We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Morgan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
While I was getting my Master’s in Counseling, I was working at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, seeing crime scene agents come back from terrible scenes and describing what they’ve seen, and hearing stories about the Internet Crimes Against Children team and the things they had to watch on a regular basis. I started developing mental health classes that related to their jobs, and then a few years later I started putting my classes in an online format, and that’s when I formed Academy Hour. That was 5 1/2 years ago and ever since I have been completely focused on First Responder mental health and wellness, teaching classes and presenting at conferences all over the country. It’s unfortunate that there’s such a huge need for this, but I’ve been so lucky to have been on the front wave of getting officers and responders to start talking about the trauma they experience as part of their careers, and to start allowing them to seek help and healing for all of those experiences.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Academy Hour’s entire focus is to help First Responders with their mental health and well-being. Getting this group of people to trust anyone is difficult, and I feel honored to have earned a spot among them. They see horrific things, and interact with people who are really bad people, but they also interact with good people who are just having a really bad day or incident. They don’t get a lot of positive feedback, and they’re always called on to help in bad situations. Seeing the negative in the world, over and over again, can really take a toll on anyone. Getting to help them, teach them about what they’re going through and how to heal from their experiences, has been so rewarding. I also do suicide and crisis interventions, and so I’ve had a lot of experience hearing First Responder struggles, very difficult stories and situations, and through this I’ve gained a deep understanding of what they really go through. Academy Hour teaches First Responders by offering free mental health training – I’m proud to be able to do that. We also teach counselors to “get” First Responders through our Certified First Responder Counselor training program. Departments and agencies often form peer support teams, so First Responders can support each other within their department, and I developed a training program for those peer support teams. Additionally, we’ve had many people ask if they can teach our classes, so we offer the Academy Hour Certified Instructor program, to allow departments to teach our classes in-house. Academy Hour was just acquired by Lighthouse Health & Wellness, who started as a tech/app business with a free wellness app for departments. The merger has allowed us both to bring together all of our resources, so that we can fully serve First Responders with their mental health & wellness needs.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hmm, I’m a bit of an introvert (a lot of an introvert) so I wouldn’t be the best to recommend all the great places to go. I live in Oklahoma City, but I also have a house in a rural part of Kansas, with a huge river that runs through my 8 acres, where deer and wild turkey roam freely in my backyard. That’s my “where to go to relax” recommendation for anyone. I would take visitors to eat at our local favorite Mexican restaurant, go for a boat ride at the lake that’s nearby, wander through the little shops in town, and then sit with a glass of iced tea on the back porch watching the deer and turkeys, and listening to the river.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There have been several groups and individuals who I’ve worked with closely over the years, and I definitely want to thank them for their support – our mutual encouragement of each other is necessary with the work that we do. I also, of course, want to thank all the officers and First Responders who have trusted me with their stories, and trusted me to serve them in my role. I’ve seen the depth of their humanity, and the toll that their jobs take on them, and I am deeply grateful for everything they do on a daily basis.

Website: www.AcademyHour.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amysmorgan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amysuemorgan/

Other: www.CenterofTraining.com – the new corporate wellness trainingbusiness I’ve started since I sold Academy Hour on 7/1/22. www.IttyBittyIsabella.com — the children’s books I’ve started publishing (site under construction currently)

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