Counselling for those who spend their days supporting others.
Online counselling for first responders and public safety personnel across British Columbia and Ontario, including police, firefighters, paramedics, emergency dispatchers, and correctional professionals.
Erica brings an evidence-based and trauma-informed approach to this work, supported by additional education through Warrior Health focused on the experiences, culture, and mental-health needs of public safety personnel.
Areas We Support
A space where the realities of the job are understood.
First responder work can carry pressures that are difficult to leave at the end of a shift: cumulative exposure, critical incidents, operational stress, disrupted sleep, moral injury, and the impact the work can have on relationships and family life.
Erica brings additional education in first responder and public safety mental health to the therapeutic relationship, while remaining curious about your individual experience. Sessions are confidential, collaborative, trauma-informed, and paced around your needs.
Care that understands your journey.
Trauma-informed care
Additional education in public safety mental health
Confidential, secure virtual sessions
Consideration for shift-work demands
Care informed by first responder culture
Support for relationship and family impacts
Why work with Erica?
First responder and public safety work can carry experiences and pressures that aren’t always easy to leave at the end of a shift. Erica brings a trauma-informed, nervous-system-aware approach to this work, supported by additional education through Warrior Health focused on the experiences, culture, and mental health needs of public safety personnel.
Her earlier career in healthcare as a sports chiropractor and kinesiologist also informs a whole-person perspective on the relationship between stress, the nervous system, physical wellbeing, and emotional health.
Erica approaches first responder counselling with both cultural awareness and curiosity. While additional training provides important context for understanding the realities of public safety work, she doesn’t assume that a profession or uniform tells her what your individual experience has been.
Sessions are collaborative, confidential within applicable legal and ethical limits, and shaped around your experiences, needs, and goals.
You won’t be starting from zero, but your experience will never be assumed.
How It Works
A brief, no-pressure conversation to ask questions and explore whether working together may be a good fit.
2. Begin with your experience
Early sessions focus on understanding what brings you to therapy, what you’ve been carrying, and what you would like support with.
3. Continue at a pace that works for you
Ongoing virtual sessions are collaborative and shaped around your individual needs and goals.
First Responder Therapy FAQs
Will I have to explain first responder culture?
Are sessions confidential?
Yes. Your privacy and confidentiality are an important part of the therapeutic relationship. What you share in counselling is kept confidential, subject to the legal and ethical limits of confidentiality that apply to all clients.
Before therapy begins, Erica will explain those limits clearly so you understand when information may need to be disclosed and can make an informed decision about your care.
Can my partner or family join a session?
Yes, but with appropriate therapeutic boundaries. When Erica is providing your individual counselling, she does not also provide separate couples, family, or individual therapy to your partner or family members.
If someone close to you would benefit from their own support, Erica can help identify appropriate resources and provide referrals to other therapists. This allows each person to have their own confidential therapeutic relationship while avoiding potential conflicts or dual roles.
Do I need to have PTSD or be in crisis to come to therapy?
No. First responders seek counselling for many reasons, including cumulative stress, burnout, sleep disruption, relationship strain, difficult calls, moral injury, grief, life transitions, or simply wanting a confidential place to process the impact of the work.
You do not need a diagnosis or a crisis to explore whether counselling may be helpful for you.
Is counselling covered by insurance?
Rising Minds is not an emergency or crisis-response service. If you are in immediate danger or require urgent mental-health support, please call 911, go to your nearest emergency department, or call or text 9-8-8 in Canada.