Self Preservation
A Survival Guide for A Career in Trauma-Exposed Environments
An easy-to-use resource filled with practical strategies for building, maintaining and recovering resilience across a career on the front lines.
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Maureen’s book is a gift—a guide to help you navigate the complex and often treacherous waters of trauma-exposed work. It’s a reminder that while this work will change you, it doesn’t have to destroy you. You can emerge from it stronger, wiser, and more compassionate, not just towards others, but towards yourself as well.
Brian Knowler, BA, LLB, Accomplished trauma-informed leadership and mental health advocate, law enforcement officer, retired lawyer and best-selling author of On the Other Side of Broken: One Cops Battle With the Demons of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Career Suicide is Overrated: Equipping Leaders With Mental Health Strategies for Their Teams and Themselves.
About Maureen
Maureen Pollard is a registered social worker with a private practice in Cobourg, Ontario. She specializes in supporting people as they integrate the experiences of grief and trauma.
Writing stories captivated Maureen at a young age, perhaps beginning with the class newspaper in Mrs. Voy's grade four class. For many years, Maureen's writing focused on telling real people's stories in professional reports. In 2010, Maureen found her way back to creative writing, gently prompted by a conversation with her eighth grade teacher, Mr. McLean, and embraced with compassionate encouragement by Firefly Creative Writing.
In 2020, Maureen discovered songwriting and began an adventure in telling stories in a whole new way with help from the Toronto Songwriting School. In 2022, K-Shark Audio produced Maureen's first two full-length album of original songs.
There's no looking back and no telling what will be next!
Reader Reviews
Best Interests was the first hard copy book since the pandemic that I couldn’t put down. Loved it. It’s so hard to explain child protection to people but you managed to put it into writing with an interesting character to boot.
A. T.
