Episode 46: Surviving Retirement with Police Psychologist Dr. Medina Baumgart

Surviving Retirement with Police Psychologist Dr. Medina Baumgart

 

Today, I have a guest who is a subject matter expert on the topic, Dr. Medina Baumgart, an in-house psychologist at a LE Agency and author of “Surviving Retirement: Finding Purpose and Fulfillment Beyond the Badge”. In her role as an in-house psychologist, she conducts counseling, works with peer support, and builds relationships with sworn and civilian members while embedded in their patrol stations. 

But it is her personal experience as the spouse of a retired LEO that inspired her book and course. She openly shares her husband’s struggle with depression and alcohol after retirement as well as her own.  Despite having the tools as a psychologist, she felt helpless to help her own husband. 

Dr. Baumgart walks us through a framework in the book she wants all retirees to know about, which she learned from Dr. Riley Moynes. 

It consists of four phases all retirees can expect to go through: vacation phase, the loss or grief phase, trial and error phase, and if all goes well the reinvent and rewire phase.

Although she never set out to write a book, we discuss how she asked her husband to write everything down that he wanted other cops to know about retirement, and the course and book were born from there.

Although different for everyone, Dr. Baumgart tells us the re-establishment of routine, going to the gym, and tackling projects outside of his comfort zone are some of the ways her husband achieved those last steps in the framework above.

Besides her personal experience, she spoke with over 200 retirees as she researched her book, and many of the issues and challenges were the same.  I shared with her my own struggle with identity and the shame and embarrassment I felt surrounding that.   According to Psychology Today, our identity is a unique blend of our memories, experiences, relationships, and values that create our sense of self.  This mix creates a steady sense of who we are over time, even as new facets are developed and incorporated into one’s identity.  Although I thought I was pretty diverse, if I am being completely honest, my role at work was a big part of who I was. 

I remember hearing one time that you can love your job, but your job can't love you back.  It reminds me of something in Dr. Baumgart's book that her husband said when he turned in his equipment prior to retiring, “I gave you my life, and you handed me a receipt”.

After investing so much, working holidays, overtime, shift work, and trauma exposure the end can feel so cold and transactional. 

The lesson here is preparation, understanding, and support can lend itself to a smoother transition. 

We also discuss the impact our careers have on our physiology and just because you retire, doesn’t mean your nervous system got the memo.  This is something I talk quite a bit about on this podcast, and I have linked an episode covering a variety of tools in here the show notes.

If we don’t provide an outlet or a way to process or complete the stress response, it will come out in ways like arguing, picking fights, anger, and o