When thinking about Motivational Interviewing with First Responders, emphasizing the need for accurate empathy is the most potent and relevant place to start. Arriving on the scene with the ability to precisely express accurate empathy can significantly reduce call time. You can watch it in body cam footage IFIOC possesses with Spokane Police Department. In the span of 8 minutes an officer utilizes accurate empathy to secure a scene verbally. The gentleman disarms himself voluntarily, engages in a conversation, and shares what he wants help with. He climbs down the stairwell without officer assistance and sits peacefully in a car. What was initially a call for suicide by cop resolves with all the aforementioned… in 8 minutes. This outcome was not accidental. It was the result of highly skilled and highly precise accurate empathy and Motivational Interviewing.
In chaotic scenes, the instinct is often to gather more data in order to problem solve. This issue here is that problem-solving requires executive functioning, which is often compromised during acute threat situations. In a moment someone’s body is in a threat response, using interventions that involve executive functioning is not the most effective approach. Empathy is not passivity. It does not replace the need for first responder safety. But empathy is strategic and precise. It’s hearing and understanding where an individual is at and what their struggles are in a productive and efficient manner to move them towards where they want to go from here. An individual’s threat response can decrease when they experience highly accurate empathy, allowing clearer thinking and direction.
When taught and used with fidelity, Motivational Interviewing is a skill set equal to tactical training. It is a modernization of crisis response strategy that meets all the new information and data we have around how the human brain works. Empathy is not inefficient. It’s not a softness that needs to be avoided. It’s a skill that should be cultivated to the level of precision that a surgeon holding a scalpel has. In the most complex and dangerous situations, efficiency does not come from control alone. It comes from precision. And precision begins with accurate empathy.
–Aly Gibson, Director of Operations
Interested in learning more about IFIOC’s work with first responders? Contact us today.