PODCAST: The VITAL component YOU NEED to be the BEST law enforcement officer you can be with Denise Schonwald | TIR 061
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The VITAL component YOU NEED to be the BEST law enforcement officer you can be with Denise Schonwald | TIR 061
Denise Schonwald
https://deniseschonwald.com
Meet this Weeks Guest: Denise Schonwald
Denise is a practicing licensed spiritually based mental health counselor and mental intuitive and has been a registered nurse for over 30 years. She works with children ages 4 and older, couples, families and adults. She is in private practice and have early morning and evening appointments available. She has treated many disorders including anxiety, depression, panic, grief, behavioral issues, trauma, marital and family issues. Denise offers a comfortable quiet environment and has the flexibility of changing her schedule to accommodate urgent needs of patients. If you are looking for counseling services in Sarasota or Manatee County, Florida, in-person options may be available.
Denise has experience working with First Responders and is currently offering video conference therapy sessions via Zoom to all patients in the United States and internationally.
FLYERS for Agencies
Get more information and Donate today: https://deniseschonwald.com/poster-fundraising/
Show Notes from This Episode
We know first-hand the struggle of trying not to take the job home with us and let it affect our families. We know the toll the law enforcement career can have on marriages and relationships. And we also have been frustrated by the lack of authentic leadership in our agencies. This Law Enforcement Podcast was designed to help you overcome the mental toll of the law enforcement career and the negative effects it can have on your personal life.
Hosted by active-duty law enforcement, we bring you two weekly podcasts. On Thursday, in The Interview Room we sit down with amazing guests who provide actionable advice on leadership, mental health, and relationships from their lived experiences. On Monday, in Morning Roll Call, you and I enjoy a cup of coffee and discuss current events, offer encouragement, and discuss practical steps for achieving the life we were meant to live.
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CONNECT with Denise:
• WEBSITE: https://deniseschonwald.com/
• FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/deniseschonwaldllc/
RESOURCES mentioned:
• BOOK: Healing your Body by Mastering your Mind by Denise Schonwald
AFTER the episode:
• LEAVE US AN iTUNES rating and review! [This is a HUGE help]
• VISIT OUR Website: https://www.ontheblueline.com/
• EMAIL me your feedback: Feedback@OnTheBlueLine.com
• Get the eBook, “How the law enforcement makes you cynical and what you can do about it” by Wayne Mulder.
On The Blue Line was founded and is operated by active-duty law enforcement to fulfill the mission of helping law enforcement overcome the mental health toll of the profession to become better leaders & protectors on & off the job.
We strive to create a world where law enforcement life expectancies are equal with the general population.
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TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE. Please note this is a new service we are offering and there will be spelling, grammar and accuracy issues. This transcription is offered as a convenience to our listeners, but at this time it is not guaranteed to be accurate.
00:00:09:16 - 00:00:26:00
Wayne Mulder
Welcome, my friend, to the On the Blue Line podcast for law enforcement. I am your host Wayne Mulder, and this is the podcast that helps law enforcement overcome the mental health toll of the profession to become better leaders and protectors on and off the job. This week in the interview room, I sit down with guests Danny Schonwald.
00:00:26:01 - 00:00:45:01
Wayne Mulder
We talk about one of my favorite words, which is the word hope she provides and describes to us what is the key to being a good officer brother, sister, husband, wife, father, mother, whatever it is, whatever role it is that matters to you and what those roles are that you're called to. And she leaves us with the actionable concepts of self therapy.
00:00:45:06 - 00:00:55:05
Wayne Mulder
Mindfulness and even describes how addiction often manifests itself. This is a vitally important episode and you won't want to miss a minute. The On the Blue Line podcast starts now.
00:00:55:22 - 00:01:10:23
Intro
Because you know it's only going to get scary seasons know when to change that it to transform the whole you know things have to stay this way.
00:01:11:21 - 00:01:26:24
Wayne Mulder
So welcome if you're just joining us this is the interview room. It's different than the other show that I do, which is Morning Roll Call. The interview room comes out on Thursdays. Morning Roll Call will be back on Mondays, but it may be a few weeks yet. I'm just happy to be getting you a new episode each and every week.
00:01:27:04 - 00:01:49:00
Wayne Mulder
And I do apologize. Anyone that knows me knows that this is what is most important to me. However, there are other things such as primary employment and so forth that from time to time take up a lot of time and you have to prioritize. And just like I would be not, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't do the same in my own life.
00:01:49:00 - 00:02:05:03
Wayne Mulder
But the good news is, is as you saw, hopefully you caught last week's interview room, a new one this week, and there's already another one in the pipeline for next week. So we have some great interviews with some great guest and some great conversations that I think are going to make a difference for you here in the next few weeks.
00:02:05:08 - 00:02:28:15
Wayne Mulder
We're in mid-May here. In a couple of weeks, I should be. I'll bring you some good news about studio change that we've been working on. So more to come on that once I have a little bit more to talk about. One thing with some of these changes that are going on is always looking and I always want to throw it out to our listeners first, but we're always looking to partner with some like minded brands.
00:02:28:15 - 00:02:52:14
Wayne Mulder
There's a couple that we've been talking about and had some negotiations, but not only is it a niche market that we're talking to and that on the Blue Line is all about, but it's a niche market when it comes to law enforcement. But then also there's kind of some subsections within that. So if you know anyone that is looking to work with a brand such as on the blue line in, there's actually going to be a few different opportunities with some of the things I'm working on.
00:02:52:14 - 00:03:16:14
Wayne Mulder
So definitely have them reach out. You can always reach out to either admin, add on the blue line dot com or they can go to our feedback and on the blue line dot com. And the easy part is just go to on the bloomberg.com. Last but not least in introduction to this week's guest as some of you know one of the reasons why getting content out for on the blue line has been a little spotty.
00:03:16:14 - 00:03:32:11
Wayne Mulder
The first part of this year is I decided to do something called command school. Now, for some of you who aren't in law enforcement, that may mean nothing to you, but most agencies partner with some type of college and a lot of them have some sort of command school and they can all be a little different depending on where they're at.
00:03:33:06 - 00:03:55:04
Wayne Mulder
And usually you can go through it, or at least with this one, you can go through it in three different types, right? So it's over a six month period and you can go one week every eight weeks physically to the class or via the Internet these days, and you can do it for cert. So all you do is that weekly class once every eight weeks, and then that's all you do.
00:03:55:04 - 00:04:13:14
Wayne Mulder
And you get a certificate at the end that you've successfully completed it. The second option is you can do it for undergraduate credit. So you can if you don't have your bachelor's degree, you can take the six month course that one week every eight weeks, do a couple of small papers that you would do for your undergraduate, submit all that and you get undergraduate credit for it.
00:04:13:23 - 00:04:31:08
Wayne Mulder
And then the third option is graduate credit. So if you're working on or desiring to work towards getting a master's degree, then you still do the same class every six weeks. You still do the same papers that the undergraduate is doing. But because we like to call it graduate, we throw a few more papers in there just for good measure.
00:04:31:17 - 00:04:58:02
Wayne Mulder
And that's what I've been doing. So that's been eating up a lot of time. And again, this is my focus. But having that degree benefits both the brand long term and some of the things I'm trying to do in the educational space. So that's why I'm doing that and why it's eating up so much time. But as one of the one of the things that we had to do for the class was to do some interviews, some high level interviews, people in the command level within agencies.
00:04:58:11 - 00:05:20:24
Wayne Mulder
And I got to meet someone I'd never met before. I'm not going to mention any names. These aren't interviews that go out anywhere. These were just private interviews for scholastic reasons. But I got to sit down and meet somebody who is doing great things at their agency. And it was really a neat process of sitting down and hearing them describe leadership and what they've seen and done throughout their careers.
