In the First Responder world, many don’t understand the daily stressors that come with being in the unknown, in uniform, and how these stressors can affect your family. As we have been part of the first responder family for over 23 years, we get it. “Lived experience is evidence”. We understand the lingo, the logistics, the bureaucratic broken system; how mental health continues to be stigmatized within services and the dynamics from taking time off the road to WSIB. We are here to provide a safe space without the need to explain what you do. We are here for you.
Besides the therapeutic setting, we also provide First responders and their families with a unique support system.
Empowering First Responder Families Peer Support Group is a group that supports the families of first responders in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. We believe that first responder family members play an essential role within the first responder world. Without knowledge of understanding how to be there for their own loved ones, we believe that our mission is to provide resources, tools, and psychoeducation to family members of first responders living with mental and moral injury. This peer support group navigates through an informal gathering and is facilitated by mental health professionals. Within this space we provide an openness of challenging conversations, empowering family members with compassionate understanding and utilizing encouragement within a safe and nonjudgemental space.
Empowering Lens© is a proactive mental health program that entails a half day workshop for those starting their career as a First responder and their partners or family members. This program is designed to reduce stigma, provide psychoeducation of the injury; to reduce the risk of endured trauma and to increase awareness of what could happen and how we can protect ourselves and one another. This licensed workshop provides a space of resiliency, and empowerment. Empowering Lens© acknowledges all of this and aligns the understanding of life as a first responder and as a loved one. Empowering them through different lenses and forming an actionable plan & vision, that, even at our breaking point, we can say, “we’ve got this!”.
To know more about this space, you can contact us or visit our sister website: https://www.empoweringfirstresponderfamilies.com/
If you or a loved one is suffering depression, it is critical to seek help. Parul Shah is an experienced registered social worker, a psychotherapist and private counsellor through her practice Embracing Empowerment Counselling Services. She is empathetic to the pain and challenges caused by depression, and knowledgeable in the complexity of this common mental disorder.
She guides clients to embrace their challenges and difficulties, so they are empowered to grow. Her therapeutic approaches are tailored to her clients’ needs and she is qualified in:
We offer 50-minute in-person or virtual clinical mental health consultations
