Dr Emma Kavanagh, Director of Kavanagh Consultancy Services, completed her PhD in Psychology in July, 2004, and has since been working towards the development of training courses tailored to assist first responders to high stress situations (including military, police, fire, ambulance, private security, etc.). This training aims to provide education on the way in which bodies and brains react to such scenarios, thus enabling them to respond more appropriately and cope with the aftermath.

Having worked within the Police Force and having subsequently provided training to more than a dozen constabularies across the UK, Dr Kavanagh has developed a training technique that has proven successful and reputable within the industry - offering a more proactive approach to the psychological well-being of individuals in high stress positions of employment. Kavanagh Consultancy Services has provided training and consultancy services to a wide range of specialist units throughout the policing community (including Authorised Firearms Officers, Commanders, Counter-Terrorist units, Protection teams, Body Recovery personnel and Hostage Negotiators), in addition to work done with military forces, security agencies and ambulance service personnel. Kavanagh Consultancy Services operates within the UK and internationally.

Dr Kavanagh has had three articles published in Jane's Police Review ('Judgement Call', July, 2005; 'Courage under fire', September, 2006; and 'Facial Focus', June, 2007) and has also written for the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology ('A Cognitive Model of Firearms Policing', Fall Issue, 2006). Most recently, Dr Kavanagh has been published in Police Professional ('The Psychopathic Hostage Taker, October, 2007) and is currently working on an article on the use of muscle memory in firearms policing. Dr Kavanagh has also been invited to speak at a number of conferences (Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, Arizona, US; Jane's Less Lethal conference, Leeds, UK) including the upcoming PolizeiTrainer conference in Nuremberg, Germany.