Trudy Jacobson is a philanthropist, former Fortune 200 CEO, a dear friend of LET, and a strong supporter of the law enforcement and military community. As a retired CEO, she now focuses on highlighting women across America doing incredible things both personally and professionally - a series called Great American Women. As a supporter of the Law Enforcement community, Trudy took it a step forward to highlight American women who are making incredible achievements within the Law Enforcement profession.
Now Trudy Jacobson and Law Enforcement Today present a Great American Warrior, Stephanie Kiesow.
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Many people across America expect police officers to be perfect in every way, make the best decisions at all times, be professional, and never let the job affect their mental health.
But the fact is that cops are human, and the job is not easy. Going from one call to the next will take its toll on the officer, sometimes impacting their mental health.
Even though a large majority of police officers do their job to standard and conduct themselves ethically and professionally, their mental health still may be impacted.
And that was the case for Stephanie Kiesow.
Stephanie is a former police officer pursuing mental health solutions for cops and first responders. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. and is committed to helping others. In fact, it was years of always helping cops that led her down that path.
"I worked for three departments within the span of 16 years, and the last two that I was at were pretty toxic internally," she said. "We didn't really have any sort of official peer support channels, at least any that people felt that they could trust."
She continued, "That department, still to this day, doesn't have really any peer support or wellness initiatives at all. So, the 'unofficial' aspect comes from people coming to me. I was sort of the Mama bear of the department. People understood that I could be an ear that they could trust."
After helping countless officers, she has forged a new path in life and found her calling.
"I'm getting [a Ph.D.] in organizational psychology, and my passion and why I wanted that specific degree is… I am involved in researching, studying, and hopefully preventing workplace contributing factors to suicide within first responder industries," Stephanie said.
But it wasn't an easy journey. She experienced her own challenges with mental health.
"The workplace, organizationally and occupationally, and how those stressors and traumas relate to first responders, especially law enforcement, in a decline to mental health, was something that I saw quite a bit in my colleagues… I saw in myself," she said.
"And unfortunately I saw later on after many people close to me that I loved died by suicide."
Stephanie’s struggles were magnified as a result of the unexpected stress imposed on her, and every LEO, following the George Floyd incident. The disrespect from the public, the critics on social and mainstream medias, and the anti-police rhetoric sweeping the nation added to her challenges.
A lot of her struggles began in 2011 when her boyfriend, an officer himself, took his own life.
"He killed himself on duty. I felt really guilty back then about not being able to save him and recognize the red flags for what they were," she said.
At the time, her boyfriend was going through an internal investigation and was facing the possibility of losing his job. And according to Stephanie, that was too much to handle because being a cop was what he saw as his identity.
"He was drinking a lot," she shared. "And I think the biggest shift for him was that two days before he killed himself, he and I had been in an argument. But he reached out and basically made amends. I didn't recognize it back then, but now I know it's something called leakage, and it's something that I teach quite a bit through to other police officers. But yeah, there were a lot of signs that I missed, so I think I just felt really guilty."
Her Own Struggle
Stephanie readily admits that part of her desire to help others comes from her previous struggles with mental health, which started several years ago.
"Mid to late summer of 2020, I had my own suicidal ideations. I would get off of my shift, get home at like 7:00 AM, and I started planning my death because I just was so hopeless and didn't see any benefit for me doing what I was doing at all for anyone," Stephanie said. "But luckily, there were some supportive measures in place that I had learned about from other people. So I was able to reach out and got a lot of law enforcement-specific counseling."
What Stephanie learned about herself was that she was coping with the stress of the job by isolating herself and becoming consumed with her job.
"I was really good about putting a mask on and making people think that I was good, and I really wasn't. But I didn't want to be around anyone, and nobody really saw the real me. So I definitely isolated quite a bit," she said. "I also think a maladaptive coping skill of mine was throwing myself into work. It was like everything that I did: I slept, ate, and breathed police work. That's what I did on my off times."
After living through those experiences, Stephanie has authored a book, Workicide.
"Workicide is death by career, either in a perceptual sense or literal sense. This book uses anecdotal and scientifically backed methods, along with featuring experts in many fields, to educate on workplace contributing factors to suicide," Stephanie said.
She is committed to solving the mental health issues among the first responder community, using her own experience as the foundation.
And that is why Trudy Jacobson selected her as a Great American Warrior.
