Thin Line Therapy 206 - First Responder Counseling

01/27/2026

✨ New Team Highlight: Analizeth “Anali” Pesqueira, LSWAIC ✨

Now accepting new clients with immediate openings available. You can contact Anali at 509-540-3226.

Anali specializes in working with children and families, offering play-based therapy, parenting guidance, and developmentally appropriate support to help kids build emotional regulation, safety, and confidence. She is bilingual in English and Spanish, allowing her to serve families with culturally responsive, accessible care.

Anali provides therapy for children, adolescents, and adults navigating trauma, anxiety, family stress, and life transitions, and is known for helping both kids and parents feel supported, understood, and empowered through thoughtful, trauma-informed care.

She brings extensive experience from child welfare and CPS forensic interviewing, where she worked closely with law enforcement detectives on sensitive, high-risk cases involving abuse, neglect, and complex family systems. This background gives her a deep understanding of trauma, systems involvement, and the importance of careful, ethical, child-centered care.

Analizeth Pesqueira - Analizeth "Anali" Pesqueira (EN / ES), Pre-Licensed Professional, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, (509) 352-7455, Are you looking for a child or adolescent therapist who offers play therapy and parent support? I specialize in working with children and teens experiencing anxiety, emotio...

01/02/2026

Men in Recovery - January 2026: Stop The Threat - Stop The Stigma Founder Captain Adam Meyers, CPS believes that mental health recovery as a police officer is possible, even after the most difficult and traumatic experiences the job can bring.

Policing exposes officers to repeated critical incidents, violence, loss of life, and human suffering, often without time or space to properly process it. Over time, those experiences can lead to anxiety, depression, PTSD, moral injury, substance misuse, and unhealthy coping strategies.

Many officers are taught to push through, stay silent, and “handle it,” believing that asking for help is a sign of weakness or a career-ending decision. It is not.

Recovery does not mean forgetting what happened or pretending the trauma never occurred. Recovery means learning how to live again, with purpose, stability, and healthier ways to cope, while carrying the memories in a way that no longer controls your life. It means regaining your sense of identity, not just as an officer, but as a human being.

For police officers, recovery often begins with the hardest step: acknowledging that something is wrong and accepting the need for the right kind of help. Trauma-informed therapy, peer support, culturally competent clinicians who understand law enforcement, and evidence-based treatments such as EMDR or cognitive processing therapy can be life-changing. These tools help officers process critical incidents rather than relive them endlessly.

Recovery also includes rebuilding daily habits: sleep, physical health, boundaries at work, and reconnecting with family and friends. It means replacing harmful coping strategies with ones that support long-term wellness.

Progress is not linear. There will be setbacks, difficult days, and moments of doubt. That does not mean failure. It means healing is happening.

Too often, police culture equates strength with silence. True strength is choosing to survive, choosing treatment, and choosing life.

Officers who commit to their mental health recovery often discover a deeper resilience, improved relationships, and a renewed sense of meaning, whether they remain in law enforcement or transition to a new chapter.

Mental health struggles do not erase years of honorable service. They do not define an officer’s character, competence, or worth. A police officer can be injured in the line of duty physically and mentally. Both injuries deserve care, compassion, and time to heal.

Mental health recovery as a police officer is possible. It is real. And no officer has to walk that path alone.

www.stopthethreatstopthestigma.org

01/01/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AoGXpZW4m/

Four years ago today (New Year’s Eve - 2021) shortly after 11:00 a.m., I made one of the hardest and most important decisions of my life: I chose to get the right kind of help for my mental health. At the time, I was a police detective working a patrol shift on New Year’s eve, and my mental health was deteriorating in ways I didn’t yet fully understand or want to admit.

Following an on-duty critical incident where I used deadly force on someone in 2016 (this person died), my mental health steadily declined. I carried the weight of that incident with me every day. Like many officers, I told myself to “deal with it,” to stay busy, to push forward. Instead of processing the trauma, I relied on poor coping strategies like emotionally shutting down, isolation, abusing alcohol, casual s*x, self-harm, using ma*****na, and suppressing everything I was feeling.

I thought avoiding the pain meant I was managing it. In reality, I was making it worse.

In law enforcement, we’re trained to be problem solvers, protectors, and responders, not patients. I convinced myself that struggling meant I was weak or broken, that asking for help would define me by my worst moment instead of my years of service. So I suffered in silence while the cumulative stress, guilt, hypervigilance, and unresolved trauma took a serious toll on my mental health.

Four years ago, something changed. I reached a point where continuing the way I was felt more dangerous than asking for help. Getting the right help meant finding professionals who understood trauma, critical incidents, and law enforcement culture.

It meant confronting the shooting, my reactions to it, and the unhealthy ways I had been coping. It meant learning that trauma doesn’t mean failure and that ignoring it doesn’t make it disappear.

Finally putting myself first wasn't easy. Healing is not linear. There were setbacks, painful realizations, and days where progress felt slow or nonexistent. But there was also growth. I learned healthier coping strategies, how to process trauma instead of burying it, and how to rebuild my life beyond the badge and the incident that once defined me.

In April 2022, I was terminated from my role as a Detective while I was in the process of getting help for my mental health. With the right treatment and support, I was able to heal, rebuild, and ultimately return to law enforcement as a police officer.

Today, I’m proud of that decision. Choosing my mental health quite literally saved my life. If sharing this helps another officer who’s struggling after a critical incident or anyone living with unresolved trauma know that they are not weak and they are not alone, then it’s worth saying out loud.

It's o.k. to talk about your mental health. You are not alone. Don't suffer in silence.

Photo of Stop The Threat - Stop The Stigma Founder Captain Adam Meyers, CPS in 2021 when he was a Wisconsin Police Detective
www.stopthethreatstopthestigma.org

12/20/2025

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) confirms the tragic loss of Trooper Tara-Marysa Guting #720, who was killed Friday evening after being struck by a vehicle in Tacoma.

