Blue Line Psychological Services, PLLC

11/12/2025

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eat.24353

11/11/2025

Thank you NYT reporter Maria Cramer for inviting Blue Line’s Thomas Coghlan to contribute to this article regarding Pre-Employment Evaluations:

“…Coghlan, who worked as a department psychologist for eight years before retiring in 2018, now handles both appeals and assessments for police agencies. Dr. Coghlan said during his time in the department, he and his colleagues tried hard to keep racial and cultural biases out of their work.

“By trade and by training, psychologists are extremely sensitive to multicultural issues,” he said.

But department psychologists also err heavily on the side of caution, and as a result, a suitable candidate may be rejected, he said.

“If I’m looking to give someone that immense amount of power, which way would I rather be wrong?” he said, adding that a psychologist “would prefer to deny somebody a job and be wrong than to give somebody the job and be wrong.”

The New York Police Department has tried to fire 30 officers who failed a psychological exam or a background check. Some say the test is the problem.

11/06/2025

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083389/episodes/18126601

In Part 2 of this gripping two-part series, Giovanni Rocco pulls back the curtain on life after the takedown.What happens when the mission ends—but the mask doesn’t come off?This episode explores the personal cost of living undercover: the toll it...

11/03/2025

An excellent new resource for Peer Support, from one of the best in the field Dr. Gina Gallivan
Gina Gallivan & Associates

We offer easy, convenient returns with at least one free return option: no shipping charges. All returns must comply with our returns policy.

10/28/2025

Mental Health Resources for the Port Authority of NY & NJ

“Smash Stigma, Save Lives” is a powerful message for all First Responders. Seeking mental health support is no longer a sign of weakness; it’s the first step toward becoming stronger and healthier in every aspect of life. By breaking the silence around mental health, we can start saving lives. Let’s all fight stigma together."
Peter J. Killeen, Ed.D.

10/27/2025

“…while others, due to lack of clinical knowledge and digital literacy, are more likely to suffer from clinically inappropriate responses… we argue that reducing psychotherapy—a deeply meaningful and relational process—to a language generation task can have serious and harmful implications in practice.” ~ Ifthikar et al 2025

“Serious and harmful implications.” Translate: Someone Is Going To Get Hurt. Ethical codes exist to protect the public from harm; in a space where ethics do not exist (e.g., unlicensed non-professionals and pseudo-experts), people will get hurt. It’s not “if”, it’s “when”.

There is, unfortunately, a prevalence and ubiquitousness of pseudo-experts and other types in the field of law enforcement mental health who are enabled, encouraged, and given the stage and an entree into agencies. These folks are unlicensed but operating on the fringe of mental health, in the wellness space, where neither governing ethical codes nor regulatory licensing boards exist.

As an interesting parallel or analogy, this article highlights concerns regarding “unethical” mental health practices by LLMs - Large Langauge Model AI - specifically Lack of Safety & Crisis Management, Poor Therapuetic Collaboration, Deceptive Empathy, Lack of Contextual Understanding, and Unfair Discrimination.

https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AIES/article/view/36632

Operating from the premise that LLMs or AI can be unethical, as the article suggests, consider this question:

What is the difference between these LLMs operating in the mental health space and pseudo-experts and hobbyists operating in the space?

As someone responsible for the mental wellness of law enforcement, would you entrust LEO mental health to a LLM or an AI? If not, then why would you enable and entrust unlicensed opportunists to invade the space? To misinform LEOs? To present well beyond their scope of any competence?

If you wouldn’t tell cops or Chiefs to put LEO mental health under the care of an “unethical” LLM, why would you put unlicensed MHPs in a position of influence in the space?

As we move into new territory, the lack of regulation regarding AI is problematic, especially in mental health - but for a very long time so has the lack of regulation (and the field’s enabling) of pseudo-experts, hobbyists, self-appointed celebrity podcasters, wellness influencers, coaches, and other unlicensed, non-MHPs operating in the law enforcement mental health space.

Please - for the sake of our LEOs - before taking anyone in the mental health or wellness space at their word, before confusing glitter for gold, before plucking the low hanging fruit, ask the questions:
What is your degree?, What is your license? Etc.

Iftikhar, Z., Xiao, A., Ransom, S., Huang, J., & Suresh, H. (2025, October). How LLM Counselors Violate Ethical Standards in Mental Health Practice: A Practitioner-Informed Framework. In Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 1311-1323).

10/13/2025

Good morning.

09/29/2025

A client came for an EMDR reprocessing session today, using visual bilateral stimulation (BLS). Prior, over four sessions, they received psychoeducation regarding the mechanics of BLS (including their exposure to and choice of visual, tactile, audio), full informed consent regarding potential adverse effects, risks, and benefits, handouts and readings, and the building of full resource skills including self-regulatory breathing skills, guided imagery, and progressive muscle relaxation - all fully in keeping with standardized training.

This is fully-informed, ethical, comprehensive, responsible use of bilateral stimulation under the care of a licensed mental health professional. Anything less is unacceptable.

09/22/2025