00:05:21:05 - 00:05:39:24
Wayne Mulder
But in that conversation, I was talking about the podcast, of course, and talking about some of the things that I was trying to do in this person said, Hey, you have to meet Denise Stonewall. And I was like, Well, who's the initial mom? So he started talking and said, Hey, she is doing some really amazing things. I've had her talk at the agency.
00:05:40:05 - 00:05:57:18
Wayne Mulder
You're just going to want to have her on your podcast. And a few weeks later we made that happen, and now about a month later, I'm able to bring it to you. So this is a recent episode, recently recorded Good actionable stuff here. If you listen all the way to the end and be sure to check out her website as well.
00:05:57:18 - 00:06:14:07
Wayne Mulder
There's show notes if you go to on the blue line dot com, follow the show notes link you can get all the information on what she's doing. She actually has these really neat posters that you can get involved if you're outside the law enforcement agency or even within. But if you're outside you're like, Hey, what is something I can do to help?
00:06:14:19 - 00:06:52:22
Wayne Mulder
She has these posters that spell out mental health on them, and these posters can be put up at agencies. It's all done through donations. So you would donate. Let's say you live in some state, Wyoming, Montana, whatever, Texas. So wherever you're at, within reason, if there's a lot of people in one geographical location, they spread out. But then they put these posters up at agencies and they have QR codes and the ability for officers to see this poster every day that has this breakdown of an acronym that spells out mental health and just it serves as a good reminder, but then also allows them to immediately connect if they do feel they need to reach
00:06:52:22 - 00:07:16:16
Wayne Mulder
out and speak to someone, they can reach out to the niece's organization. So we talk about her book, what you're seeing right here, if you're watching this on video, Healing your body by Mastering Your mind. Denise is a practicing, licensed, spiritually based mental health counselor and has been a registered nurse for 30 years. She treats and has been involved in treating many disorders, including anxiety, depression, panic, grief, behavioral issues, trauma, marital and family.
00:07:16:20 - 00:07:37:05
Wayne Mulder
Family issues. And as you can tell, those are all things that specifically also relate to the law enforcement environment. So she's been working in the law enforcement environment. Like I said, she's been brought in to speak and to work with people in a professional location not far from where I'm at. And I've only heard good things about what she's doing.
00:07:37:05 - 00:07:54:03
Wayne Mulder
And then now she's currently opening it up and offering video conference and therapy sessions via Zoom so she can take on patients across the United States and really internationally. So without taking any more time, let's get to this week's guest. You're going to love this one. Denise Schonwald. Well, Denise, welcome to the show.
00:07:54:17 - 00:07:56:06
Denise Schonwald
Thank you. Nice to be here.
00:07:56:17 - 00:08:07:03
Wayne Mulder
Absolutely. I'm so glad that a mutual acquaintance, I guess, was able to put us together and has given us the opportunity to meet and to talk today. So I'm glad that it came together.
00:08:07:17 - 00:08:08:05
Denise Schonwald
Me, too.
00:08:09:01 - 00:08:18:23
Wayne Mulder
So let me start with asking you a few questions and ask everyone that comes on the show. Some may be applicable, and while some may not be, but let me start with coffee or tea.
00:08:21:00 - 00:08:21:12
Denise Schonwald
Coffee.
00:08:21:22 - 00:08:25:07
Wayne Mulder
Okay. A little hesitation. So a little bit of both.
00:08:25:07 - 00:08:27:00
Denise Schonwald
Probably a little bit of both.
00:08:27:16 - 00:08:34:22
Wayne Mulder
There's there's nothing wrong with that. Any favorite type of coffee as far as you like it black or does it need to be like a cappuccino frappuccino.
00:08:35:04 - 00:08:39:17
Denise Schonwald
Or a cappuccino and only one cup? Too much caffeine. Not good for the nerves.
00:08:40:15 - 00:08:46:05
Wayne Mulder
Okay, very good. So where is your favorite place to have that drink.
00:08:48:00 - 00:08:59:03
Denise Schonwald
In the morning? I like to get up and go out on the lanai. And I have a bird feeder and the birds like to come in in the morning and get their breakfast. And I love to sit out there with my coffee and watch them. Very peaceful.
00:08:59:11 - 00:09:14:06
Wayne Mulder
Yes, that's actually what I probably miss the most about the north is in the wintertime, when you see more of the birds trying to get what's the easily, easily accessible food from the bird feeder. You certainly miss that.
00:09:15:06 - 00:09:26:10
Denise Schonwald
Yet my first hour of my morning, I start with meditating and then I go outside and no technology, no cell phones. It's my quiet time in the morning and I really look forward to that.
00:09:27:19 - 00:09:39:04
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, that's and we'll talk more as we go through this. Just how important that is is to kind of have that moment to just breathe in and enjoy life. Do you have a best or worst travel story?
00:09:41:07 - 00:10:02:22
Denise Schonwald
Oh, my goodness. We were coming back from Israel and we were getting ready to get on the plane and they canceled the flight. It turned out that it was right in the middle of one of their holiest holidays. And so we couldn't get out for several days. And by this time, we had been there two weeks. So we were wearing a lot of clothes that we had worn many times.
00:10:03:00 - 00:10:03:13
Wayne Mulder
Right.
00:10:04:00 - 00:10:21:09
Denise Schonwald
And we got stuck there. We went the next day and we sat in the airport probably 12, 13 hours before we got out. Oh, no, that was probably the challenging day. But we also got to know everybody on the plane and talked about what everybody had done while they were in Israel. So we had got to meet a lot of new friends.
00:10:21:24 - 00:10:26:10
Denise Schonwald
So there's always a sunny side of a of a tough either vacation or a tough day.
00:10:27:02 - 00:10:45:24
Wayne Mulder
Absolutely. And I would say with maybe a few exceptions, every time I ask that question, if if I get a worst or if I get a disconcerting travel, a travel example, they always end in kind of the same way that something good came out of it in the end, or miraculously, it all just kind of worked out, which is always awesome.
00:10:46:09 - 00:10:48:18
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And it all becomes part of the adventure.
00:10:49:02 - 00:11:05:22
Wayne Mulder
Yes, it does. And I can attest to that. I've had I've had some trips as well that were supposed to be a couple of flights that turned into a day and a half trip. So I fully understand them. So. Obviously, we have your book that we're going to talk about, but do you have a favorite or most meaningful nonfiction book other than your own?
00:11:05:22 - 00:11:06:06
Wayne Mulder
Of course.
00:11:07:08 - 00:11:10:17
Denise Schonwald
I love the book, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer.
00:11:11:01 - 00:11:11:10
Wayne Mulder
Okay.
00:11:11:21 - 00:11:32:23
Denise Schonwald
It's something when I early in my career, when I started to explore spirituality, not just religion, but spirituality, I was recommended the book, and I probably read it 30 times, and it's something that I really enjoy, really connect to. And it really sort of helps me understand how important it is to have a higher power.
00:11:33:18 - 00:11:55:22
Wayne Mulder
Okay. Yeah, I will definitely link that up. And that was one of the questions that I want to get to a little later is kind of how important spirituality is and stuff in our journey and in our lives. So we'll certainly get into that. My final question of these type questions, which may be similar to the favorite place to have a drink question but what is that place that brings you the most peace, kind of that spot where you get to stop and breathe and enjoy life?
00:11:57:24 - 00:12:23:13
Denise Schonwald
Probably a lot of times I really enjoy being out in nature. I feel that's probably the time I feel closest to God or the higher power. And any time I can be out in nature, even if I'm walking to the mailbox, I really try to be grateful for so many things that I have. I look into the sky realizing that I'll never see the clouds in the same formation again, and that makes me feel very much at peace.
