Therapy for First Responders in Milwaukee

For police officers, firefighters, paramedics and EMTs, 911 dispatchers, corrections officers, and the families who wait up for them. In person in Milwaukee and online across Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.

You run toward the calls everyone else runs from. Then you clock out, drive home, and you're supposed to flip a switch and be a regular person again. Some days the switch works. Lately, maybe it doesn't.

Most first responders don't reach out because of one bad call. They reach out because the calls added up, and the usual ways of coping (dark humor, the gym, a couple of beers, just not talking about it) stopped working as well as they used to.

What first responders bring to therapy

• The calls that stay with you — the ones you replay at 3 a.m. or that come back out of nowhere
• Hypervigilance that won't shut off: scanning every room, trouble sleeping after shift, a body still braced for the next tone
• Irritability, short fuses, or going numb and distant at home
• Grief for coworkers, patients, and people you couldn't save, with no time to process it before the next call
• Drinking more, or leaning harder on whatever helps you come down
• A culture that says "suck it up," and a job where asking for help can feel like a risk

Therapy here isn't a debrief and it isn't a fitness-for-duty evaluation. It's a confidential place to sort through what the job has put on you, at your own pace. You decide what to talk about and when. You don't have to start with the worst call.

A note about privacy

Many first responders steer clear of their department's EAP because they aren't sure what gets back to command. Shoreside is an independent private practice with no connection to your department, union, or city. We're private pay, so there's no claim on your employer's insurance unless you choose to submit a superbill yourself. Sessions can be online, so you don't have to sit in a waiting room in the community you serve. In your first session, your therapist will walk you through the standard legal limits of confidentiality, so you know exactly where the lines are.

Meet Deva

Deva Murphy, MSW, LCSW

Deva grew up in a first responder family and is married to a first responder. Between her father's career and her husband's, she knows what the job asks of the person in uniform and of the people at home. She specializes in trauma and PTSD, loss and grief, using person-centered and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Deva sees clients in person at our Milwaukee office and online across Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Openings now

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Work in healthcare? Our page on burnout therapy for healthcare workers covers compassion fatigue, moral injury, and shift-work burnout for nurses, physicians, and hospital staff.