Public Safety Wellness: Supporting Our Community Heroes

Thank you for considering us for your care. Our providers have extensive experience in emergency medicine services and have worked closely with Fire, Police, EMS, and Community Health. We are passionate about offering undivided support to ensure your health remains our top priority. By integrating mental health support with physical wellness, we help to safeguard the well-being of those who protect our communities. Through our public safety wellness program, you will gain direct access to our doctors and professionals who understand the unique demands of public safety work, all while ensuring your care is delivered in a setting that respects your time, confidentiality, and the realities of your profession.

Dr. Paul Nystrom, originally from Minnesota, is a seasoned Emergency Medicine physician with a robust background in both emergency medicine services and EMS. He earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa in 2005 and completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in 2012. Following this, he pursued a 2-year EMS Fellowship, which included police academy training at Hennepin Technical College. Dr. Nystrom also served four years on active duty in the U.S. Navy between medical school and residency training, including a Transitional Internship in Portsmouth, VA, and six months of Dive Medical Officer/Undersea Medical Officer training in Groton, CT, and Panama City, FL. Just prior to his residency, he was stationed in San Diego, CA, with Naval Special Warfare Group ONE.

Currently, Dr. Nystrom works night shifts in the Emergency Department, serves as an EMS medical director, and works part-time as a police officer for a suburban agency, primarily as a medical asset on the SWAT team and also a defensive tactics instructor.

With thirteen years of ER experience at a Level 1 trauma center, including four years exclusively on night shifts, he has developed a keen interest in public safety wellness, particularly in providing mental health support for law enforcement personnel. He understands the demands of shift work and the difficulties of maintaining healthy habits. Having observed that Big Medicine often focuses on downstream consequences and chronic conditions rather than prevention, Dr. Nystrom has dedicated the past 15 years to promoting upstream interventions. He emphasizes Better Nutrition, Prioritizing Sleep, Smarter Exercise, and Being Community, sharing these principles through presentations at local police departments, regional trainings, and statewide conferences, earning recognition across the metro area and outstate Minnesota.

He is available for personal consultations, department training, and larger speaking engagements.

I work extensively with law enforcement, firefighters, correctional officers, medical first responders, and their significant others, helping them manage the unique stressors that accompany high-risk, high-demand careers. My preferred treatment modalities include Brief Solution-Focused Therapy (BSFT), interpersonal and narrative psychotherapy, and the trauma-processing modality BrainSpotting (BSP).Together in counseling, we work to understand who you are today, what shaped your current experience, and what needs to happen for you to live life forward—with purpose, clarity, and direction.

Numbness. Pulling back. Shutting people out. Snapping fast. Hyper-alert even when you’re exhausted to the bone. Most days feel like you’re running on fumes. People around you say, “Relax, you’re not at the department/station/hospital/prison anymore,” but they don’t understand—you don’t just turn off crisis mode. It follows you home.

But the truth is simple: your body and mind are still reacting to the trauma, chaos, and horrific situations you face on shift. And eventually, that disconnect shows up everywhere—in your relationships, your patience, your sleep, and your sense of self.

Whether you’re a First Responder or the person who loves one, you live inside a level of stress and exposure most people will never understand. And when you’re trying to keep your life, your home, and your relationships from tipping over, you need someone who isn’t scared of the truth—someone who actually understands what the job does to you.

. Together, we build clarity, coping skills, and connection you can actually use—not fluffy theory, not surface-level advice, but real tools for real life