00:12:24:06 - 00:12:44:05
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I definitely that resonates with me. In fact, whether it's the beaches of Florida or the moons of Wyoming or a million places in between, or, like you said, as simple as just a walk to the mailbox on a cloudy day or a sunny day for that matter, it it really resonates with us that, you know, we're part of something bigger, which I think has a lot to do with what we're talking about.
00:12:44:19 - 00:13:02:18
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And I feel like when we get out in nature, the mind doesn't fight nature like we usually do, or if it's windy, the mind doesn't stress about that. The mind just sort of accepts that it's a windy day or a cloudy day. And when the mind sort of takes a back seat, that's when we can really sort of feel a peace.
00:13:03:12 - 00:13:11:07
Wayne Mulder
That's very interesting. I've actually never thought of that before. So the mind does not fight nature because in that environment it just feels normal. Am I saying that?
00:13:12:09 - 00:13:34:08
Denise Schonwald
It just sort of adapts to what is. Same thing as when we go out on the beach. The waves are coming and the mind doesn't start to stress or fear. We just sit and accept the breeze, the ocean, whatever it is, and we feel very much a peace. And so what happens is the body rhythmically will get into sort of in sync with nature.
00:13:34:18 - 00:13:38:15
Denise Schonwald
And then we feel, which is why a lot of people like hunting and fishing for the same reason.
00:13:38:22 - 00:14:07:07
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, well, it's funny you say that, because obviously I'm from the Midwest and I have the hunters and the family and so forth, and my dad wasn't. But there are others. So that is probably even on years that we've not taken any game, gained any food, just sitting there in the cold woods in the fall. People think I'm crazy, but I love it for all the reasons because you you do feel connected to the world, in fact, and probably even feeds into a little bit what we're going to talk about today.
00:14:07:07 - 00:14:18:14
Wayne Mulder
There are times that that moment becomes so relaxing. Literally fall asleep. In fact, I usually joke that that's when the deer all walked by as well. Yes, but there's almost like just an intense calm that comes over the body.
00:14:18:24 - 00:14:36:24
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And what happens is the body actually goes what we call parasympathetic. It's sort of resting and just being as opposed to being stressed. You know, we're not stressed because we're out in nature. It's hard to be stressed in nature. So the body will just sort of just rest and be and that's when we feel at peace.
00:14:37:23 - 00:14:55:03
Wayne Mulder
Wow. Yeah. I've never thought of it in those terms before. Well, before we can move into that effect to the person parasympathetic and sympathetic is something I want to talk about as well. But before we can start going down those roads, let me let's hear a little bit of your origin story. I know you were a nurse in an ICU unit and so forth.
00:14:55:13 - 00:14:57:10
Wayne Mulder
Maybe just tell listeners a little bit about you.
00:14:57:24 - 00:15:27:16
Denise Schonwald
Yes, I started off my career many years ago, over 30 years now as a critical care nurse. So I worked in the ICU, obviously saw patients at their very worst, very close to dying or sometimes passing away. And certainly during those times was could be very stressful in the family. So a lot of family dynamics would come to this, you know, dysfunctional family dynamics would come to the surface and it's not a time usually when we're at our best.
00:15:28:05 - 00:15:54:00
Denise Schonwald
And I really learned a lot about not only working with a patient, but also working with families and understanding emotions and so forth. 20 years down the road, I realized that probably doing practicing nursing as I got older is going to be more difficult. Any sort of medical connection or occupation can be a grind when you're working nights and weekends and on call.
00:15:54:12 - 00:16:12:03
Denise Schonwald
So I wanted to do something where I could still use my critical care skills, but not necessarily lifting patients and working till two, 3:00 in the morning. And I went back to school to become a psychologist or a mental health counselor. And it's been a perfect fit for me.
00:16:12:21 - 00:16:35:15
Wayne Mulder
Wow. Yeah, that's that's amazing. And such a blessing to to be able to do what you did. I mean, much like, you know, people say, like working in law enforcement stuff, like, you see the worst of humanity. And sometimes I think you see the best as well. Like it's it's a really interesting dichotomy, something you say in your book and I definitely want we'll be talking more about that will be a link for the listeners healing your body by mastering your mind.
00:16:35:15 - 00:16:51:17
Wayne Mulder
But something you talk about in there that really resonated with me was even wanting to be some of the patients yourself and doing some of those what some might consider menial tasks or tasks that really allowed you to kind of consider the whole person in the moment and what they were going through articulating that, correct?
00:16:51:17 - 00:17:12:01
Denise Schonwald
Or Yes, Yes. It's very important. Sometimes we have energies in our bodies that help us connect to each other. We have energies and the palms of our hands. So a lot of times while we shake hands or we put hands, we help someone. It's so it's not only a physical connection, but it's a very spiritual or emotional connection.
00:17:12:14 - 00:17:33:08
Denise Schonwald
And a lot of times by putting hands on the body, I could feel whether there was really good energy or circulation. I could feel some burns. You could even sense dehydration. You can certainly sense a lot of times when people are are feared for their lives or certainly stress. And sometimes just putting your hand on them is very comforting and soothing.
00:17:33:21 - 00:17:56:17
Wayne Mulder
Okay. Yeah, I thought that was such a powerful a powerful illustration of just kind of the human connection to, you know, in an environment like that, when we think about ICU or we think about a traumatic incident or those kind of incidents. Now, speaking of being a mental health counselor, it appears and I don't know if this was right from the beginning, but obviously you can move towards working with the first responder community and so forth.
00:17:56:17 - 00:18:03:08
Wayne Mulder
Is that something that just kind of was a natural evolution or is that something that you were doing all along or what what happened there?
00:18:03:18 - 00:18:38:13
Denise Schonwald
It was interesting. I was working on a very I was called in to work on a very complicated family matter. But there have been other therapies involved. Law enforcement was involved. And I met someone in law enforcement who really saw the value working with a counselor of mental health and he's also in the correctional facility. And he invited me in to give in services and seminars and lectures to the staff because as first responders, as you know as well as I do work constantly, really sort of on alert, on high alert.
00:18:38:22 - 00:18:58:04
Denise Schonwald
And even when we're somewhat relaxing and there's nothing going on, we have to be able to get beyond high alert very quickly. And that really stresses the body a lot because whether it's true or it's sort of anticipated, the body doesn't know the difference. So the body is constantly in somewhat of a stress response.
00:18:58:12 - 00:18:58:19
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:18:59:07 - 00:19:16:06
Denise Schonwald
When we come home from that and so I would walk out of the hospital and you might walk out of law enforcement. Yes, we come home. We have to do our own self healing just for stress on our own lives, families and so forth. But we also have to do a little bit extra because of what we've just been faced on the job.
00:19:17:06 - 00:19:17:17
Wayne Mulder
Right.
00:19:18:04 - 00:19:27:01
Denise Schonwald
It's a population that I really feel is suffering because a lot of times those of us in the helping profession don't always look to get help ourselves.
00:19:27:16 - 00:19:45:01
Wayne Mulder
Right. And you are absolutely correct about that. I know the first time we got to meet and just talk a little bit offline, that was kind of the nature of what we were talking about, is, you know, the things that even that I've seen and I know you've seen with suicides and with negative coping habits, all sorts of things that kind of come out of that.
00:19:45:12 - 00:19:59:16
Wayne Mulder
When you talk to law enforcement and like an in-service setting, what is kind of the global conversation that you're having with them And is it more like it's okay to not be okay, or is it more like what is kind of that conversation you have when you do the in services?
