The demands on modern firefighters have increased enormously in recent years. Firefighters and commanders today need new and improved tools, tools which will give them an edge. In the face of the increased practical necessities and operational tempo of modern firefighting and rescue environments, firefighters need the most effective psychological technologies, based in modern cognitive and related sciences, to help them to go home alive at the end of the shift or the assignment.

These technologies are to be found in a knowledge of mind; a knowledge of what’s going on in the heads of firefighters as they deal with the shifting high-speed demands of modern emergency service.

Firefighters, like all first responders, need to understand their own mental liabilities and solutions—what can go wrong with thinking and memory under conditions of extraordinary stress, and what we can do about it. Firefighters can train and use specific tactics to defeat these hazards—but only if they're aware of them. Firefighters need to understand the sources of these hazards, and the way they operate, to deal with them in the harsh realities of modern fire environments.

That's where Thinking Under Pressure comes in. In this book, written especially for the fire service, you'll learn the sources and mechanisms of major hazards that the human brain adds to the physical dangers firefighters face every day. You will also learn about issues of chronic and acute stress, and about the bases of effective, modern psychological technologies, skills that can be used and developed to deal with the extraordinary stresses of the firefighter's world. This book will show you the bases of successful approaches in your professional, family, and personal life.

Knowing the basics of thinking under pressure, of what happens to the mind when it confronts danger, gives you an additional edge, an additional and very powerful weapon which contributes directly to professional effectiveness and to survivability in the field.

The author, Dr. Matt Sharps, has taught these topics to students, first responders, and legal, medical, and military personnel. He has given invited presentations to officers of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the FBI, NASA-Ames, the federal police services of Italy and South Africa, and to many other agencies in the United States. He has consulted on numerous criminal cases and is a graduate of the two U.S. Department of Homeland Security terror-bombing intervention schools.

Building on his research and experience in these areas, he has in recent years collaborated in conducting systematic psychoeducational training for firefighters in interagency professional retreats and similar settings. The trainees in these settings have included local and state firefighters, trainers, and commanders operating in the increasingly dangerous environments of rural and wilderness wildfires, together with firefighters from urban and regional fire departments, arson investigators, and other first responders.

This book is concise and informal. It's written to be convenient, accessible, and interesting for firefighters and other first responders. This book will contribute to greater success in all the realms of importance to the modern firefighter: personal effectiveness, family well-being, and enhanced professional performance in the field.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.