PROGRAMS
Our courses are designed to help professionals navigate firearm-related care with clarity, confidence, and compassion. Grounded in trauma-informed principles, each offering reflects our commitment to ethical practice, cultural competence, and real-world relevance.
Mind Safety Institute
Our programs are designed for licensed mental health professionals, professionals, and professional organizations that are seeking a deeper understanding of firearm-related cultural contexts, trauma-informed care, and clinical risk navigation. We offer two versions of which helps build therapeutic confidence when working with clients who live in homes with firearms.
Organizational Consulting
This session is designed for non-clinical teams, leaders, and administrators. It covers institutional safety culture, policy considerations, staff preparedness, and strategies for fostering respectful, responsible approaches to firearms in the workplace. Customized to your organization’s needs, this course encourages alignment between mission, liability, and trauma-informed values.
What You’ll Learn in Our Firearm-Informed Courses:
- Frameworks for addressing firearm-related topics with clients using trauma-informed and culturally competent methods
- Strategies for navigating ethical dilemmas, documentation, and liability in clinical environments
- Guidance on reducing stigma while improving client engagement and safety planning
- Tools for collaborative work with families, community agencies, and firearm-owning populations
- Opportunities for reflective learning through case studies, structured discussion, and facilitated scenarios
Continuing Education & Certification
Many of our courses meet requirements for continuing education (CE) for licensed professionals. Participants receive a Certificate of Completion and, where applicable, may claim CE credit through approved providers. Firearm-Informed Therapy Certification is awarded to eligible attendees who complete the full curriculum and assessment requirements.
Mind Safety Institute
6 CEU’s for Licensed Professional Counselors
Firearm Informed Training (FIT) bridges the gap between mental health professionals and the firearm-owning community through culturally competent, evidence-based training. With 1 in 3 Americans owning a firearm, clinicians must be equipped to engage in respectful, stigma-free conversations around firearm access, especially in suicide prevention.
Training Objectives:
✔ Understand the cultural context and motivations of firearm ownership
✔ Gain basic firearm knowledge through hands-on instruction
✔ Develop respectful, client-centered language to build trust
✔ Learn best practices in suicide prevention, ethics, and legal duty-to-warn considerations
✔ Reduce stigma and foster open dialogue with firearm-owning clients
WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE?
This isn’t just a class, it’s a mindset shift. FIT can be delivered onsite at your clinic, workplace, or as a range-integrated training experience. We give clinicians the tools, language, and confidence to better serve a historically underserved population, no politics, just practical skills that save lives.
The Institute currently offers two tailored versions of our Firearm Informed Training:
- One designed for mental health and medical professionals, focused on therapeutic approaches, liability, trauma-informed care, and communication strategies
- One developed for non-clinical teams or organizations, focused on safety culture, policy, ethical considerations, and preparedness
Each version is customized to your audience’s needs, ensuring maximum impact and relevance.
Both formats include:
- Participant workbooks
- Instruction from two qualified facilitators:
- Amanda Hardin, BSN RN – Founder of Lipstick Tactical, USCCA/NRA-certified instructor, emergency response expert, and Red Cross/NAEMT certified
- 6 CE credits (available to qualifying professionals)
- FIT Certification for eligible attendees
- Lunch
- Ongoing access to the Mind & Safety Institute resource portal (launching soon), with research and continued learning tools
- For on-range sessions: range rental, firearm use, ammunition, eye and ear protection
Off-Range
(No Live Fire Component)
Duration: 6.5–7 Hours
Max Capacity: 20 Participants
On-Range
(Includes Live Fire)
Duration: 9–10 Hours
Max Capacity: 20 Participants
Optional support available:
- Custom flyer creation
- RSVP link setup and participant registration management
Organizational Consulting
Helping Teams Operate with Confidence in Critical Moments
Our Organizational Consulting services are designed for professionals working in high-stakes, high-responsibility environments, such as behavioral health agencies, law enforcement, clinical settings, and academic institutions.
We equip organizations to identify systemic blind spots, improve trauma response protocols, and build psychologically safe environments for staff and those they serve. Whether your goal is to train teams in Firearm-Informed Therapy principles or embed emotionally attuned safety planning into operations, we provide guidance with real-world relevance.
Workshops, audits, and custom strategy sessions are available year-round for teams nationwide. Join our network of changemakers reshaping what preparedness and accountability look like in today’s complex world.
Normalize Firearm Safety Conversations Across Your Entire Medical System
A Preventive Approach to Suicide Risk, Patient Trust, and Cultural Competence
Nearly half of all U.S. households have a firearm, yet most healthcare providers have never been trained to discuss firearm safety, storage, or access risks with patients. As a result, these conversations are often delayed until the patient reaches a breaking point, landing in the ER in crisis.
The Mind and Safety Institute offers system-wide training that empowers all providers, including primary care, behavioral health, urgent care, pediatrics, and beyond, to recognize the early opportunities for prevention and safety planning.
Our Firearm-Informed Training (FIT) model:
- Normalizes firearm conversations without judgment or politics
- Equips every clinician to engage patients around secure storage, unauthorized access, and mental health risk, even during routine visits.
- Reduces burden on emergency departments by addressing risk factors earlier and more often
- Protects clinician time and energy by embedding practical tools into existing workflows
Improves trust and outcomes for the 120 million Americans who live in gun-owning homes
At the heart of the FIT model is a 4 tiered intervention framework, a clear, evidence-informed roadmap that meets patients where they are, based on risk level.
Tier 1: Universal Intervention
Every patient. Every provider. Every encounter.
Tier 1 is the foundation of the Firearm Mental Health Safety Plan. It equips clinicians across all specialties to have nonjudgmental, culturally competent conversations with patients about firearm ownership, secure storage, and unauthorized access.
FIT training equips clinicians to have open respectful, stigma-free conversations about firearm ownership and builds early trust with patients. Tier 1 encourages proactive mental health safety planning and frames firearm safety like any other household safety conversation. This universal tier fits seamlessly into existing workflows, regardless of specialty.
Clinicians who complete FIT training are also prepared to recognize elevated risk and offer appropriate next steps through a tiered intervention framework (Tiers 2–4), including voluntary storage, mental health holds, and legal interventions when necessary.
Why This Matters System-Wide
This isn’t just an emergency or behavioral health issue; it’s a population-level safety issue. Every well-check, postpartum visit, or depression screen is a potential opportunity to reduce risk. When clinicians avoid the topic, patients avoid care, and we lose a window for prevention.
By training your entire system, you:
- Promote upstream suicide prevention
- Improve cultural competence and patient engagement
- Offer non-stigmatizing interventions that don’t trigger fear or loss of rights
- Reduce gaps between care settings (primary → psych → emergency)
Core Focus Areas of Organizational Consulting
- Firearm-Informed Culture Readiness: Help leadership and staff develop an evidence-based, trauma-aware approach to firearms in clinical and public settings.
- Team-Centered Safety Planning: Design practical, collaborative safety protocols tailored to your organization’s structure and risk profile.
- Resilience-Based Workplace Audits: Identify areas of strength and vulnerability in team communication, threat response, and policy alignment.
- Professional Development & Support: Provide education, consultation, and mentorship for staff navigating complex safety dynamics in the workplace.
Customized Support for Organizational Growth
Our Organizational Consulting services are designed to meet the evolving needs of mental health providers, public agencies, and educational institutions. We partner with your team to create firearm-informed policies, enhance crisis readiness, and align operational procedures with trauma-informed best practices. Whether you're developing internal protocols or preparing for staff training, our consultants provide tailored support that reflects your mission and operational realities.