletes and/or in martial arts practices. Still, others have backgrounds as researchers, psychotherapists, or professional coaches.
Our research affiliation - all of us regularly work with academia on research projects in the area of mindfulness. Some of us hold affiliate faculty positions at research universities.
Our ongoing professional development - our team regularly pursues advanced training and professional development to sharpen our skills and deepen our breadth of knowledge.
We are not committed to the status quo - we seek to support the forward evolution of systems and humanity. We believe that growth emerges from discomfort. We will challenge you to be curious and explore the possibilities for growth.
What sets our curriculum apart
Stress & trauma competency - we understand that stress and trauma are part of the job and part of life. We embrace a growth mindset and believe we can contribute to a culture of hope, a strong sense of self, and accountability. We train gritty, practical knowledge and skills that enhance our ability to skillfully experience occupational stress and trauma, perform our tradecraft well, and work carefully with the consequences as we recover and pursue growth. Hence we have coined the term stress & trauma competency to reflect a practical and evidence-based approach to navigating occupational stress and trauma.
Mindfulness, gritty and operationalized - We train in the science of attention and compassion, and we avoid the fluff that often emerges around mindfulness in the marketplace. This is gritty, practical, and tactical skills training - and it’s difficult.
Culturally competent - we know how to relate to responders and other trauma professionals who’ve been challenged through the arch of their career (operationally and administratively) by a complex and often uncertain landscape. We’ve been there, and we understand how to talk about neuroscience and humanity in ways that meet you where you are, no matter where that is.
Forward Evolution - Our work is about influencing the forward evolution of public safety culture. We can’t do this without creating some tension in our training space. The way we approach this varies based on our agreements with our client organizations and the context of the work. This is particularly true with policing and certainly relevant with other public safety missions, military, healthcare, and other trauma professions. We have observed that the status quo often contains threads that are maladaptive and harmful. We do not seek to fit in. Rather, we facilitate and coach curiosity and compassion that open up awareness and possibility. Together we explore some different ways of being with respect to trauma, masculinity, humanity, compassion, and ethos of service to the greater good. Our work is about the forward evolution of humanity.
Informed by research - we’ve been at the epicenter of mindfulness research in public safety, and we regularly monitor the emerging research in mindfulness and other disciplines. Several of our trainers are involved in current mindfulness research with a variety of populations. We translate the nascent science into operational knowledge and skills that we regularly integrate into our curriculum.
