Dr. Richard Janka is a Resilience and Call Mastery Instructor, specializing in design and delivery of resilience, peer support, and emergency mental health dispatching training for 9-1-1 Professionals and other emergency responders.

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Dr. Janka is a licensed clinical psychologist in Michigan and currently the Clinical Director at Solid Ground Counseling, offering individual, couple, family and group counseling. The clinic also offers in-service trainings on a variety of mental health topics. Dr. Janka works with clients and supervises the clinical staff. He conducts all of the first-responder trainings, including wellness, peer support and critical incident stress management (CISM). He also serves as a mental health consultant for 15 agencies (including their dispatchers) in the greater Detroit metropolitan area, including Michigan State Police.

 

Dr. Janka completed a two-year internship in rehabilitation psychology at Special Tree Rehabilitation Services working with patients who suffered brain and spinal cord injuries. After graduation, he worked as a Forensic Psychologist at the Wayne County Jail, where he worked with inmates conducting suicide assessments, risk assessments and testified as an expert witness. He also served as a Reserve Deputy with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (MI).

 

​In 2012, Dr. Janka graduated with his doctoral degree. His dissertation investigated symptoms of PTSD among law enforcement officers who had responded to critical incidents involving death. It was presented at the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation’s World Congress in 2013. Dr. Janka was an adjunct faculty instructor at Oakland Community College and taught classes at Oakland Police Academy and the Detroit Police Department Chaplain's Academy. 

 

Dr. Janka worked as a Staff Psychologist with the Michigan Department of State Police for five years. His responsibilities included psychotherapy for department members and their families, teaching at recruit school, training and coaching crisis negotiators, wellness training for emergency dispatchers and serving as program coordinator for the department’s Peer Support Program.

 

​Dr. Janka holds a Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology, a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. He is a certified CISM Instructor with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.