00:20:00:02 - 00:20:24:14
Denise Schonwald
It's an interesting population because they are used to sort of keeping a very straight flat affect. And so they are they come because obviously that's mandatory that they come. They don't usually ask a lot of questions. They're usually not a whole lot of expression, although I notice that when I would go to the second or the third time, some of them had remembered what I talked about the time before.
00:20:24:14 - 00:20:42:04
Denise Schonwald
So I know it actually gets in, but they're usually very resistant to come for help because sometimes people perceive that as a sign of weakness and it's actually a sign of strength when you realize sometimes that you're struggling and you really need somebody to sort of help you process some of the things that you're going through.
00:20:43:02 - 00:21:10:04
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Fortunately, there's been a shift, too, because early on I've been in the career about 11 years, and you hear these horror stories of the early days where administrators and those who'd come from this quote unquote old school mentality didn't see it that way. And there was sadly a time where if people came forward and said, hey, I need help, it was looked at as a weakness and sometimes could even result in them losing their career or losing opportunities within the job.
00:21:10:19 - 00:21:40:23
Denise Schonwald
Yes, I used to see it with the nursing. Also know a lot of the nurses in the doctors were outside smoking and very overweight and very stressed, working really long hours. And yet we were talking to our patients about the importance of health and wellness and taking medication and and whatever that might look like. So I just realized when I was an ICU nurse one day that 95% of the people that I was taking care of had actually been admitted to the ICU for not taking care of themselves.
00:21:41:12 - 00:21:41:19
Wayne Mulder
Well.
00:21:42:07 - 00:21:46:00
Denise Schonwald
And I thought no, I thought I just thought it was an interesting discovery.
00:21:46:13 - 00:22:02:09
Wayne Mulder
Absolutely. And I kind of felt that as I was going through your book, that it really seems like kind of the premise is that so many of these, what we call chronic conditions, are in many ways preventable if we just start looking at the person as a whole being Is that.
00:22:03:05 - 00:22:03:17
Denise Schonwald
Yes.
00:22:04:14 - 00:22:05:04
Wayne Mulder
What you would say.
00:22:05:15 - 00:22:26:07
Denise Schonwald
What happens is emotions that we experience, whether they're true or they're imagined, they get processed around different areas of the body depending upon what it is. An example I could probably give everyone that you could all relate to is when you're around somebody and you don't quite trust them, you don't know why they're very nice to you and so forth.
00:22:26:14 - 00:22:56:09
Denise Schonwald
You feel that in your stomach and you may say to a friend or a spouse or something. I kind of gut feeling this person is not being truthful. And why do you have that gut feeling? Because that emotion actually is processed in the stomach when we have trouble processing different emotions, fear, guilt and so forth, depending upon where that's processed in the body, eventually the body will start to manifest physical symptoms.
00:22:57:16 - 00:23:12:10
Denise Schonwald
I have the ability of when I understand what's going on medically, because I also have that as part of my expertise. I can also almost rewind the tape and understand what emotions have contributed to that and why they're struggling physically.
00:23:12:10 - 00:23:36:01
Wayne Mulder
Now that's really interesting. Why? Why is this always. Yeah, I have a friend who she she's very much into it has had many of these same conversations with me and we've talked about many similar concepts. So I really reading your book was awesome because it really helped to drive home some of the previous conversations I had with one of my friends who I've actually had on the podcast before as well.
00:23:36:13 - 00:23:50:10
Wayne Mulder
And why is it, though, that there is such a block when it comes to chronic illness and kind of the way Western society looks at this? Why is this why is what we're discussing always kind of like the last resort or even the last consideration? It's not what we go to intuitively.
00:23:50:20 - 00:24:14:20
Denise Schonwald
Well, and I think what it is, is I don't know that many people connect how important our mental health is to our physical health. For example, something will go wrong physically, and a lot of times we don't hesitate to go to the doctor because certainly we're hurting or we have a symptom or we're suffering. But we've never really gone back to see what emotions have sort of contribute to that contributed to that.
00:24:14:20 - 00:24:34:17
Denise Schonwald
We'll say something like It runs in my family. Well, actually, if anxiety runs in your family, you're likely to have the same physical response as your father or grandfather because you've all learned to cope with different situations the same way, which are usually not very helpful or effective right now.
00:24:34:17 - 00:24:53:13
Wayne Mulder
That makes perfect sense. That was actually one of the things I was going to bring up is anxiety, because that seems to be something that is very pervasive. Yes, Maybe even more so in light of, you know, what we've gone through the last few years, even within my own family, even with, you know, just people that I have day to day contact with even outside the job.
00:24:53:23 - 00:25:12:24
Wayne Mulder
I really see that an increase, obviously not empirical, anecdotal, but an increase in what I would define as anxiety. Are you seeing the same thing? And then what are some of the things when it comes to law enforcement? Because I always find it interesting that law enforcement does because we operate in a world where we are affected by these things.
00:25:12:24 - 00:25:20:13
Wayne Mulder
But we have to not only be able to deal with them in our own lives and in our own families, but then also the community at large as they're struggling with them.
00:25:21:08 - 00:25:40:23
Denise Schonwald
And one of the things that we sort of touched on before, which I probably should lead with, is the body for the most part, when we're on the job or we're running the kids to school or whatever we're doing, we're in our sympathetic nervous system. So we're a little bit in fight or flight or sort of hectic and and so forth.
00:25:41:07 - 00:26:02:06
Denise Schonwald
Unfortunately, a lot of times we don't balance that with parasympathetic. And that's again, when I'm sitting out on my lanai watching the birds. That's a nice balance. And when the body is in balance, we stay fairly healthy. We can handle different situations that come in with with little difficulty. Certainly if it's stressful, it's a little bit more challenging.
00:26:02:22 - 00:26:25:14
Denise Schonwald
But add on to all of that, not only was sympathetic, but technology. Technology, although I might say I'm scrolling through Instagram and it makes me feel relaxed, my mind is still processing everything that I'm looking at. So that's sort of keeping me and sympathetic. So now we really have probably an overload of sympathetic type activities as opposed to not balancing.
00:26:25:14 - 00:26:50:11
Denise Schonwald
It was sort of being and enjoying and so forth. So now when we have a lot of these, they're very low vibrational energies in the body, they're very fear based, and the mind body gets very active because the body's sort of out of balance, if you will. And when the mind gets involved, the things that we come, we sort of conclude to help with that are usually not very helpful.
00:26:50:24 - 00:27:12:24
Denise Schonwald
So this is when we go to alcohol, we go to food, we eat because the mind is like, I need something quick. And, you know, and law enforcement and mental health, we have limited we usually get, you know, food spending and so forth. We can usually alcohol and marijuana or options that are a little bit more difficult for somebody that has to get tested and so forth.
00:27:13:06 - 00:27:22:19
Denise Schonwald
But certainly, if we don't have healthy ways of coping with the body, we'll find unhealthy ways to cope and find ease when we.
00:27:23:17 - 00:27:49:08
Wayne Mulder
That's that's very true. And I can say it even from the old my own battles and the on my own struggles that I've had over the years with different thing, not so much typically more on the diet aspect. And so yeah but speaking to that, my mind immediately when you talked about the difference between the doing and the being and being in a fight or flight response, which obviously is very much what law enforcement kind of goes through.
00:27:49:17 - 00:28:16:07
Wayne Mulder
Yes, Yes, the nature of what we do, but from a supervisory standpoint. So as a supervisor, you've got maybe you're over a squad as a sergeant or of a platoon as a lieutenant, or whatever the case may be. And let's say a major event happens. So much of what we discuss here, like when we talk about being and being and being and then being in balance, is this concept of, you know, integrating that into your life.
