Stephanie Neuman

Trauma Therapist

From Crime Fighter to Life Changer, we would like to welcome Stephanie Neuman, LCSW to Brainz Magazine. Stephanie started her professional career in law enforcement as a detention officer. She then moved onto becoming a patrol officer and then a patrol sergeant. Stephanie found her calling as a Mental Health Trauma Therapist and specializes in working with First Responders. By navigating her own trauma as a police officer, Stephanie found the importance of seeking out effective therapy and eventually gained her Master’s degree in Social Work in 2011.

After thirteen years of seeing clients and working through their trauma, Stephanie now sees that every experience in her life has determined what her brain and body held onto as trauma. In 2006, after eight weeks on as a patrol officer, Stephanie was involved in an officer involved shooting with her Field Training Officer. In that moment, the Chief of police ordered Stephanie into therapy. This order would forever change her path in law enforcement. During that therapy Stephanie was introduced to a therapy called Eye Movement Desensification and Reprocessing (EMDR). She continued therapy throughout her career and utilized this effective therapy when she had her first hostage negotiation happen. Like the beginning of Stephanie’s career, this negotiation was anything but normal. More often than not, hostage negotiators find themselves in a small room with their colleagues negotiating with the “bad guy” over the phone. This negotiation was in-person with the “bad guy” standing about ten feet in front of Stephanie, holding a gun to his head. With the best skills she had, Stephanie attempted to negotiate the gun away from the “bad guy”. Unfortunately, nothing Stephanie said or did could change the motivation this person had to kill himself. After 42 long minutes she watched as her first negotiation went the worse way possible. When the sound of gun fire was done ringing in her ears, Stephanie realized she was in shock and immediately called her therapist.

Six months later, Stephanie enrolled into a graduate program for a Master’s of Social Work when she realized other officers at that scene hadn’t gotten therapy. While Stephanie had been going to therapy throughout her entire career, she was reminded by her good co-worker that therapy wasn’t the standard practice for cops and she was motivated to do something about that.

Now, Stephanie owns her own private practice and works to educate and reinforce the need for mental health care in all first responders and frankly all humans. Stephanie specializes in using Brainspotting with her clients and explains to them the simple practice of looking at a specific spot can change the way your brain works. Stephanie is on a mission to change the world and is passionate about helping others understand their experiences as a First Responder.

When Stephanie isn’t changing lives, she is a wife and a mom. Stephanie and her husband, Casey live in Wyoming where they enjoy time in the mountains with their son, Thor. Thor keeps them busy while they ride four-wheelers, fish and enjoy all the Wyoming outdoors have to offer.