Who Erin works with
Therapy for 911 dispatchers, who hear it all and see none of it.
Dispatchers are the first voice in an emergency, and at Be Well Behavioral Healing they count as first responders, alongside police, fire, EMS and ER staff. You answer, keep the caller talking, send help and pick up the next line, often without learning how it ended. Erin L. Smith, MSPC, LPCC, LPC, offers therapy for 911 dispatchers by telehealth across Kentucky, Arizona and Minnesota, and in person in Georgetown, KY.
01911 dispatchers
Hearing it without seeing it
Dispatch is first-responder work done by ear. You hear the panic, the screaming, the shots or the sudden silence, and you stay calm and keep giving instructions while it unfolds. You may walk a caller through CPR or stay on the line with someone hiding. Because you never see the scene, your mind often builds one, and the picture it makes can be worse than anything a camera would show. Those imagined scenes can return later, uninvited, much the way memories of things seen in person do.
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The call ends before the story does
When units arrive, your part of the call is over and the next one is already ringing. You rarely hear how it turned out: whether the patient started breathing, whether the officer was okay, whether the person you stayed with for twenty minutes made it. Not knowing leaves a loop open, and the mind tends to keep working on open loops. You might replay a call on the drive home or search the news for an address. That is an understandable response to an unfinished story, not a sign of weakness.
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Adrenaline with nowhere to go
On a serious call, your body gears up for action, but you stay in the chair. Heart rate climbs, muscles tighten and breathing gets shallow, with no run to the truck to burn it off. Repeat that across a long shift, often with overtime, and you may leave work wired and drained at once. Some people notice headaches, a tight jaw, poor sleep or a startle when a phone rings at home. Practical skills can help here, such as DBT skills for riding out a spike and mindfulness-based practice for coming back to the present after a call.
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Counted as a first responder here
Dispatchers are sometimes treated as support staff rather than part of the response, even though the response starts with you. That can make it harder to ask for help, as if what you hear does not count because you were not on scene. At this practice, it counts. You can describe calls in the shorthand you use at the console, without toning anything down. Anxiety, burnout and trauma responses are all fair reasons to reach out, and stress management is one of Erin's core areas.
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First steps in therapy for 911 dispatchers
Early sessions are about getting to know you, your history and what already steadies you, before anything deeper. From there, you and Erin set goals in concrete terms. The first goal might be practical, such as sleeping after a night shift or getting through a day off without replaying calls. CBT can help with the thoughts a call leaves behind, like the belief that you should have done more from the console. Erin will explain each step she suggests, and she will want to know plainly whether it is helping.
Signs this is the right page
- Hearing a caller's voice after you log off
- Startling at ringtones on your day off
- Picturing scenes you never actually saw
- Keyed up long after you clock out
None of this is a diagnosis, and no outcome is guaranteed. It is a starting point for a conversation.
Questions
Common questions
- What if I do not want anyone at work to know?
- Telehealth lets you meet from home, so there is no waiting room in your own town to sit in. Therapy records are protected health information. Erin also does not report to your department. If confidentiality raises questions specific to your role, ask them on the free 15-minute consultation.
- Can ART help with calls I heard but never saw?
- That is a question to talk through with Erin rather than assume either way. ART works with images the brain has stored, and a call you only heard may have left imagined ones. Whether it fits your situation, alongside other approaches, is something you decide together once she understands what you are dealing with.
- What if it feels more like stress than trauma?
- You do not need to sort that out before reaching out. Stress, anxiety and trauma responses overlap, and the early sessions are where you and Erin look at what is going on and decide what to work on first. Skills for the daily load can start early, while deeper work waits until you are ready.
In Erin's words
What she would say if you called today.
I meet people where they are, so you do not have to decide whether a call was bad enough to count. We start with the relationship and what steadies you, and we set goals together. I will be clear about what we are doing and why, and if it is not helping, say so.
Free 15-minute consultation
Book a consultation with Erin
Fifteen minutes by telehealth, at no charge. You can describe what is going on, ask how Erin works, and decide afterward whether to book a first session. Scheduling opens in her secure SimplePractice portal.
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