...my story continued... I was interested in psychology, criminology, fitness, and loved the idea of helping people and making a difference. Policing seemed to have a lot of things I was looking for. Nobody told me it would be so hard. Oh wait, actually they did while I was doing the job but I didn’t really see it at the time. While I would be working people would tell me I had a really hard job, it’s interesting how your perspective changes when you’re no longer doing the job. Back to moving for the 100th time, or it felt that way and I was just getting started. My first transfer was to Red Deer, Alberta, heard of it? Neither had I. Which is funny because Red Deer is the third largest city in Alberta in between Calgary and Edmonton. It had the second most violent crime rate per capita next to Prince George, BC and is the busiest RCMP Detachment in Alberta. But never heard of it. I spent 6 years policing the City of Red Deer and for the most part I enjoyed my job and time there. Again not seeing things clearly when I was in it, it was very demanding job and detachment. Long busy work hours, high stress but could also be high fun. I was addicted to the adrenaline rush of the job, not realizing my nervous system was wired to be in a constant state of stress. I liked the fast past, intense calls we would go to. Everything from break and enters, robberies, home invasions, stabbings, murders, drug trafficking, human trafficking, it was wild. My first call was a sudden death. My trainer told me where we were headed my first day, I laughed at her, I thought she was joking. She was not. I had never saw a dead body before and I ended up having to fingerprint the deceased. Welcome to policing. Are you still with me? Wondering what my point is? Policing is hard, nobody warned me, when I look back I noticed I was struggling at 2 years service but nobody seemed to be talking about it. My objective here is to create a space to identify and talk about mental health struggles and heal and grow through trauma. What I am learning is that many people have some form of trauma. They either do not know it or they do not want to acknowledge or deal with it. Which I understand, it is painful and the only way through it is through more pain. Really the only way out, is through. I know this from experience. I completed 19 weeks of Prolonged Exposure Therapy. I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m partially joking but I do think there are other options that are less intense and potentially re-traumatizing. I had a hard time getting the support I needed and ended up doing my own research and learned all I could about trauma and PTSD and how to heal it. This ignited a passion in me because I saw that there were gaps in what the doctors and psychologists were telling me and it didn’t seem to align. There had to be more answers, all roads cannot lead to medication. This is when I learned that trauma is stored in the body and somatic experiencing is a therapy that can help you regulate your nervous system. Finally healing began! Besides using the tools I learned to decrease my anxiety and increase my mental health, I finally felt like I had a future where I could thrive and no longer live in survival mode. Along this healing journey I completed my certification with the Nickerson Institute as a Certified Integrative Health Coach. My mission is to empower individuals to heal the effects of trauma, simplify their life, align with their soul using the tools and modalities I’ve learned throughout my journey.