In terms of the research that has been done, peer-to-peer therapy appears to be one of the most positive forms of therapy. You need to know what it is to be able to treat it, and you will be able to talk to someone who understands what you've been through. But it's also because of the social context in which a lot of first responders work. They work in very tight groups where peer-on-peer dependency is almost trained into them. If that's the case, is there not a role, then, for first responders and youth in troubled neighbourhoods to perhaps help each other, as opposed to sometimes being seen on the opposite side of this conversation? Is there a possibility here that you could actually redeploy first responders into a social setting, both as therapy, but also as social programming?
On May 14th, 2015. See this statement in context.