00:28:16:16 - 00:28:37:18
Wayne Mulder
But what about these major incidents? What about a few years back I was involved in a major incident that involved shooting and that kind of thing. So in those kind of incidents, what can supervisors do to try to help those deputies that have been involved in something like that? Because it's very difficult and I can speak firsthand on this over the next few weeks and months.
00:28:37:18 - 00:28:46:23
Wayne Mulder
And so forth, to kind of turn that off and to kind of get back to this balance that we're talking about. Are there steps that they can take? Should it be formal counseling? Like what? What would you say?
00:28:47:09 - 00:29:18:01
Denise Schonwald
Yes, One of the to backup just a little bit is when we mindfully go through our day to day before anything ever happened, before a traumatic event. And we do a pretty good job of balancing sympathetic with parasympathetic. And we have our whatever we do, we go fishing or whatever we enjoy or break that in when a major either life change happens or a trauma, the body will certainly get thrown throat out of out of sorts and so forth.
00:29:18:05 - 00:29:48:06
Denise Schonwald
But very quickly it'll try to get back to sort of its normal balance. If we're already under a lot of stress, we don't take care of ourselves and so forth. And then we have a trauma, okay? Now it's like being £100 overweight. Now we have a lot of work to do. I think it's really important when we go through a horrifically challenging or traumatic event that there's a lot of mental health professionals brought in to help us process that, because the mind, you know, it's very shocking.
00:29:48:06 - 00:30:06:09
Denise Schonwald
It's usually very sudden. A lot of times the aftermath of that is when the mind gets very active with all all the things we could have done or should have done. And now, even though we're not in this situation, the body thinks we're still in it, right? This is why we can't sleep and so forth.
00:30:07:12 - 00:30:27:04
Wayne Mulder
Okay. Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. And I love kind of what you're saying, which is really the goal and hopefully for the listeners and stuff, I definitely want them to get this book, The Healing Your Body, by Mastering Your Mind. But the goal is to already be in balance so that the effects are worse. They're not compounded by being in a bad place when it happens.
00:30:27:04 - 00:30:44:22
Denise Schonwald
And yes, that same physically. If I go in for major surgery and I'm fairly healthy and I take care of my body and I'm somewhat fit, yes, I will have probably 6 to 8 weeks of pain and so forth. I might need to take a lot of naps, but then I should get back and I should be able to go back to work.
00:30:45:06 - 00:31:06:12
Denise Schonwald
If I go in and I'm diabetic and I'm overweight and I smoke a lot and so forth, I'm likely to have a lot of complications and I might not be able to go back to work in eight weeks. And this is this is what we see a lot of times before. A surgeon will take somebody, they'll say, really, you really need to get your health needs to get in better health so that you do can do better through this surgery.
00:31:06:19 - 00:31:07:20
Denise Schonwald
Same thing mentally.
00:31:08:19 - 00:31:29:10
Wayne Mulder
Okay. Yeah. Know that that actually speaks a lot and is yeah no, there's a lot there. Let me ask you, when it comes to negative energy, because that's another thing that I think is real common, like who we surround ourselves around things and maybe some of it is completely unavoidable, like in our day to day careers and so forth.
00:31:29:16 - 00:31:39:01
Wayne Mulder
So what are some of the considerations when we talk about the concept? Maybe first, what is the concept of negative energy and what are some of the things that you would suggest when we find ourselves faced with these challenges?
00:31:39:12 - 00:32:02:14
Denise Schonwald
Okay, negative, low vibrational energy, we're fear based energy. So let's go all the way to probably the worst that we could feel. And that's when someone is miserable. And unfortunately, since we were talking a little bit before about suicide, that energy is very low. A lot of people really, when they get to be that sort of down, they don't want to get out of bed.
00:32:02:14 - 00:32:30:15
Denise Schonwald
They don't eat well. I mean, this is major depression when we're around somebody who's in that state, even though we feel terrible for them, that energy's very pulling because they're a low vibrational and so forth. So when people are anxious, they have more energy than a miserable person. But that anxiety is not any more comfortable than it's a little bit, has a little bit more intensity, but it's still a low vibrational energy.
00:32:30:24 - 00:33:12:13
Denise Schonwald
Maybe we get into guilt and jealousy and anger in our ego or something. Again, low vibrational energies, very pulling in law enforcement people are having problems. So you go in and you help and there's a lot of energy and there's a lot of intensity, but it's exhausting because they're pulling energy and you're trying to help them. But they're also it's almost like they have little cell phone chargers and they're plugging in when we get home from that, we have to not only do our own self care because we are out on the job, but we also have to do extra because now we have to go home to our families and our whatever we have
00:33:12:13 - 00:33:23:17
Denise Schonwald
going on at home. When I'm in a very intense session, I will make sure the day or two after I do even more than I probably just would if I had a, you know, sort of an easy day.
00:33:26:00 - 00:33:39:06
Wayne Mulder
Okay, That makes a lot of sense. Now, how does that compare? Because another concept that was in your book that really struck home for me is this idea of chronic exhaustion. Is that typically like at these similar concepts that we're discussing here?
00:33:39:06 - 00:34:08:08
Denise Schonwald
Yes. Yes. These are, again, very low vibrational energies in the body. So, again, they don't have a lot of momentum. They just sort of it's almost like or it's just it's really heavy and so forth. And you'll know that this is really sort of a state of being emotionally when you've slept all night, you're exhausted. And no matter what you do and typically watch with the body, does the body wants more caffeine, the body wants an energy drink.
00:34:08:08 - 00:34:26:03
Denise Schonwald
Watch what the body is trying to correct itself. Usually want sugar and carbs. We want to do something to feel better. But the body's trying to say, emotionally, I'm not in a good place. Guilt and worry are very hard on the body and there are favorite usually.
00:34:26:09 - 00:34:47:10
Wayne Mulder
Yes, that they absolutely are. And it definitely can be challenging. And something that I myself have seen not only in my own life, but in the lives of those, you know, in my sphere and over the years. Question though, when we talk about dealing with these things like chronic exhaustion and stuff, so is it all come back to this concept of balance or are there other things that we can do?
00:34:47:17 - 00:34:58:06
Wayne Mulder
Because I can almost hear somebody saying that, well, I'm too exhausted to take care of myself. I'm too exhausted. Yes. You know, so it's almost like this circle that they're creating, is that.
00:34:58:09 - 00:35:21:14
Denise Schonwald
Yes. Yes. So I guess the question is, how do we get more high vibrational energy in the body so that we don't feel exhausted? And this is where a lot of hobbies come in nicely when you go to if you decide to go to a therapist, hopefully you're in the mindset of being willing to talk to somebody, being willing to do something different.
00:35:21:22 - 00:35:30:11
Denise Schonwald
It's really the key to whether or not therapy is successful for you or not. That brings high vibrational energy into the body because it brings hope.
00:35:30:21 - 00:35:31:04
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:35:31:20 - 00:35:54:01
Denise Schonwald
We get high vibrational energy with our relationship with God. A lot of times if you can give something to God and you can surrender, the body feels relief and that makes us feel happy. Yeah, gratitude or gratefulness can bring a lot of high vibrational energy into the body. And it again, it can make us happy. Connecting with family can make us happy.
00:35:55:20 - 00:36:18:04
Denise Schonwald
So these and these are things that we need to incorporate into our lives that make us feel joy, fulfillment, certainly our passion in law enforcement and with me, with mental health, that's part of it's very fulfilling for us, certainly has its challenges, but it also has the other parts of us. It brings in the part of us that gives us purpose and meaning.
