Practicing Mindfulness in the Fire Service
This course is designed to introduce participants to the use of mindfulness with first responders. The presentation will start by providing brief background on common behavioral health problems within the fire service in order to demonstrate the need for resiliency practices, such as mindfulness. Participants will learn about the definition of mindfulness and how it differs from the pop-psychology definition. The course will cover the research on mindfulness as it relates to behavioral health among the general population and the military before discussing applicable evidence related to first responders. In addition, the presenter will discuss how research on mindfulness in sports psychology could relate to operational performance for fire service members. Finally, participants will be invited to try a brief mindfulness training exercise.