Joya DCruz
MA, LMFT
Training and Coaching
Police Department Training Coordinators and Law Enforcement Agencies seek training programs that are not generic, but responsive to the real-world challenges their officers face.
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Officers operate under high levels of stress on a daily basis. They must remain alert and prepared to respond to volatile situations at any moment while on duty. Without consistent and skillful regulation, chronic stress can take a toll on the mind and body — affecting decision-making, performance, health, personal relationships, and trust within the communities they serve.
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Through my experiential, body-based training, participants learn practical skills that help them stay present under pressure, make clearer decisions in high-stakes situations, protect their own safety and the safety of others, and strengthen both professional and personal relationships — while building long-term resilience throughout their careers.
Focusing Guidance
I teach Focusing and offer Focusing Guidance (Founder: Dr. Eugene Gendlin).
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In our initial meeting, we create a vision for our work together. I also introduce and encourage self reflective or somatic regulatory exercises to support our work.
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Some of the issues that clients work on with me are physical issues, life transitions, relationship disharmony and inner discontent, all of which offer indications and direction to moving their lives forward. ​​​​​​
Meet Joya
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Michigan and a Certified Focusing Oriented Therapist (International Focusing Institute), with Masters degrees in Social Psychology (University of Mumbai, India) and Counseling (Loyola University, Chicago).
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I trained in the Treatment of Trauma Level I (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute) and in The Gottman method of Couples Therapy (The Gottman Institute). I am Certified in Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy for Complex Trauma (Justice Institute of British Columbia), as well as Indigenous Tools for Living with Shirley Turcotte and her team.
Practicing Psychotherapy for over 24 years in community mental health, I frequently worked alongside Police Officers supporting individuals in crisis. Through training work in Correctional Facilities I witnessed firsthand the cumulative impact of trauma, chronic stress, and operational pressure on both officers and the communities they serve.​
Through years of trauma-focused clinical work, advanced training, and personal healing, I came to understand how nervous system conditioning and unresolved stress can shape perception, decision-making, and reactivity — especially under pressure.​
I've also seen how relationships are affected by the way we experience life in our own bodies.
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I now offer an experiential training program and coaching for Law Enforcement, Corrections, and other high-stress professional teams in self-awareness, emotional regulation, nervous system mastery, and resilience.
My goal is to help officers stay grounded, think clearly under pressure, respond rather than react, and sustain both operational effectiveness and personal wellbeing throughout their careers.
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​My deep desire is to help build a compassionate, joyful, powerful and authentic community where people feel safe, accepted and comfortable to be themselves.