00:36:18:22 - 00:36:41:10
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, no. And I love the word hope. That's something that even when I've talked to newcomers to this career and so forth, that that that word is really got a lot of power to itself as well, because that's really the sometimes what overcomes a lot of the negative and the unknown and the anxiety and all these things that we're discussing is just having hope in terms of what tomorrow can bring.
00:36:42:24 - 00:37:02:22
Wayne Mulder
So when we talk about spirituality, not shifting gears, we're kind of just migrating to the next side of this. When we talk about this concept of spirituality, obviously, and you can touch on this on the book, some people are immediately, you know, they won't put their hands up. You know, I'm not a religious person, but how important is kind of this concept of spirituality when it comes to part of being the whole person?
00:37:03:12 - 00:37:45:14
Denise Schonwald
Yeah, one of the questions when I first meet someone, I'm trying to understand a lot about them, and I will say something like, Do you consider yourself religious? And if they say yes, I'm like, Whatever faith based and so forth, I will incorporate that language into helping them mentally. If they say I'm not religious at all, I usually can get them to sort of be neutral about whatever the universe is doing, you know, because when the universe or God, whenever you would like to give credit to when we need to learn something, it has to come in, by the way, of some sort of and I would say suffering, but something to to create awareness.
00:37:46:03 - 00:38:12:06
Denise Schonwald
And so although we shouldn't look for problems, we also is hopeful if we understand that problems in our life give us growth, give us meaning, and also hopefully help us to be more grateful for things that we have. Yeah, when we have a faith or we can give our attention or surrender to a higher power, it takes a lot of pressure off the body as a body doesn't know how to be perfect, the body doesn't know how to control.
00:38:12:13 - 00:38:21:14
Denise Schonwald
And so even if we can let go of something, we sort of give it to a higher power or we give it to God, and that gives us a lot of ease and relief.
00:38:22:05 - 00:38:45:08
Wayne Mulder
Well, yeah, speaking again, anecdotally, I really see see the power in that that there is, especially for certain personalities and obviously law enforcement draws in a lot of type-A personalities and a lot of people that want to be in control. And I can see how a lot of these behaviors, even within my own life, things that I've had to overcome, where you really by trying to be in control of everything, you're really in control of nothing.
00:38:45:17 - 00:38:47:15
Denise Schonwald
Very true. They call that a paradox.
00:38:47:19 - 00:38:48:06
Wayne Mulder
Yes.
00:38:48:17 - 00:38:49:04
Denise Schonwald
Mm.
00:38:49:06 - 00:39:07:20
Wayne Mulder
Yeah. And then it leads to exactly what we're talking about in these negative type behaviors. But to be able to take a moment and just kind of give it to somebody or, you know, whatever that your belief system is, definitely you almost feel like just the shoulders relax and you just feel like a weight has been lifted from you.
00:39:08:08 - 00:39:35:24
Denise Schonwald
It's true. Certainly in the progressions that we're in, our hope is to help and guide and help with safety and and help keep people protected and so forth. But we're limited because, you know, we have a lot of other external circumstances and we can't always prevent things. So What I do is I sort of hold myself accountable to do the best that I can, and then I let go of the things that I can't control.
00:39:36:03 - 00:39:38:07
Denise Schonwald
And that sort of helps me not get burnt out.
00:39:38:20 - 00:40:05:15
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, I think that's wonderful and I think that is something that is so like fundamental and can just be so life changing for us. Let me shift gears just a little bit. We've been talking very internally to us as law enforcement officers or as first responders or those in the ICU and so forth. But speaking external, we're obviously I saw the you were on the Tear Talk podcast and that was a good, good interview.
00:40:05:15 - 00:40:29:21
Wayne Mulder
And one of the things that it really had me thinking about was just this idea that not only are there our own internal mental health concerns, but we're obviously dealing with what some would even say is kind of almost a pandemic of mental health issues, concerns, substance abuse issues out on the streets. And having worked in the behavioral health intervention side of things, I understand kind of what we're seeing out there.
00:40:30:12 - 00:40:44:22
Wayne Mulder
How do some of these principles and some of the things that we're talking about, obviously, it's all so internal, but is there any takeaways or anything we can consider? We're dealing with subjects that are out there struggling with mental illness and we're now having to intercede into those situations.
00:40:46:14 - 00:41:09:22
Denise Schonwald
They can be that population can be very tough, particularly if they're not invested in getting their own help. Sometimes they're not as compliant with their medications as they need to be. Sometimes they're not willing to do a lot of the work that it takes to stay mentally healthy. What I see, particularly when a lot of families or even couples, is they are they functioned as functionally.
00:41:10:20 - 00:41:29:21
Denise Schonwald
And so you may have one person that's got a lot of problems and they need somebody else with a lot of problems. And unfortunately it's a wonderful connection, just not the healthiest. Now that the problem becomes a little bit more complex because you have multiple family members and one thing that I know is it's almost like a puzzle.
00:41:29:21 - 00:41:55:08
Denise Schonwald
It always fits together when I'm learning about a family, like how did this outrageous behavior become tolerated where you have a lot of people that also sort of nurture that behavior for whatever reason? The only thing I can suggest as far as those of us who have to come in and of help as best that we can is we have to realize that that energy is very pulling and we can't do more than they're willing to do for themselves.
00:41:56:16 - 00:42:13:24
Denise Schonwald
And that's really where I sort of give them a lot of accountability. And I say, Listen, I can't work harder at this and you're willing to work. I will give them resources and I will give them some guidance. But I'm not going to get so enmeshed in this that all of a sudden I'm taking on all of their problems as my own.
00:42:14:17 - 00:42:37:17
Wayne Mulder
Okay. No, that makes perfect sense. And I think it also comes down to what's been really a theme through this entire conversation, is that self-care on your end. Because when you're out there helping others, taking care of others, the better position you're in, the better you're going to be able to do that without like, I like how you keep using the term being pulled into that negative or fear based energy.
00:42:38:07 - 00:43:04:03
Denise Schonwald
Yes. In fact, I've heard that with law enforcement. What are the most dangerous calls? Is domestic violence or some sort of them all to disturbance? And what happens is you've got a lot of negative energy and they're feeding off. It's almost causing an explosion. And then you come in and try to sort of, you know, neutralize that. And yet what you realize is they're very committed to what they're doing because they've probably been doing it for many months or years.
00:43:04:08 - 00:43:09:10
Denise Schonwald
And although you're trying to help, it's also what's sort of connecting them together.
00:43:09:18 - 00:43:26:04
Wayne Mulder
Yep. You are absolutely right. In fact, for the listeners who aren't in law enforcement, that that's exactly what makes them so dangerous is because, yes, one of the parties calls you, you show up and you're in the middle of this incident and you have to make a decision. And maybe they're what you determine to be what we call a primary aggressor.
00:43:26:04 - 00:43:46:02
Wayne Mulder
So they're the ones that battle the other subject or whatever. The minute handcuffs are put on that person and they're taken into custody many times, other person will turn on you just in a minute, like you're saying. And they just I forget the exact verbiage you use, but I love it. But functional that being dysfunctional or whatever. But that's exactly what's happening.
00:43:46:02 - 00:43:48:18
Wayne Mulder
And yet they turn on you and that's part of what makes it so dangerous.
00:43:48:24 - 00:44:13:23
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And I also, believe it or not, see that mental health. So I'll be seeing them and all of a sudden now I've become the enemy. And I'm thinking I'm trying to try to help. And all of a sudden it's something that I have said that they just get offended. And and so then all of a sudden and this is exhausting because again, you're trying to help and yet you're getting caught into like a cyclone of dysfunctionality.