Stephanie assists first responder departments with suicide prevention and organizational wellness through The Counseling Team International and First Responder Wellness and can be contacted through those organizations as well.
Her best-selling book Workicide is available on Amazon. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn and email her at stephanie.kiesow88@gmail.com.
Now Trudy Jacobson and Law Enforcement Today present a Great American Warrior, Stephanie Kiesow.
-----------
Many people across America expect police officers to be perfect in every way, make the best decisions at all times, be professional, and never let the job affect their mental health.
But the fact is that cops are human, and the job is not easy. Going from one call to the next will take its toll on the officer, sometimes impacting their mental health.
Even though a large majority of police officers do their job to standard and conduct themselves ethically and professionally, their mental health still may be impacted.
And that was the case for Stephanie Kiesow.
Stephanie is a former police officer pursuing mental health solutions for cops and first responders. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. and is committed to helping others. In fact, it was years of always helping cops that led her down that path.
"I worked for three departments within the span of 16 years, and the last two that I was at were pretty toxic internally," she said. "We didn't really have any sort of official peer support channels, at least any that people felt that they could trust."
She continued, "That department, still to this day, doesn't have really any peer support or wellness initiatives at all. So, the 'unofficial' aspect comes from people coming to me. I was sort of the Mama bear of the department. People understood that I could be an ear that they could trust."
After helping countless officers, she has forged a new path in life and found her calling.
"I'm getting [a Ph.D.] in organizational psychology, and my passion and why I wanted that specific degree is… I am involved in researching, studying, and hopefully preventing workplace contributing factors to suicide within first responder industries," Stephanie said.
But it wasn't an easy journey. She experienced her own challenges with mental health.
"The workplace, organizationally and occupationally, and how those stressors and traumas relate to first responders, especially law enforcement, in a decline to mental health, was something that I saw quite a bit in my colleagues… I saw in myself," she said.
"And unfortunately I saw later on after many people close to me that I loved died by suicide."
Stephanie’s struggles were magnified as a result of the unexpected stress imposed on her, and every LEO, following the George Floyd incident. The disrespect from the public, the critics on social and mainstream medias, and the anti-police rhetoric sweeping the nation added to her challenges.
A lot of her struggles began in 2011 when her boyfriend, an officer himself, took his own life.
"He killed himself on duty. I felt really guilty back then about not being able to save him and recognize the red flags for what they were," she said.
At the time, her boyfriend was going through an internal investigation and was facing the possibility of losing his job. And according to Stephanie, that was too much to handle because being a cop was what he saw as his identity.
"He was drinking a lot," she shared. "And I think the biggest shift for him was that two days before he killed himself, he and I had been in an argument. But he reached out and basically made amends. I didn't recognize it back then, but now I know it's something called leakage, and it's something that I teach quite a bit through to other police officers. But yeah, there were a lot of signs that I missed, so I think I just felt really guilty."
Her Own Struggle
Stephanie readily admits that part of her desire to help others comes from her previous struggles with mental health, which started several years ago.
"Mid to late summer of 2020, I had my own suicidal ideations. I would get off of my shift, get home at like 7:00 AM, and I started planning my death because I just was so hopeless and didn't see any benefit for me doing what I was doing at all for anyone," Stephanie said. "But luckily, there were some supportive measures in place that I had learned about from other people. So I was able to reach out and got a lot of law enforcement-specific counseling."
What Stephanie learned about herself was that she was coping with the stress of the job by isolating herself and becoming consumed with her job.
"I was really good about putting a mask on and making people think that I was good, and I really wasn't. But I didn't want to be around anyone, and nobody really saw the real me. So I definitely isolated quite a bit," she said. "I also think a maladaptive coping skill of mine was throwing myself into work. It was like everything that I did: I slept, ate, and breathed police work. That's what I did on my off times."
After living through those experiences, Stephanie has authored a book, Workicide.
"Workicide is death by career, either in a perceptual sense or literal sense. This book uses anecdotal and scientifically backed methods, along with featuring experts in many fields, to educate on workplace contributing factors to suicide," Stephanie said.
She is committed to solving the mental health issues among the first responder community, using her own experience as the foundation.
And that is why Trudy Jacobson selected her as a Great American Warrior.
Stephanie assists first responder departments with suicide prevention and organizational wellness through The Counseling Team International and First Responder Wellness and can be contacted through those organizations as well.
Her best-selling book Workicide is available on Amazon. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn and email her at stephanie.kiesow88@gmail.com.
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