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Fast-forward from taking advantage of the department’s program to pay for two post-grad classes to Steiner getting her doctorate at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology (now Adler University). Fast-forward further, to 2010, when some opportunities with the department didn’t pan out, and she was involved in a shooting.
“I had a 6-month-old at the time, and I didn’t realize un- til that point, it was not just about me. It was about my son not having a mom,” she relates. “When I had the choice, how could I look him in the eye? I had the choice of being a police officer and being shot at or be a psychologist.”
It was an easy choice because even when Steiner was still on the job and had her doctorate, other officers would ask if she could help them. She remembers one colleague saying that he was suicidal and didn’t know who to see.
“I realized I could be helping our own,” she adds. “I real- ized that we needed a place where we can send officers that understands the police culture. These are my brothers and sisters, and hopefully we can help them get better so we don’t lose another one.”
The First Responders Wellness Center – which has offices in Lombard and Mount Prospect – is now booked solid help- ing the police. One of Steiner’s colleagues is Chicago Police Officer Robert Casale, who works at the academy and is a licensed professional counselor. The staff also includes Dr. Caryn Andrews, a clinical/police psychologist, Lori Seeler, a licensed clinical psychologist, and Dawn Sage-Chychula, an EMT-Paramedic with a master’s in counseling psychology.
Officers who come to the First Responders Wellness Cen- ter know they are going to a haven where nobody else has to know they are being treated. From Steiner, they can get the police culture perspective that can initially take a tactical look at an incident and help officers involved in shootings confirm that their actions were tactically correct.
They learn how to apply tactical breathing used on the shooting range to get through the pain that comes from re- peated exposure to trauma. They learn coping skills to not just deal with the trauma but get past it. The center advocates techniques like asking patients to put Dr. Scholl’s insoles in their shoes as a way to feel grounded when the post-traumat- ic stress might bubble up.
“We try to give them a plan of action so they will feel under- stood,” Steiner explains. “I hope they feel comfortable talking to another officer. The rewarding part is having an officer tell me that he wants to help another officer because he knows that this treatment works.”
Casale notes that the treatment works because of the pas- sion Steiner exudes. “She’s like a bulldog,” he describes. “She does not give up and she doesn’t let you off the hook.”
He adds how officers will drive up to three hours to get a breath of this passion. He believes the center is built on the genuine understanding of officers and that they don’t have to explain their actions or worry about what they say.
“They can call us after a nightmare and they can call us ev- ery name in the book. We’ve been there,” Casale asserts. “This is the most rewarding thing I have ever done because of hav- ing somebody come in who has been in a traumatic incident, and then seeing them ready to go out and speak to the world
an important public safety announcement.
“Everybody sees the amount of trauma at risk, but officers
are masking their emotions because they are trained to do so,” she implores. “Prevention is really the key. And the best way to change the culture is for officers to get the mental health help they need.”
Spoken like somebody who has been there.
h about how great they feel. We know what they feel like walking in, and we see they are walking out in better shape.”
n The First Responders Wellness Center has become a venue n where police officers learn what it takes to not only get over e their trauma but prevent the trauma from leading them to ad- e dictive behaviors. Or worse. As she concluded her sound bites
for Channel 7, Dr. Steiner looked into the camera and offered
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