CYNTHIA HAMILTON URQUHART

FIRST RESPONDER (RETD),
MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE

Meet Cynthia

Speaker, author, and mentor

2019 WOI Unsung Hero Award

2021 Contributing Author of #1 Amazon Best Selling Book

Complex PTSD. My body’s reaction to trauma. Not just the trauma I faced as a police officer, but also the personal traumas that life threw my way. It isn’t who I am, but it colours my response to everything in my life.

A Guided First Responder Journal

Now available for purchase on Amazon

For First Responders, their families, and friends. This is not a daily entry journal. This is different. The stories, insights and prompts will encourage you to take first steps and help you find the words.

BUY ON AMAZON

🗞️ Featured Article

Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

“As First Responders, we need to understand that what we do is different, ‘unusual’, and ‘exceptional to a marked extent.’ It is extraordinary. And because we live these extraordinary lives, we can expect to have extraordinary struggles, and we can expect to carry extraordinary burdens, resulting in the need for extraordinary care.”

This is My Life.

Sharing my life story is an opportunity for me to give you hope, and let you know you are not alone. There is so much healing with connection and community. Let this be a first step!

I am a retired police officer, mental health advocate, writer, speaker, and mentor, diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) 7 years ago, 2 years after I retired.

My experience as a First Responder, having served over 25 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and my life journey provides me with a powerful and unique insight into the world of trauma and mental health.

Adopted as an infant, I grew up with a blind, learning-disabled brother, who we lost to cancer two years ago. It also took my mother when I was only twenty, and years later, I stood by my husband as he went through and survived his own cancer journey. Divorced with two young children, I remarried creating a blended family with five children, and am a sexual assault survivor. I was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening genetic disorder called Loeys-Dietz Syndrome (LDS) in 2009, as was my youngest son. Six months after diagnosis, I required, and underwent, urgent open heart surgery.

Being the wife of a First Responder with C-PTSD, mother, grandmother, sister and friend to many. How does this all work?

I’ll be the first to say I was defensive, scared, and intimidated by my Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis. I thought I was weak and had failed. Failed myself, my family and my colleagues.

I wondered how a wife and partner do PTSD together. I wondered what a mother and grandmother with PTSD looks like? I had so many questions and didn’t know what to expect.

What I now know is that my diagnosis was a gift. For the first time in my life, I had to focus on me, take time for me, get to know me. It is as simple and as complicated as that.

It would be wonderful to have you join me on my journey.

I learned very quickly that one size doesn’t fit all. Stigma, stereotypes and misinformation interfere with both the recovery process and the ability of people to understand .

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Writing

Media

Speaker Testimonials

Jilliane Yawney

Narrative Coach
Founder of A Narrative Approach
“Cynthia is a compelling and courageous speaker who comes with ideas that will take us forward, wrapped in a story that gets to the heart. In every audience, Cynthia has members say, "I felt like you were speaking right to me."
Brenda Davidson

President EWI, Executive Women International, Calgary Chapter
“[Cynthia] is a dynamic, intriguing speaker- yet speaks with sincerity and from her heart. [She] took us to the other side of seeing what it is really like being a first responder.”
Lauren Cleveland

Founder, To Serve and Connect Society of Canada

”Cynthia’s story and her resilience (…) was something that will forever allow me to see my spouses' experiences, and all first responder experiences in a different light.”
Lyndsie Barrie

Author & Founder, YYC Fempreneurs.
“If you are looking for a unique speaker who takes her craft more seriously than most, Cynthia is who you want on your stage, opening the hearts and minds of your audience.“