Trooper Guting was standing outside of her patrol car investigating a two-vehicle collision when she was struck just before 7:30 p.m. on southbound State Route 509 near milepost 2, south of the Port of Tacoma. Individuals on scene rendered aid, but the trooper ultimately succumbed to her injuries. The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) is taking over the investigation of the incident.

Trooper Guting, 29, began her career with the WSP as a trooper cadet in January 2024. She graduated with the 119th Trooper Basic Training Class, commissioning that same year on Oct. 30th. In that time, served in WSP District 1 in Tacoma.

Tara’s loss is deeply felt within the WSP family, and especially by her husband, Timothy, who himself serves as a Deputy State Fire Marshal at the WSP Fire Training Academy in North Bend.

Tara Guting was born on July 19, 1996, to Russell and Cheryl Hirata in Honolulu, Hawaii. She attended Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii, and graduated on May 25, 2014. She began a career of service by enlisting in the Army National Guard on Oct. 22, 2014, where she served honorably as a Signal Intelligence Analyst until Oct, 21, 2022. Her dedication to service and commitment to her duties were evident throughout her eight-year military career.

She married Timothy on Aug. 21, 2019, at the Fire Training Academy.

She answered her final call Friday night, marking the 34th time in WSP’s 105-year history that the agency lost one of its own in line of duty.

“My heartfelt condolences go out to Timothy, Tara’s extended family, her friends, her academy classmates, to District 1 Captain Gundermann, and his entire team,” said WSP Chief John R. Batiste. “We will never forget Badge #720 – Trooper Tara-Marysa Guting.

“The sky has poured rain on us all for the past two weeks… And with this loss, now tears flood our souls.”

12/19/2025

What a wonderful program!! Tunnel to Towers Foundation

As we continue with our Season of Hope, Tunnel to Towers is honored to be providing the family of fallen Walla Walla Fire Department Fire Engineer and Paramedic Ryan Pleasants a mortgage-free home. ❤️🇺🇸

12/18/2025

12/05/2025

In EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, and Dispatch, exhaustion isn’t just physical—it’s emotional, mental, sensory, and social too.
You carry so much for others that rest can start to feel like a luxury instead of a necessity.

🛑 But rest is not a weakness.
🟢 Rest is a requirement for survival in this profession.

Here are 6 types of rest every first responder deserves:

🧠 Mental Rest – Your mind works overtime in this job. Step back, take breaks, and let your thoughts breathe.
💪 Physical Rest – Your body is your gear. Sleep, stretch, hydrate, and let it recover.
🎧 Sensory Rest – Lights, sirens, radios, chaos… unplug when you can and give your senses quiet.
🫶 Emotional Rest – You don’t have to carry everything alone. Expressing your truth is healing.
👥 Social Rest – Be with people who refill your energy— or allow yourself space away from draining interactions.
🎨 Creative Rest – Let yourself enjoy things that spark imagination, joy, or beauty. You’re more than your shifts.

You’re human.
You’re allowed to rest.
And you deserve every type of rest listed here.

Take what you need today.
Your future self—and the people you serve—will thank you for it. 🤍

11/06/2025

WE ARE LOOKING FOR APPLICANTS TO FILL OPEN DEPUTY POSITIONS! When and where can you apply?

You can apply locally on November 15th in Pasco!

•November 15th at 9:30AM
•Pasco Police Department (215 W. Sylvester)
•Written and Physical Testing on site

We will be there to talk about WWSO, our wonderful Walla Walla community, and answer all your questions before the tests begin. Check out what a career as a deputy can offer you…

For more information about WWSO: https://www.wwcowa.gov/departments/sheriff/index.php

Sing up for the test: https://www.publicsafetytesting.com/events/20289

11/05/2025

Several months ago, we became a proud provider with The Headstrong Project, which provides the best-in-class, barrier-free PTSD treatment for veterans and their families.

This Veterans Day – Tuesday, November 11, from 3-6 PM – select Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams locations will donate 25% of all sales to Headstrong Project.

Check the graphic for participating scoop shops!

Every scoop supports trauma-focused care for veterans living with PTSD. Check the graphic for participating scoop shops!

10/23/2025

💙 New Team Member Announcement — Meet John Tank!
I’m excited to introduce John Tank, our newest clinician at Thin Line Therapy 206, PLLC in Walla Walla.

John is a U.S. Navy veteran, former pastor, and corrections chaplain who brings a wealth of experience & insight into supporting first responders, law enforcement, and high-stress professionals. He recently completed his M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Liberty University and is currently under supervision while finalizing licensure.

He specializes in couples and family therapy, integrating Gottman Method (Level 2), trauma-informed, and faith-based approaches when requested. John’s cultural insight and genuine care make him an incredible addition to our team, and allows him to connect authentically with those who serve others — from officers and firefighters to healthcare professionals and their families.
He’s now accepting new clients for both in-person and telehealth sessions.

👉 View his full profile here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/.../john-tank.../1614565

If you work with clients who might benefit from culturally competent, faith-integrated, or first-responder-focused care, John would be an excellent referral option (Operating in Washington State).

Please join me in welcoming John to the community — we’re thrilled to have him on board!

— Amie Peterson, LMHC
Thin Line Therapy 206, PLLC
“Built for the Culture. Backed by the Experience. Delivered with Respect.”

John Tank - John Tank - Thin Line Therapy 206, PLLC, Pre-Licensed Professional, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, (509) 800-5583, Behind the badge, uniform, or scrubs, you’re still human—and the weight of what you see, hear, and carry can take a toll not only on you but also on the people you love most. T...

08/15/2025

08/14/2025