Marin course bolsters stress training for firefighters

Firefighters are going to school at Dominican University of California in San Rafael to engage in a unique training program geared toward high-stress, demanding professions.

Three firefighters from Marin and Contra Costa counties are students in the “applied sport and performance psychology” course. The university offers a certificate program for athletes, coaches and others in exacting fields, and a related master’s degree program.

“We currently have 19 students in the certificate program and 30 in our master of arts program,” said Alison Pope-Rhodius, the director. “They’re mostly athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, psychologists and therapists — and now three firefighters.”

San Rafael Fire Department Battalion Chief Jason Hatfield, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief David Watson and Contra Costa Capt. Sam Nichols just completed the first semester of the five-course, 13-unit certificate program.

The course emphasizes mental skills, Hatfield said. Such training can make the difference between, for example, learning to tie a knot when there is no active emergency and doing the same knot quickly and successfully when something’s on fire, he said.

“Anxiety gets in the way,” he said. “They basically like to use the sports analogy — they choke.”

On Monday, Pope-Rhodius and other speakers offered a four-hour professional development workshop for about 25 firefighters from Marin and other fire agencies. Presenters included Dan Ourian, the program’s assistant director, and Claire Reclosado-Baclay, a faculty member.

“This is to give them some mental skills training, whether they take the course or not,” Pope-Rhodius said of the workshop. “Also, some leadership skills and motivation.”

While Monday’s workshop was free, tuition for the Dominican certificate course is $1,210 per unit, or $15,730 for all five courses. Hatfield said he is covering the costs on his own. The Contra Costa firefighters said tuition was being paid through a combination of professional development money set aside for each firefighter and personal funds.

The course offers a new vision of how to perform under high stress while staying calm and focused, Hatfield said.

“In the fire service we do a ton of training,” he said. “It’s mostly manipulative training, like how to pull a fire hose and how to put a ladder up.”

Firefighters, he said, “also do mental health training, which is good, but that’s more about how to deal with post traumatic stress and stress management.”

The difference, he said, is learning “tools in the toolbox.”

“I have trained individuals and told them they need to calm down, be more confident and have greater focus,” Hatfield said. “It is one thing to tell them that, but it is another thing to follow that up with: Here are some things that you can do to increase your confidence, and here are some ways you can increase your focus.”

In addition to mental skills, the training focuses on resilience, motivation, goal setting and confidence.

“Everybody needs to work on their mental game,” Pope-Rhodius said. “No matter how good they are technically and physically, they need to work on the psychological aspects as well.”

In addition to athletes and firefighters, other candidates for such training include musicians, ballet dancers, people in the business world and members of the military, Pope-Rhodius said.

The idea to seek out a mental skills training course came from Contra Costa firefighters who listened to a podcast called “Leadership Under Fire.”

The podcast includes speakers from fire agencies and other professions throughout the country.

Firefighters are “tactical athletes,” Watson said.

“Firefighters need to perform at a very high level at all times and in all sorts of high-stress situations,” he said.

The Dominican program “will help us to develop a program for our academies and for our in-service personnel to help with skills to deal with high stress situations,” he said.

Hatfield agreed.

“Our firefighters train hard every shift,” he said. “They want to perform better and are trying everything they can. Exposure to performance psychology will give them — and those of us who train them — more tools and more effective tools to get them to where they need to be.”