By Guest Blogger Katja Hurt

Whatever you imagine when you hear the word “chaplain,” let’s make sure we are on the same page. I have been a police and fire chaplain for seven years. I am not a preacher and I do not work in a church. In fact, I can be dismissed from my position if I come across as too religious. In the first responder world, chaplains can come from any faith background, but we can’t bring our religion to work with us. The duty of a police and fire chaplain is to serve the emotional and spiritual needs of the people in crisis during or after an emergency. To me, being a chaplain means showing up and meeting the people where they are, whatever belief system they do or do not subscribe to. Being a chaplain simply means I am ready to take on the spiritual crisis you are going through, not just the emotional one. Do you need to blame a higher power, ask why bad things happen to good people, discuss what happens after death, or want someone to pray with you? That’s what I’m here for, whether you’re the medic who couldn’t save someone’s life or the parent who just learned their child is dead. As a chaplain, my primary role is to be there with you in the worst moments of your life so you do not have to face them alone.

When my best friend died while mountain climbing in 2018, I desperately needed a chaplain to talk to. The problem was, I couldn’t find any who climbed and understood what I was going through. Let’s be honest: a lot of people don’t understand why outdoor enthusiasts take risks in order to do things like ride an inflatable raft down a river or strap a pair of slippery sticks to their feet so they can go straight down a snowy mountain. Outdoor adrenaline seekers can be difficult to understand and rock climbers are among the more challenging. With such a high cost to risk ratio in climbing, it is difficult for non-climbers to connect with us when something goes wrong.

When my best friend died climbing, a lot of people meant well, but they just did not understand what it was like to lose my climbing partner. I needed a chaplain who climbed to talk to, but the only one I could find was myself.

That is where Wilderness Chaplains & Crisis Response Services (Wilderness Chaplains, or WCCRS for short) started. I realized that the outdoor community needed chaplains who understood them and their passions. I began to see how many of the outdoor people I knew were also volunteer members of search and rescue organizations. While talking to them about their own losses and experiences with difficult missions, I learned that many of them struggled with post-traumatic stress and burnout. As a chaplain, I was trained and available to help urban first responders out with these challenges. I quickly realized that these resources were few and far between for wilderness rescue groups and outdoor recreationalists.

I launched Wilderness Chaplains, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing crisis interventions, training and support to wilderness first responders and the outdoor community. Within weeks of having a website and contact number, people from all over the United States began reaching out. In the two years since WCCRS was founded, we have been contacted by outdoor groups and response teams in six different states and have provided training and support to many local groups in Washington — including teams from search and rescue, mountain rescue, ski patrol and several state agencies.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions I get as the founding member and active responder with Wilderness Chaplains:

What exactly does a chaplain do?

We are either at a scene to support the first responders, or the family of the patient/victim. With first responders, we help to defuse and debrief a critical incident and make sure the responders know what signs and symptoms of stress to be aware of. We offer tools and techniques for them to cope with some of the horrible things they see in the field and we provide interventions and make referrals to counselors, medical care, etc. when needed. Supporting the family members is often a liaison role. We help them connect with their resources, understand what is happening and get some next steps figured out to help them move forward. Often at search and rescue scenes, chaplains help the family understand what is happening in the field and serve as a go-between with the command staff and family to keep them updated and make sure their questions get answered. We are often on scene when there has been a death and the body is being brought out of the mountains. In those cases, we are often there as a presence to sit with the family while they wait. We grieve with them, encourage them to drink water and take care of their physical needs, and sometimes prepare them for seeing the body if that is an option. We are not long-term counselors so any interventions are designed to be done at the scene, focused around next steps the family will take once the mission is over.

Where do you find strength to do it?

Like anything else, it is a calling. It doesn’t bother me to be around death and I have a knack for delivering bad news. However, if you put me in an ambulance and told me to stick a needle in someone’s arm, I would probably throw up. Even with an aptitude for crisis response, I do have to practice a lot of self-care to keep doing it. This means taking time away from emergencies to have fun and be in nature on hikes and trips that don’t require me to be in chaplain mode. I work hard on having a strong, healthy body and mind because chaplain calls take a lot out of me. I love reading and watching movies about people who overcome amazing obstacles and overcome the odds because it gives me people to look up to. Resilience, also known as the ability to bounce back, is a skill that can be made stronger with practice.

How can I support someone going through loss?

There is a lot of good advice out there on how to be there for someone going through grief and I suggest going online and searching for some of those best practices. Some of the specific guidelines I offer to the first responders I teach include things like:

1. Accept the response you get from the person. Do not judge their feelings.
2. Be interested in the person, not just the situation.
3. Listen to what is being said. Active listening is letting the other person know you hear what you are being told. Reflect back, in your own words, what is being said and felt, without judgement or criticism. Avoid self-serving questions. Don’t talk to them from your own interests/curiosity.
4. Be cautious about offering advice. It may be helpful to share what has worked for you or others you know. Avoid being condescending or telling them how to handle things.
5. Be sensitive to changes in behavior and mood that indicate a person is not coping well. Gently challenge effectiveness of maladaptive behavior (if someone begins using substances like alcohol, excessive caffeine, drugs, etc. to cope, do not shame them for the need to numb but do encourage them to seek help as these things are only blocking the feelings and not helping with the underlying issue).

One of the most amazing things I have seen in being a wilderness chaplain is how much growth and healing can come from loss. There are cases where a person gives up climbing or backcountry skiing after the loss of a loved one and that is perfectly fine, as long as they still have something to be passionate about and are not hiding from the entire outdoors world. In many cases, I have seen people make regular visits to the places where someone special has died. There are few memorials as beautiful as the mountains and some people find healing in being close to the place their loved one was last alive on the earth. I have seen scholarships and funds set up in someone’s memory to help others follow their dreams of getting outdoors. I have also seen some amazing people grieve their lost partner or adventure friend and then turn around and join a rescue team to try and honor the memory by helping others. The outdoors can be a place of immense pain and loss, but it is also one of the more amazing sources of joy, healing, and resilience that I have ever seen.

To learn more about Wilderness Chaplains & Crisis Response Services, please visit www.wccrs.org and please look for ways to support your local wilderness rescue groups.