Page 30 - index

30 TOP cover aUtUmn 2012

COunSelling & PArAdigmAtiC COAChing SuPPOrt

Supporting

our MeMberS

coUnselling anD paraDigmatic coaching are tWo key sUpport services

proviDeD By the pFoa. ben lACey anD ShArOn dOdd explain What it all
means anD hoW We proviDe this sUpport to oUr memBers

ben lACey, PFOA trAining & WhO Are COntACt OFFiCerS?
develOPment mAnAger Contact Officers are either serving or retired Firearms Officers.
Their role can be divided into three parts.
hOW it WOrkS
All Police Services provide levels of peer sUpport
support for their officers and all such Having someone who has an understanding of the role of
support is given with the best intentions. Firearms Officers goes a long way in building good rapport.
In most cases the nature and level of The benefits of being able to talk with someone who ‘speaks the
support gives adequate assistance to language’ and shares the values is something that the British
the officer. There are occasions however where, for a number Army have recognised as being a major contribution in assisting
of reasons, the support offered to the officer is not adequate returning soldiers in dealing with the trauma they have faced.
or appropriate. There are many more occasions where, as Developing this rapport can also assist the Contact Officer to
regards the officer’s family, little or no support is forthcoming. help the member overcome any reservations they may have about
It is in situations such as this that the Police Firearms Officers accessing services such as ‘counselling’.
Association becomes involved.
pFoa aDvice
nOt A rePlACement Contact Officers understand all aspects of the PFOA organisation
It is not the intention of the PFOA to seek to replace or compete and the services and support it can offer as well as the procedures
against the excellent and well qualified departments and agencies that need to be followed to access them. In this role the Contact
employed by the Police Service for their officers. Instead it aims Officer ensures that the member gains full benefit from the
to provide much needed access to support for those officers and organisation.
their families who, for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling
to obtain formal assistance. It is PFOA policy to direct any such paraDigmatic coaching
officer towards their own occupational or wellbeing departments All Contact Officers are qualified Paradigmatic Coaches.
in the first instance and to offer our services only when it is Paradigmatic Coaching is a method of coaching that focuses on
apparent that such an option is not available or appropriate. how the individual is ‘thinking’ about the issue at hand. Although
influenced by external experiences an individual is ultimately
hOW the PFOA SuPPOrt mOdel WOrkS responsible for how they think. Thought creates emotion. In
All initial requests for support or assistance must be directed to Paradigmatic Coaching emotion is regarded as the ‘physicalisation’
the PFOA office. Here membership is checked, details are passed of thought and the physical experience of that emotion is directly
to the Association’s Support Coordinator and contact is made affected by the way the individual thinks.
with the officer within 48 hours. As a result of this interaction I often ask Firearms Officers at what distance most officers ‘fail’
either a Contact Officer will be assigned or, subject to agreed their classification handgun shoots at. The common answer is 20
protocols, the officer will be directed to one of the PFOA’s metres. The actual answer is 7.5 miles. That is the distance from
approved counsellors, EMDR specialists or CBT practitioners for the range where the officer begins to think of all the things that
a pre-agreed number of sessions. are going to go wrong with the shoot. The officer thinks and the
body experiences emotion and this emotion causes the officer to