About US

Thom has a special needs daughter, who was born with a stroke that left her with half a brain and use of the left side of the body and very limited use of the right side, epilepsy and she was bipolar. When Thom’s special needs daughter lived in Georgia, he was befriended by a cattle farmer and Thom and his daughter visited the farm every other weekend. He saw how his daughter reacted to the farm experience and interaction with animals. He saw how the experience has improved his daughter’s life and figured that it could assist many other people.

There are many people that Thom has worked with that respond to many different types of stimuli and therapy. Some people respond to animals, others art or music, some wood working, carpentry or working on cars. Why does the therapy have to look only one particular way.

Crisis - Thom has worked with many people in crisis, from people who have been in disasters through people making tough decisions.

He has work with a national crisis hotline for emergency responders, and currently on a number of crisis teams.

He has assisted churches who have had people in crisis during the churches' services. He has been utilized by hospital staff to work with clients, who were having difficult times.

Chaplaincy - Thom is currently a law enforcement, fire, crisis, hospital and trauma chaplain and has also worked as a hospice chaplain.

He has recruited, screened, trained and mentored many chaplains and worked with many chaplains around the country. On deployment he has worked with chaplains in as many as five districts, throughout a state and also virtually. He has even mentored individuals who were working for their doctorate.

Fire Prevention - Since Thom joined the fire service, he has taught fire safety and prevention. Toward the later years of his fire career, he worked with the Bergen County Juvenile Fire Prevention Program working with youth who were identified as having challenges.

Church - Thom has worked with his churches in many ways. He was done outreach with Habitat for Humanity, missions to emergency responders, been on prayer teams, lead small groups, assisted victims of Super Storm Sandy in various ways, assisted in community gardens and assisting local citizens with local projects.

Writer - Thom presented the idea to 1st Responder News about starting an chaplain's column. Since that time, Thom has been writing that column and some of his articles have been republished on KLOVE's Crisis Response webpage and has been republished by various newsletters.

Thom has seen that many times people may want to talk but may not know how to start or who they can trust. He has noticed that many times people do have skills that they may have forgotten or may need to develop more.

Emergency Services - Thom has been in emergency services for over 25 years, as a firefighter, Hazardous Materials Specialist, and EMT. He has served as a lieutenant for the HazMat team and also the ambulance corps. and has also received recognition for his service in all three organizations.

Disaster - Thom was lead for spiritual care for the a disaster organization in New Jersey for seven years. He was deployed to many local and national disasters, including Hurricane Harvey, Florence, Irene, Laura, Maria and many fires and flooding throughout the state. He was recognized as a pacesetter for spiritual and received recognition for his work at Florence and Laura, where he was the lead for all spiritual care that was physically and virtually deployed.

During Co-vid, Thom lead his team being proactive, not reactive like most. He and his group reached out to all the staff and volunteers of one of the organizations and they were recognized for reaching out to people who may have forgotten the resources that were available.

Hospital - Thom has been working as a hospital chaplain since 2017. He has working with long term care clients, behavioral health as well as patients going through substance detox.

He states that he has learned so much by the conversations with the clients that he has worked with.