"Jerry" Sargent, Regional Police; received Province-wide
Recognition Award for exemplary work done in race relations through the Regional Police,
awarded by Human Rights and Race Relations Center, Toronto, Ontario
Comments: 5/9 and 5/10/98
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Knowing about the extensive possibilities of NLT is fantastic! NLT is an incredible
"tool" in the workplace.
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Now I know I can "zap" those frustrating feelings away -- become more
productive.
* I would love to (use the knowledge gained from
this workshop in my work) however I feel I need more training with the techniques.
* (I will use the knowledge) to control feelings
created by insignificant circumstances in my spousal relationship.
* (Most useful) was learning that I can control
or change my own responses.
* I have a sense of calmness about certain
situations which previously caused me anxiety.
* Excellent pace. Each participant was given as
much time as he/she needed which put them at ease and resulted in the best possible change
in his/her response. |
| Her answer
to:"Can NLT be effectively used to erase racist-related responses?" |
- Absolutely! (if the participant is willing!)
- -I feel that I can use the concepts to deal with my own personal
feelings.
- I love the concepts. I believe with more training it is possible to have
people agree that their responses are interfering with their lives which would
cause them to desire changes in themselves , therefore making them anxious to
participate in NLT.
- I see NLT as an extremely useful tool both in professional and personal
situations.
- The response changes in some subjects were amazing! I really believe the
participants will be able to handle themselves with as much control as they desire
in future situations which previously caused them fear, anxiety, intimidation, etc.
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3
weeks after the workshop: |
"Now I can’t
even remember having had any feeling of stress overcoming me since the workshop, like I
used to before. Now I can easily go into my comfortable, "safe
place" feeling whenever I sense something big coming at me suddenly. …I used to
cry with people whenever they began to cry and I couldn’t control it. Recently when
someone close to me began to cry I found myself suddenly in that "safe place"
and didn’t feel the urge to cry with them. I was able to respond with self-control
and the situation worked out very well. Everything is going very smoothly and I am telling
colleagues and friends about NLT….I also am trying to figure out ways to find funding
so I can take the full NLT training for myself. I can see so many situations where
having the training would enable me to be of real use to many officers here at work, as
well as to the victims of accidents and difficult circumstances whose lives we encounter
from day to day." |
| "I feel that
policing can greatly benefit from NLT and I am making definite plans to receive the NLT
Basic Certification training with the next project. Here are a few concrete reasons why
police need NLT interventions. We face
emergency situations daily. Some situations expose us to extensive tragic incidents and
others are life threatening. Residual feelings from these types of situations sometimes
interfere with the future performance of police employees, and often compromise our
domestic situations, making us very fragile as a result of our inability to cope with
unresolved feelings and emotions. We also have the requirement to remain calm in the face
of taunting circumstances and therefore must have some type of anger (and fear or anxiety)
control. Also, some employees need to be de-stressed when they are situationally
overwhelmed with the responsibility of complying with legal and administrative procedures.
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| NLT is finally something
which can help us with these circumstances and situations. The horror of tragedies and
disasters can be eliminated or neutralized with NLT. Officers do have
real fears. Through NLT, reasonable fears can be lessened or even "re-routed" so
that an officer can maintain a sense of personal safety yet not have the overwhelming,
terrifying or immobilizing effect, which is not at all useful in the course of duty.
I’d like to see NLT be used to change officers’ fears so they become useful
instead of debilitating.
For instance, on a small scale, officers need to be aware that there can
sometimes be something in the dark / unknown which could possibly harm him/her, yet not
have this fear of the dark / unknown actually terrify and therefore immobilize him/her to
useful action. NLT can be used to enable officers with unreasonable, terrified fear of the
dark or the unknown to eliminate this response and replace it with a healthy sense of
alertness and self control as (s)he continues to go about his/her duty in those
circumstances.
On a larger scale, an officer who has the terrifying fear that a person may be
carrying a gun and might draw it suddenly as the officer approaches: NLT can eliminate the
terror response and allow it to be replaced with a reasonable healthy caution so as to
take reasonable safety measures before approaching the person. Otherwise the terrifying
fear can often lead officers to avoid or abort their duty (e.g. a car-stop situation).
With NLT applied, the officer can proceed with control and coolness, yet be alert to
respond with protective measures if necessary.
Other uses of NLT:
- Anxiety can be replaced with calmness vs. one’s adrenaline rushing so high
that (s)he is immobilized and unable to speak.
- NLT can also be used to effectively and efficiently de-stress shock responses
after certain traumatic circumstances.
- We also offer services to victims of traumatized situations. Up until now we
could only give initial consultations and referrals to appropriate agencies. With NLT
training of police officers, we would have a tool to enable us to deal immediately
with victims feelings of fear, insecurity, guilt, remorse and more.
e.g. situations with remorse: the sudden death of a family member as a
result of a car accident. The surviving family members often blame themselves and/or other
surviving members of their family: NLT would be a most appreciated tool to get rid of
these remorse feelings
e.g. guilt feeling situations: a child has been injured in an accident of
some sort and the parent(s) blame themselves: "If only I had…and my child would
not have been injured.", etc; another typical situation of guilt feelings experienced
in family members is after a suicide incident. NLT would be very useful and desirable in
these situations.
e.g. situations with trauma, insecurity and fear: after an elderly,
single/widowed woman’s house has been broken into; she is traumatized and feeling
fear and anxiety that she is no longer safe living in her house alone; another example
which police officers encounter is trying to find ways to assist sexual assault victims
who go through trauma, fear, anger and withdrawal, even sometimes a hatred toward everyone
of the opposite sex.
I am convinced that NLT would be most useful in dealing with all of these
situations and individuals, both for officers’ personal negative feelings and
not-useful responses and for the victims we so frequently offer assistance to.
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