The Value of Understanding the 'Closed Culture' in Treating those within the Law Enforcement Community

My academy training was my first real life exposure to police work. Nothing in the academy prepared me for the countless traumatic incidents I would be exposed to in the following fourteen years in police work. There are few psychologists with law enforcement backgrounds who practice psychology and cater to law enforcement officers who are suffering from stress and trauma. Those outside law enforcement haven't experienced traumatic events, which foster a close-knit brother-hood that is found in those personnel within law enforcement. Therefore, any attempt to assume empathy is met with the "closed culture." My goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate the importance of this described relationship while utilizing a specific treatment model to express the benefit of treating those within the law enforcement community.