A Research-Backed Tool for First Responder Resilience Is Already Here in Albuquerque
What if there were a trainable skill shown to significantly reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms, increase resilience, and potentially help prevent PTSD in active-duty first responders?
There is. And the woman who developed the training lives right here in Albuquerque.
But the training probably isn’t what you think.
In 2013, Olivia Mead stood in front of command staff at the Los Angeles Police Department. A training program she had been developing with firefighters was beginning to get the attention of law enforcement.
“The statistics around stress-based health issues in first responders were heartbreaking,” Mead says. “These men and women are stepping up to do a job most people wouldn’t do. We should be doing everything we can to keep them resilient and performing at the top of their game. And I had a hunch I knew how to help.”
The training protocol?
Yoga.
No, not stretching, flexibility, “zen,” or yoga pants.
Mead created Yoga For First Responders® (YFFR), a job-specific, culturally informed training protocol built specifically for public safety. It strips away much of what Americans have come to associate with yoga and returns to something far more practical: training the mind, body, and nervous system to perform under stress and recover from it.
To make sure the curriculum translated to law enforcement culture, Mead even went through a police academy alongside the cadets while teaching them the protocol.
Her hunch proved worth investigating.
Since 2013, YFFR has trained more than 200 licensed instructors across seven countries, conducted more than 40 instructor schools, and collectively reached more than 200,000 first responders and military personnel. Most importantly, the protocol has now been examined in two peer-reviewed research studies with active-duty public safety personnel.
And this isn’t only for recruits or the “younger generation.”
The accumulated stress of a career doesn’t disappear when the uniform comes off. The ability to regulate your nervous system, process stress, and maintain resilience may become even more important as officers transition into retirement.
Mead and her team want these tools available to New Mexico public safety personnel from recruitment through retirement, and she has offered to come to the Albuquerque FOP lodge to introduce the training to our membership.
No yoga pants required.
Want to know what this actually looks like? Watch the short video below to hear Olivia explain the work in her own words and see why departments across the country are taking a second look at yoga.
The YFFR internal team operates Monday-Thursday across various time zones. Thank you for your patience in receiving a reply during normal operational hours.
