Some powerful prose from our Founder, Dr. Kristen Wheldon!

By: Robert Avsec, FSPA Operations Chief

Having spent the last couple of days with Dr. Wheldon at the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s Annual Fire and Emergency Services Symposium and Dinner, I once again had a front row seat seeing her passion for fire psychology as she interacted with fire service leaders.

And just how passionate and committed is she? Besides leaving her three children back home in Southern California and taking a “red-eye” flight across the country? Well, she either wrote this on the plane back home or she dashed it off after she got home and in either case I wanted to share it with you on her behalf.

Ten years ago, if you asked me whether I would start a nonprofit focused on fire service psychology, I wouldn’t have known what to say.

At the time, I was working full time as a senior psychologist specialist for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. I collaborated with multidisciplinary teams supporting incarcerated people while also contributing to the safety and security of the institution.

I worked alongside exceptional psychologists, social workers, medical professionals, administrators, state officials, correctional officers, correctional counselors, and firefighters (CDCR has their own). I saw how psychological autopsies helped identify systemic contributors to suicide. I worked in systems that routinely assessed levels of care so resources could meet people where they were. I witnessed a deep commitment to professional development—and clinical presentations many only read about in textbooks.

Eventually, I realized I didn’t want to spend most of my waking hours in an institution.
So, I left.

Those experiences profoundly shaped how I understand systems, care, and people—and I remain deeply grateful for them.

Soon after, I fell into the fire service.

Although I had some exposure to firefighting growing up (my godfather was a captain in a large municipal department), professional opportunities in fire and EMS psychology were scarce. When I accepted a role as a full-time fire psychologist and Director of Behavioral Health, I made a shocking discovery: one psychologist was expected to do it all—risk management, critical incident response, peer support oversight, and direct clinical care.

When I looked at neighboring police and sheriff’s departments, I saw something very different—dozens of psychologists, national conferences, established practice standards, and a robust professional community.

I searched everywhere for the same kind of professional home within the fire service.
At the time, there were five full-time fire service psychologists in the entire country.

That gap mattered.

In 2017, the Fire Service Psychology Association was founded to bridge the divide between professional psychology and the fire service. Over the last two days, we met at CFSI with leaders of the APA.

This is what commitment looks like.

Here’s a truth people should know:
Incarcerated individuals often have better access to specialized psychological care than firefighters.

Why firefighters?

Why not firefighters?

I believe—wholeheartedly—that firefighters deserve access to the highest standard of psychological care.

And it will happen.
We will continue to come together to make it so.

Grateful to the psychologists, master’s-level clinicians, and fire service professionals who share that commitment.