Thank you for visiting this page dedicated to working with active or retired federal, county, state, municipal, military, or college law enforcement professionals. In providing behavioral health education and training to law enforcement professionals, I use a simple and intuitive tool that I call the "Crosshairs" (Gallo, 2017). It's a diagram adapted from the "ACT Matrix" by Kevin Polk (2011; see also Polk, Schoendorff, Webster, & Fabian, 2016).
The Crosshairs Diagram
Imagine for a moment that you just washed some silverware, and you’re sorting it into a kitchen cabinet drawer. You can put forks, spoons, butter knives, and sharp knives into different piles according to their common characteristics. It turns out that you can do the same thing with situations in life.
The Crosshairs diagram is a highly-effective tool to help you look at situations that show up in your life, divide, and sort the things you do in them. Using the Crosshairs diagram results in being more aware of whether the things you do to deal with painful thoughts, feelings, and situations are helpful or unhelpful in living your values at work, home, or in other important areas of life.
To learn more about the Crosshairs diagram, watch the animated video below. It tells the story of the Crosshairs diagram and its different parts. It helps make the diagram simple to use and puts it all in perspective.
The Blue Life Academy is a free website focused on behavioral health education and training for law enforcement professionals, including
- Acceptance and commitment training
- Breathing, mindfulness, and relaxation training
- Critical incident support information
- Suicide prevention tools
- Resources for military service members
- And more stuff...
The Blue Life Coach app is a FREE behavioral health toolkit designed to help law enforcement professionals lower stress, improve performance during challenging situations, improve sleep, reduce emotional reactivity, increase situational awareness, sharpen mental clarity and problem-solving skills, and live life with more purpose and vitality, guided by their values. The FREE app is available on the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores.
References
- Gallo, F. J. (2017). Bouncing back from trauma: The essential step-by-step guide for police readiness. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
- Gallo, F. J. (2019). Police use of force. In J. Kitaeff (Ed.), Handbook of police psychology (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge, Psychology Press.
- Polk, K. (2011). Psychological flexibility training (PFT): Flexing your mind along with your muscles. Seattle, WA: Amazon Digital Services.
- Polk, K., Schoendorff, B., Webster, M., & Olaz, F. O. (2016). The essential guide to the ACT Matrix: A step-by-step approach to using the ACT Matrix model in clinical practice. Oakland, CA: Context Press.
How to Contact Me
Frank J. Gallo, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist
Retired Law Enforcement
Blue Life Behavioral Health
P.O. Box 8592
Cranston, RI 02920
Phone: (413) 575-8145
Email: support@bluelifeacademy.com
Blue Life Academy: https://bluelifeacademy.com
Blue Life Coach: https://bluelifecoach.com