Psychology Services for Police and First Responder

Sarah has extensive experience providing psychological services to police and other first responders.

From 2004 - 2014 Sarah worked at Victoria Police, and from 2021-2022 at the Australian Federal Police, providing a broad range of psychological services to police members and specialist squads. Since 2014, Sarah has worked with current serving and retired police members, paramedics, and ADF members in her private practice, providing psychological treatment for PTSD and general mental health concerns.   

First responders can experience symptoms of acute stress or trauma following a critical incident or a particularly graphic, disturbing or complex job. For some first responders, these symptoms occur during or immediately after they attend the job. For others, their symptoms might not surface for months, years or even decades. For many first responders, it is the accumulation of many jobs over an extended period of time that eventually can lead to the experience of PTSD and other mental health concerns. Most first responders manage and cope extremely well for several years even decades before they start to notice signs of  their work impacting them. For many, frustrations with the organisation and workplace can also contribute to stress and mental health concerns.    

Police members and other first responders often find it hard to seek assistance for stress, trauma and other mental health-related problems. Often because of stigma associated with having a problem and asking for help, concerns about confidentiality and the effect on their career, or difficulty knowing where to go for support. Sarah has an in-depth understanding of the unique demands of the policing and emergency services roles, the characteristics of these organisations and the way that these members approach counselling.  

Sarah is a clinician with Bluehub, a specialised mental health treatment service for Victoria Police police and Vicorian-based AFP members provided through TPAV in association with Phoenix Australia.