Remote counseling for
first responders & their families
Christopher Messenger
-B.A. in Psychology
-Masters of Divinity
-Masters in Pastoral Care & Counseling (emphasis in trauma)
-CISM trained
-4 year first responder counselor/chaplain
For the last four years, I have intensely surrounded myself in the first responder world as a chaplain. As I earned the trust of a growing number of first responders, it was my desire as a new chaplain to become a student of the first responder - who they were, the differences between law enforcement & firefighters/medics, how they process differently, the residual stress/trauma in their personal lives & how they deal with all that comes with the first responder world. My pastoral care & counseling soon expanded to 6 different agencies & grew to endless hours of confidential acute & long-term care, both therapeutically & pastorally.
As a first responder chaplain found myself existing in a unique reality between two worlds. On the one hand, I have extensive therapeutical training & practice as a psychotherapist along with decades of pastoral care. On the other hand, I know to a heightened level what first responders endure based on my experience of throwing myself into the foxhole with them every day.
Humbly & not said lightly, I know suffering & death, helping on suicides, body extraction, infant deaths, giving 5 death notifications on an overdose, endless hours of ride alongs, confidential care for first responders & their families, & processing/debriefing on official levels or over a beer at a brewery. The list could go on.
My counseling process is strongly based on a psychotherapeutic method that meets responders where they are at, building trust by listening well, engaging with the complexity of the person in front of me in order to guide them toward healing.
Though I was a first responder chaplain - I am not a biblical counselor in how I therapeutically engage with responders. My sessions are completely confidential & open to all responders. I sincerely look forward to engaging with you. Read more about specific services I provide in the link below.
Image: Montana Institute for the Arts
Testimonials
Kalispell Police Chief, Jordan Veneizo
“His compassion was evident and his desire to learn and understand first responders was clear in every question he asked… Christopher was going to break barriers in helping officer wellness and the decades long police culture of suffering alone. .. he has exposed himself to so much darkness with the purpose of helping others through it.”
Rachel, Advanced EMT
“He is not scared of treading into the fray of your life, past, pain or trauma. He cares not of progress or things that are measurable, but only for people and their hearts and their minds. Time spent with Christopher was a joy and I always came away feeling uplifted yet challenged but most of all, seen.”
Meaning behind Panteleimon “All-merciful”
Saint Panteleimon (275-305 AD) is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a mighty saint, and the protector of soldiers. This aspect of his veneration is derived from his first name Pantoleon, which means “a lion in everything”. His second name, Panteleimon, given him at Baptism, which means “all-merciful”, is manifest in the veneration of the martyr as a healer. The connection between these two aspects of the saint is readily apparent in that soldiers, receiving wounds more frequently than others, are more in need of a physician-healer.
