The first time my husband deployed was just a few short weeks after we got married. We had a son who was three and a half at the time, yet the three of us had never actually lived together. To say we received more than our share of doubts that our family would “make it” would be putting it lightly.
Periodically, I like to scan the literature to see if there have been any new articles related to military families and couples. Recently I ran across an article by Dr. Pflieger and colleagues (2019) focused on the strengths of military couples, and I was intrigued to learn more – if only because most research focuses on challenges that these families need to overcome
While the majority of military spouses are female, male military spouses represent a unique and often unrecognized segment of military dependents. In this blog, we examine what, if any, advances in understanding this population have been made through recent DoD demographics and research publications
Have you heard about Written Exposure Therapy (WET) yet? It’s a newer evidence-based psychotherapy (EBP) for PTSD, recently added as a first line, trauma-focused treatment in the latest VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines. Last year I took the WET training taught by Dr. Brian Marx, one of the treatment originators. I must admit, I was skeptical about how it worked and whether it would be effective. Since the training, I have used it with 2 patients and now feel comfortable adding it to my PTSD toolbox.
A lot has been written on the importance of promoting readiness in the military population, but this concept of “readiness” can be applied to military families as well. It is important that military family members are prepared to meet the challenges that accompany military life, which in turn, helps to ensure that their Service members can be “mission ready.” In March of 2018, “What We Know about Military Family Readiness: Evidence from 2007-2017” was published, which summarized the literature on military family readiness from the past 10 years.