00:44:14:06 - 00:44:27:08
Denise Schonwald
And that's when I really sort of have to sometimes even take a day off or a half a day off or a couple of hours off and just sort of try to recover from that because it's it's really tough, not only physically, mentally, but also spiritually.
00:44:27:16 - 00:44:51:07
Wayne Mulder
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And that was something we were even seeing and dealing with officers who are on the front lines of dealing with mental health. And, you know, our behavioral health intervention teams is that they need that decompression time. Like there was more of an allowance for, you know, what they're going need a couple of days off or they're going to need just because of constantly being in these situations where, like you said, the negative energy is kind of pulling you in or that fear based energy.
00:44:51:15 - 00:45:20:05
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And when there's substances involved now, they get you know, when somebody is sort of caught up in addiction, they lose their ability to feel empathy. And so not only are you dealing with a substance that is very unpredictable, you're also dealing with someone who doesn't have quite the rational mind. And so then you're almost in like a little bit more of a dangerous, dangerous situation because the substances are now causing even a more complex problem.
00:45:20:19 - 00:45:24:23
Denise Schonwald
Very stressful on a person trying to manage that or navigate that.
00:45:25:19 - 00:45:36:20
Wayne Mulder
Okay. And I definitely want listeners to go to your social media. I noticed you had an article in there about the link between substance abuse and mental. Is that kind of the foundational argument of that? Is that one kind of feeds the other or.
00:45:37:09 - 00:46:04:03
Denise Schonwald
Well, certainly any sort of addiction, when we get caught up in it, we get very and it's a it's an overused word, but in this case, I hope it's appropriate. We get very narcissistic. So that becomes what we have to have. And unfortunately, with substances and I've seen, as I did a whole year, specializing in substance abuse, they'll take that substance over you know, they'll take pain medicine from their grandparents who are dying.
00:46:04:03 - 00:46:42:15
Denise Schonwald
I mean, there becomes no conscience conscious of of of my poor grandmother suffering. But the what the focus is as I want my I want my drug and so forth. This can be a very dangerous mindset, probably 95 to 99% of people that are incarcerated don't have that ability to feel remorse or empathy, which is why they continue to break the law and like rules don't apply to them when we're dealing with that population, we are sort of in the ultimate danger because not only are they unpredictable, but they also don't feel bad about hurting.
00:46:42:15 - 00:46:43:16
Denise Schonwald
They're harming someone.
00:46:44:12 - 00:46:44:19
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:46:45:07 - 00:46:46:03
Denise Schonwald
Very stressful.
00:46:46:09 - 00:47:07:14
Wayne Mulder
It is. And it's stressful on families. I mean, again, I can speak different things I've seen that would very much establish exactly what you're saying. Again, things that I've seen in my own sphere and circles. So, yeah, it's a tragic it's a tragic thing. And a lot of times they become almost self-fulfilling type prophecies or however you want to.
00:47:08:09 - 00:47:14:15
Wayne Mulder
We're just kind of rolls into itself and it sadly one feeds the other and it's very, very difficult to get people out of it.
00:47:15:06 - 00:47:37:24
Denise Schonwald
Yes, I feel like even correctional officers are even more heightened because at all times, you know, they they're always have to be on high alert because, yeah, there's a lot of manipulation. They certainly don't want a lot of them to get behind them because you can't trust. And can you imagine the constant high alert state when you have to do that for 12 hours or 8 hours or however long a shift is?
00:47:38:08 - 00:47:38:16
Denise Schonwald
Yeah.
00:47:39:01 - 00:48:00:05
Wayne Mulder
Well, I actually can't well, I can imagine that as a writer and as a creator and so forth. But as far as having do with it, it's very difficult. My brother is actually in corrections in northern state and yeah, God bless him. I don't know how he does it. That is a completely different type of law enforcement work because at least we're fortunate on the street.
00:48:00:05 - 00:48:17:16
Wayne Mulder
And when you are out in the community, yes, you may get it. In some ways people are like, oh, well, it's more danger and whatever. That's an argument. We can, you know, have at a later time. But you at least do get more of a break at some point. You're not always in that physical environment. You can remove yourself.
00:48:18:03 - 00:48:42:15
Wayne Mulder
Typically before the shift is out to a different physical place. In fact, kind of to how we started this entire conversation. One of my favorite things to do and working nights is to go to where new because there are no open land anymore around here. It's all new subdivisions that go to where they're building a new subdivision and just go out there and stare at the stars and just kind of have that moment in nature during the shift to kind of decompress from some of the things that I've seen and so forth.
00:48:42:20 - 00:48:47:03
Wayne Mulder
And you definitely do not get that in the corrections environment.
00:48:48:06 - 00:49:13:11
Denise Schonwald
Yes. And fortunately in law enforcement, you all are very intuitive. In fact, when we talk maybe next time more about energy, we all are experts at it because it's very important that not only are you listening to what people say, because people have a lot to say, but you're also reading body language and looking at the situation and you're getting a different set of information from body language.
00:49:13:20 - 00:49:30:09
Denise Schonwald
So very good at that, which is excellent. That sort of keeps you safe and forth. But when you're in corrections, you're constantly on are just on that hyper alert stage because there is no resting or you could easily know, get yourself in a very dangerous situation.
00:49:30:20 - 00:49:46:19
Wayne Mulder
Very true. Well, switching gears to one more thing here. As we start at the end, I have to ask, because in the book you tell the story of Max, the therapy dog. So I have to ask about Max and a little bit of that story. And then I think Henry has made an appearance on here. So if there.
00:49:46:19 - 00:49:52:00
Denise Schonwald
Was. Yes, yes, yes. Waiting patiently, wagging his tail. So I'll bring him on camera.
00:49:52:04 - 00:49:53:12
Wayne Mulder
All right. So please tell us about.
00:49:53:22 - 00:50:11:19
Denise Schonwald
A little bit about Max and Henry when when I first went into practice, I really thought it was an it would be nice to have a therapy dog. And at the time, it was our family dog, Max. And he came to the office with us and it was funny how people would pick me as a therapist just because I had a dog.
00:50:11:19 - 00:50:41:07
Denise Schonwald
So I wondered at times if I even needed the schooling. But nevertheless I had that also. And he worked with me for about 15 years and as he got older and he passed, I got Henry, and Henry is now, he's three and he works alongside me. I see clients in my home. I also see them virtually, but he is quite supportive and loving, especially when someone's going through a trauma, an animal can also very sense that animals and children are very good with energy.
00:50:41:16 - 00:50:50:01
Denise Schonwald
They can pick up energy very quickly. And he's very empathetic and he's very soothing so they enjoy him a lot. I'm going to grab him really quick. He's right here.
00:50:50:10 - 00:50:50:16
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:50:50:23 - 00:50:56:13
Denise Schonwald
Yeah, right. The oh, my gosh, this is Henry.
00:50:57:16 - 00:51:16:08
Wayne Mulder
Too cute. And that definitely for all the listeners, be sure to be watching this on YouTube or on Rumble, so you can check out Henry here. And then that actually was kind of one of the questions I was going to ask about it. I think you answered it in the in there, but so like within behavioral health, obviously therapy dogs were coming in and so forth.
00:51:16:08 - 00:51:25:01
Wayne Mulder
But is that why there's been such a resurgence and such a push towards having therapy dogs is just kind of the how they sense these energies and so forth.
00:51:25:01 - 00:51:46:09
Denise Schonwald
Are they not only that, but when you're coming in to see a therapist, a lot of times, again, you're serving sympathetic, you're fearful, a little worried. Maybe they're going to ask me something, I'm going to be embarrassed. I might have to bring up something that's painful. But then you have an animal that comes in and sits on your lap and you start petting them, and that will cause the body to shift to parasympathetic.
