Train to resist, recover, adapt & Grow

A mindfulness -based skills training designed for law enforcement officers

+ Community Building day*

A Brown University research study (00000029)

This training opportunity is brought to you through the Crim Fitness Foundation and their commitment to a healthy and mindful Flint!

September 9 & 10 (830 am to 430 pm) @ Flint Farmer’s Market

On Zoom, Fridays, Noon to 130 pm - September 20 through October 25

*A note about the weekly Zoom sessions: no worries if you can’t join us on, we have a plan to work with schedule challenges.

Open to Law Enforcement Officers Serving in Flint & Genesee County

Sheriff’s Office, State Police, Municipal Police, Natural Resource/Park Service, Tribal Police, Parole & Probation, and others.


This is a no-cost training!

All training costs are funded through Brown University and a generous grant from the Unlikely Collaborators Foundation.

*Community Day

We are facilitating a community day in October where we bring together officers and Black community leaders (both groups have trained in mindfulness) in a non-partisan, facilitated engagement. This is a community policing effort with the added benefit of practicing some of the mindfulness skills we have learned in training. This is scheduled for October 26 at a location TBD.

Richard and Trymaine Gaither will facilitate and be supported by other talented team members.


Training Overview

This course is a multi-week intensive course focused on building knowledge and skills that support health and human performance. LEOs will train in an evidence-based model called Mindfulness-based Resilience Training. MBRT was co-created by psychologists, experts in stress reduction, and members of the law enforcement community.

  • Normalize the impact of occupational stress & trauma

  • Develop the ability to embrace and effectively manage challenging situations

  • Sharpen skills in self-awareness, self-compassion, & self-regulation

  • Gain insights into the science of emotions & build skills to work with any emotion, anytime

  • Integrate mindfulness skills into daily living to enhance health and performance

  • Improve cognitive flexibility & ability to perform well in stressful conditions

  • Understand cognitive bias and its impact on relationships & performance

  • Strengthen relationships between Black community members and law enforcement officers  

What the evidence says about mindfulness skills

Over the last decade, researchers at Pacific University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of New Mexico, Oregon Health Sciences University have been studying mindfulness training among police officers. Some of the outcomes include:

  • reduced perceptions of occupational stress,

  • reduced symptoms of PTSD,

  • reduced alcohol use,

  • reduced anger and aggression,

  • improved self-awareness,

  • improved emotion regulation,

  • improved recovery of cortisol levels after a stressor,

  • improved psychological resilience,

  • improved stress mindset

Background

My name is Richard Goerling, I’m a training partner with Crim Fitness Foundation and Brown University. I’m a retired police lieutenant, a military veteran, certified mindfulness trainer, and researcher at the Mindful Health & Resilience Lab in Oregon.

I understand how challenge and complexity of policing; this training resources officers to move through the arch of their career more skillfully, and with greater health.  I’m an advocate for police, for communities we serve, and for ensuring we provide evidence-based training to law enforcement officers so they can meet the challenges of an often volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous landscape (borrowing a relevant concept from the U.S. Army here).

The resilience training model that we are using has demonstrated positive outcomes in health and performance. I co-developed this training curriculum with psychologists and health researchers, and we’ve got a decade of solid research that demonstrates this training has a positive impact.

Among the outcomes we’ve seen in police officers: reduced perceptions of occupational stress, reduced symptoms of PTSD, reduced alcohol use, reduced anger and aggression, improved self-awareness, improved emotion regulation, improved recovery of cortisol levels after a stressor, and more.

We are hopeful you might help us get the word out with Flint and Genesee County police professionals and community leaders.

Additional information as well as a path for officers to register is available in the flyer.

Please reach out to me with any questions. My mobile is (503) 502-0661, my email is richard@mindfulbadge.com

Study Procedures & Training Team - Brown University

Participation in the study is voluntary and offered at no cost. Officers will be asked to contact us to complete a phone pre-screening where they will be informed of the nature and requirements of the study. All data will be protected in strict confidentiality, and will not be linked to the participant’s name or any other personally identifying information.  

Richard Goerling, founder of Mindful Badge, is a Co-Investigator and Lead Interventionist of this study. If you’d like additional information before registering, please email at richard@mindfulbadge.com.

Also joining the training team is Trymaine Gaither, a mindfulness teacher and researcher from Washington State University.