A University of Windsor graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology, and a minor in Criminology and Psychology, Amy Boudreau has spent the last nine years as a Police Constable with a specialty in Crime Prevention. She holds a Professional Communications Certificate from the University of Toronto, has the International Crime Prevention Specialist (ICPS) designation, and is currently enrolled in a Leadership Certificate Program at the University of Waterloo.
Amy serves as a Mental Health Ambassador, Peer Support Team Member, and is part of the First Responder Mindfulness Network (FRMN) run by the Ministry of the Solicitor General Corporate Healthcare and Wellness Branch. Amy has extensive training in crisis response, crisis intervention, and mental health awareness training. In 2016, she attended the International Meditation Centre located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for meditation training and in 2017, she began organizing meditation sessions at a local temple for police employees. At the same time, she launched her “@TheYogaCop” social media platforms to advocate, educate, inspire, and spread awareness. She holds a Corporate Yoga Certification, Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY) Certification, and uses Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) which assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma, to help others in reaching a state of balance.
Occupational Stress Injury (OSI) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop over time from persistent work-related psychological injury or difficulty caused by traumatic experiences, prolonged high stress, or fatigue during service. Amy’s mission is to assist others in developing self-care, self-compassion, self-belief, and optimism, and to teach others how to maintain individual wellbeing protective factors against burn-out and psychological difficulties through a unique mental resiliency framework. Amy remains involved within the policing community through several activities:
- Executive Board Member for the International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioners (ISCPP)
- Community Liaison for the Canadian Society of Evidence Based Policing (CANSEBP)
- Advancing “We” in Policing (AWIP) Committee Member, Ontario Working Group
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Level 1 instructor
Amy Boudreau – Wellness PresentationOpenAmy Boudreau – Helpful ResourcesOpenLinks:
The Wellness Presentation file is a PDF that we were discussing during the show so you can follow along and also see the visuals that she provided.
The second download of resources contains the below resources as well as others for further research.
First Responder Wellness & Mental Health, with a focus on Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation
First Responder Mindfulness Network (FRMN): a network of officers and researchers across North America collaborating, information-sharing and pioneering to advocate, educate, and bring about change within their first-responder industries as it relates to wellness and mental health through the use of mindfulness modalities, led by the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Corporate Healthcare and Wellness Branch in Toronto, Canada. Co-leads: sarah.easterbrook@ontario.ca &
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