00:51:46:18 - 00:52:14:11
Denise Schonwald
Okay. And so now you're feeling a little bit more at ease. I also use a lot of aromas. Araby So I'll have infused maybe some peppermint or some lavender because I'm trying to get the body to share it. And certainly they're nervous around me. They're not really sure they they even want to be there and so forth. So I'm doing everything that I possibly can to create ease, which is why I really have to worry about or be concerned with my own mental health.
00:52:14:17 - 00:52:19:02
Denise Schonwald
Because if I'm on edge, they're going to sense That makes sense.
00:52:19:03 - 00:52:34:13
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, very, very cool. And I know that it is funny, like you said, about saying of the dog and not even necessarily needing the credentials because it feels that way to like the detectives feel the same way when they have a dog assigned to that. Everyone's like, Where's the dog? You know, that's.
00:52:34:14 - 00:52:35:04
Denise Schonwald
Not so.
00:52:35:04 - 00:52:36:18
Wayne Mulder
Much the fact that the detective is there.
00:52:37:08 - 00:52:42:02
Denise Schonwald
Yes. Yes. And it brings a lot of people peace.
00:52:43:00 - 00:53:04:23
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, I agree. Even we I have two dogs and just even in my own home, like it does make a huge difference. And when I'm stressed and when I'm and actually when when I lost my father about a year and a half ago, you they could feel that difference when I came home that day, there was in fact my a relative ended up getting bit by one of the dogs.
00:53:04:23 - 00:53:10:23
Wayne Mulder
But that's a different situation. But that was because they didn't. The dog knew something was wrong and it was really amazing what happened.
00:53:11:10 - 00:53:31:23
Denise Schonwald
They do that now, dog animals and also children. So a lot of times parents will bring kids in to be they go it's a lot of misbehave. She cries all the time. And so they're asking me like, what needs to be done? And a lot of times there's a lot there. I find there's a lot of tension in the house, even if they're not yelling at each other.
00:53:31:23 - 00:53:40:21
Denise Schonwald
There's also this underlying stress and the kids feel that and they don't really know what to do with it. So they misbehave. They're usually wonderful at school.
00:53:41:11 - 00:53:42:04
Wayne Mulder
Interesting.
00:53:42:20 - 00:53:54:11
Denise Schonwald
And so it's all you know, it's a little bit more relaxed, it's more structured, no behavioral problems. But at home, this is where the kids are constantly sort of acting up and so forth.
00:53:55:01 - 00:54:09:06
Wayne Mulder
Okay. So you have a book which we've mentioned a few times, and anyone watching on YouTube, a Rumble can see right here on my desk, healing your body by mastering your mind really kind of deals with the aspect of the whole person where can they get the book?
00:54:10:01 - 00:54:19:22
Denise Schonwald
Amazon is the easiest way. It's on audiobook, it's on Kindle. My new book is called Insightful Cell Therapy.
00:54:21:04 - 00:54:21:09
Wayne Mulder
Okay.
00:54:21:17 - 00:54:41:07
Denise Schonwald
I took a lot of mental health struggles. I talked about them briefly, talked about why it's important to address them, what you can do to help with any sort of mental health problem that I addressed. I tried to make it short that my first book, I also made pretty short because I feel like you don't want to get overwhelmed.
00:54:41:07 - 00:54:51:14
Denise Schonwald
I mean, the the the hope is that people read it and they want to heal. They want to work on some of these things. And I think if you it's too wordy, I think people get overwhelmed and they just put it down.
00:54:52:05 - 00:55:08:01
Wayne Mulder
I would agree. And a lot of times when you have a smaller book, you think that that doesn't a lot of information. And yet this is the opposite. It's actually a smaller book packed with information. So there's actually a few things that I'm going to be going back through and reading and trying to better understand some of the concepts have in there.
00:55:08:01 - 00:55:21:10
Wayne Mulder
So and I will be sure to link that up and make sure that everyone sees the new book. Let's talk a little bit about the counseling. You've talked that you do mental health counseling. Can you just tell the listeners a little bit about how they can connect with you on what exactly you're doing there?
00:55:22:02 - 00:55:40:11
Denise Schonwald
I am licensed not only in the state of Florida, but nationally, so I can see clients I one in Texas now, I've one in California. The nice thing about virtual counseling is I can work on weekends and evenings, so that makes it a lot easier. Those who live in Florida like to come see me personally. They want to meet Henry.
00:55:40:11 - 00:55:57:21
Denise Schonwald
That's certainly fine. I can do a mixture. Some people like to maybe on a weekend come in person during the week. They want to be seen virtually. I'm certainly able to adjust my schedule for that. For law enforcement. I will go above and beyond to work around their shifts because I feel that mental health really important for them.
00:55:58:11 - 00:56:04:22
Wayne Mulder
That's wonderful. Kind of on that line, you had some posters designed. Can you just tell us a little bit about the posters?
00:56:05:03 - 00:56:26:18
Denise Schonwald
I did. I was contacted by law enforcement to come up with some sort of poster to remind the staff of how important mental health is. And although I don't know that I'm the most creative person, I wanted to create a poster that you could put in break rooms or locker rooms and so forth, talking about how important mental health is underneath the poster.
00:56:26:18 - 00:56:42:17
Denise Schonwald
I have my QR code and so forth. So somewhere I can just sort of connect to me very quickly if they want some help. Even it's just because you come to therapy doesn't mean you have to come every week for 20 years and this is certainly in as needed. I have my own therapist that I check in with.
00:56:42:17 - 00:56:48:18
Denise Schonwald
I feel like it's really important sometimes just to get some guidance and to also go over some struggles that I'm having.
00:56:49:10 - 00:57:06:18
Wayne Mulder
That's wonderful and I'll have that all linked up. There's also a way for anyone listening. Maybe you're not in law enforcement and you want to help sponsor getting some of these posters to some of your local area police or fire departments. They're all that information's on the website. Am I pronouncing this right? Denise Schonwald.
00:57:07:03 - 00:57:08:01
Denise Schonwald
Schonwald. Yes.
00:57:08:02 - 00:57:29:16
Wayne Mulder
Welcome. And I will have that linked up so you won't have to rely on my speaking to understand where that website is. My last question for you, Denise. This is the question I ask everybody who comes on here. So many things that we've discussed today fall under this very heading. But if we were going to wrap it all up and what is the one take away the one thing that law enforcement officers can do that's going to make a difference in their personal lives?
00:57:30:12 - 00:57:49:10
Denise Schonwald
I would have to say take care of your mental health. It really is the key. It's a key to being a good father, being a good husband, being a good friend, being a good son, being the best law enforcement officer ever. I mean, it's really hard to give to someone else what you don't give to yourself.
00:57:50:18 - 00:57:58:15
Wayne Mulder
That's so well said. And a great place to infer today. So hopefully we can definitely talk again. But Denise, thank you so much for coming on. And thank.
00:57:58:17 - 00:57:59:10
Denise Schonwald
Welcome for.
00:57:59:22 - 00:58:00:18
Intro
Having this conversation.
00:58:06:10 - 00:58:21:21
Wayne Mulder
So how was that? I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for watching or listening to this week's podcast. Every episode you can get those show notes that I was talking about at the beginning by going to on the Blue Line, it's own on the blue line dot com, and then it's forwards on show notes or just follow the links.
00:58:22:06 - 00:58:41:19
Wayne Mulder
And of course we are on social media, pretty much most of them. It's on the Blue Line podcast and on the Blue Line podcast and Twitter is on the blue line in the number one. So that does it for this week. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll have another episode to you next Thursday, but in the meantime, I'll see you out there on the blue line.