Nancy Bohl-Penrod, Ph.D. holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a master’s degree in counseling/education. She is the Founder and the past Director of The Counseling Team International (TCTI). She is a member of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and a certified Master Trainer for the QPR Institute focusing on Suicide Prevention and Intervention for first responders. She is also a certified trainer for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF), ICEMA for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), California Peace Officer and Standard in Training (POST) and Standards and Training for Corrections (STC). She is an adjunct professor in the Criminal Justice Departments for Riverside Community College and for the San Bernardino Valley Community College. Nancy also teaches for California State University Long Beach (CSULB) as a adjunct faculty member in their Criminal Justice Department. She has been a guest speaker for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), California Highway Patrol (CHP) Academies and she was honored to present at the United Nations to their Security Police. She is one of the past Presidents of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Psychological Services Section and Vice President of the National Sheriffs Association Psychological Services Section. (NSA). Nancy is one of the founders of the Public Safety Peer Support Association (PSPSA).

Dr. Bohl-Penrod is certified in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which is a technique she uses to help trauma survivors She attended the FBI’s basic and advanced Hostage Negotiators courses to become a trained Hostage negotiator (CNT). She is known for her 5-day Peer Support and Critical Incident Stress Management training that has been taught to over 15,000 first responders throughout the United States and Canada, Peer supporters from all over the nation attend the course, so they may help their fellow co-workers. She believes in the “Helping Triad” and how important it is to provide peer support and Chaplains in addition to Clinicians to those that are impacted by their work. Nancy’s personal experience (her husband 38 years law enforcement), over the years, has allowed her to develop a personal approach to helping first responder families by providing “Significant Other Survival” (SOS) training and the importance of Wellness, Well-being and Behavioral Health. Her passion for First Responder families comes from attending the Police Memorial in Washington DC for the past 34 years to help those survivors who lost a loved one in the line of duty.

Nancy has responded to more than 3,000 critical incidents in her career of which over 1,000 were OIS’s, and over 100 public safety suicides.  . She started a retreat for those officers involved in shootings, which has been on going for the past 31 years. She has research on 3,500 police officers that were in involved in on duty shootings. . Some of the major incidents she has responded to, are the ATF incident in Waco, Texas, the TWA Flight 800 disaster in Long Island, New York, the LA Riots, the Typhoon disaster in Guam, hurricane Andrew, the Alaska Air Disaster in Los Angeles, the Oklahoma City Bombing and the ATF Unabomber case. She led a team of Mental Health Professionals in assisting those severely impacted by the Terrorist Attacks in New York. While in New York she was sent by the FBI to the Pentagon to provide her services. She responded to the California Wildfires of 2003, and assisted the U.S. Forest Service in the loss of Engine 57 firefighters in the Esperanza Fire of 2006.Dr. Bohl-Penrod services were used for the Big Bear Manhunt (Dorner Case), the Los Angeles International Airport TSA shooting, Seal Beach Beauty Salon shooting, the Columbine school shooting, She also helped first responders with the San Bernardino Terrorist Attack at the Inland Regional Center, the Las Vegas 91 Harvest Shooting, the California Tubbs and Thomas wildfires, the Santa Barbara County mudslides, the Yountville Pathway Veteran Home shooting, the Borderline Bar shooting in Thousand oaks, California, and the Conception Boat Fire in Santa Barbara

Over the past thirty-five years Nancy has developed over seventy-five public safety wellness divisions for departments of all sizes through her public safety “Behavioral Health and Wellness Services” program. Dr. Bohl-Penrod has written numerous articles and book chapters focusing on mental health issues for police and fire personnel, Peer Support, Suicide Prevention, and Family wellness.  She recently worked with a team of mental health professionals who created an APP to guide public safety peer supporters and supervisors in their endeavor to help each other. Two of her greatest achievements was receiving from the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) the “Exceptional Service in the Public Interest” certificate of appreciation and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.