Mindfulness in Police Psychology: DBT Strategies for On-Duty Emotional Regulation

Burnout Issues in Policing and the Need for Police Psychology

Burnout can happen in any profession, but for police officers, the risks and consequences are particularly acute. Persistent stressors, such as peer-to-peer conflicts, inadequate organizational support, and long work hours can gradually wear down officers’ enthusiasm for the job. Furthermore, officers can be exposed to danger and traumatic events in their line of work, which can lead to secondary trauma and compassion fatigue.

These accumulated stressors can lead to depression, anxiety, and coping strategies including emotion suppression and substance abuse. Police psychology can have a critical role, both in addressing these maladies once they appear, and providing preventative counseling. DBT skills provide a path to resilient mental health, and a clinically backed playbook for handling the difficult issues that arise in police psychology.

The High Cost of Officer Burnout

Police burnout has a weighty impact on individual officers and society at large. Studies have found that it corresponds to negative indicators on officers’ physical and mental health, leading to higher rates of work absence and turnover. Stressed officers have high rates of PTSD, marriage difficulty, sleep problems, and a host of other maladies.

These issues inevitably spill over into the quality of the services that officers’ provide. Burnout has been correlated with a greater likelihood of the use of force and violence among officers. Police psychology, therefore, can alleviate both personal and societal troubles by addressing them at their root.

Police Psychology & DBT Skill Development

Fortunately, DBT can provide a path forward for practitioners of police psychology to work with officers to manage stress and maintain better mental health on and off the job. These skills provide direct benefits and can help the officer regain an overall sense of control over the challenges in their work. This crucial shift in mindset can be the difference between a steady decline in overall wellness and a fulfilling, sustainable career.

Mindfulness: A Foundational DBT Skill in the Police Psychology Context

Mindfulness is a core skill in DBT because it has many direct benefits of its own while also acting as a building block for more targeted, situational skills. By learning to observe their thoughts and feelings without acting on them, officers can gain better insight to the persistent stressors in their lives and be better prepared for the high stress moments that arise during their line of work.

Police psychology practitioners can teach mindfulness to address certain well-known physiological issues that officers experience on the job, including:

Adrenaline Spikes: In responding to emergencies, officers regularly experience sudden rushes of adrenaline (also referred to as epinephrine) as they go into “fight or flight” mode. While this is a natural response to these situations, repeated adrenaline spikes can lead to anxiety, jitteriness, and sleep problems.
Tunnel Vision: In intense situations, officers can develop tunnel vision, in which they become fully focused on a single person, target, or situation. This loss of situational awareness can be dangerous in the short term, as the officer might miss other threats. It can also erode social trust in officers if they are not making good decisions in high impact situations.
Auditory Exclusion: Auditory exclusion is essentially tunnel vision for hearing. Officers in the midst of an adrenaline spike can block out certain sounds or otherwise have difficulty processing what they’re hearing outside of a narrow area of focus. This increases risks for the officer and those they are assisting in the same ways as tunnel vision.

Mindfulness can temper these issues by helping officers cool down after an intense episode and creating a more relaxed base state. By practicing mindfulness, officers are better equipped to avoid these states and more able to recognize them when they happen.

DBT Emotion Regulation Skills for Police Psychology

While emotion suppression may seem like the only option for officers exposed to traumatic situations, police psychology can leverage DBT for another path. DBT teaches that we should accept, observe, and understand our emotions. Officers can learn to identify what triggers emotional intensity, which interpretations might be heightening their reaction, and how to shift out of reactive cycles using tools like opposite action or checking the facts. This internal clarity not only supports better decision-making but also protects against long-term psychological wear.

Identifying and Labeling Emotions: Understanding a feeling is the first step to regulating it. This skill involves increasing emotional awareness, distinguishing between similar emotions (e.g., frustration vs. rage), and labeling them accurately. For officers, being able to name emotions in the moment can help interrupt impulsive reactions and support more deliberate decision-making under pressure.
Check the Facts: This skill teaches individuals to evaluate whether their emotional response fits the actual situation. By examining the evidence, officers can determine if their reaction is justified or being amplified by assumptions, misinterpretations, or past trauma.
Build Positive Experiences: This involves intentionally seeking out activities that bring enjoyment, mastery, or meaning into daily life. For law enforcement officers, who often see incredibly troubling and traumatic events, scheduling positive experiences helps counter emotional burnout and reinforces psychological balance.

Police Psychology and DBT Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

DBT uses a variety of skills to navigate interactions, many of which can help clients in police psychology.

Objective effectiveness skills help one achieve a goal through an interaction. Police psychology can adapt DBT’s DEAR MAN protocol, which stands for Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce, Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate. Having this tool can help officers navigate many of the challenging situations they encounter, particularly those that are not immediately dangerous.

Self-respect effectiveness refers to staying true to values and feeling good about how one handled themselves in a situation. This skill can be key for officers maintaining mental and emotional stability as they navigate a range of challenging interactions.

Conclusion

Incorporating DBT into police psychology can help make for more prepared officers with sustainable emotional patterns who better serve their communities. With the police force working to regain trust in many communities, practitioners who can guide officers toward controlled, effective, value-based patterns and interactions are valued and needed today.