Healing Stress in Military Families
Eight Steps to Wellness

Eight practical steps to help military families through the unique issues they face

When service members return, it's up to their families to try to soften their re-entry into civilian life. Healing Stress in Military Families offers practical help for military families coping with the myriad repercussions of their loved ones' duties, from their deployment to their return home.

Based on the latest scientific research and best practice guidelines—as well as the authors' experience treating veterans and their families—Healing Stress in Military Families offers answers for the stress that comes not only from war, but also from other related issues, including deployment and redeployment, relocation, and reunion.

Healing Stress in Military Families provides:

• Evidence-based advice for clinicians helping military families with adjustment problems by facilitating communication, reconnection, and growth
• "Making It Real" exercises for clinicians to employ with families in sessions
• "Talking Points" that explore how to guide the family in their healing process
• Homework handouts and between-session "Taking Action" exercises for families that reinforce and build on skills and information introduced in sessions

Compassionately written with the military family at heart, Healing Stress in Military Families provides the information, tools, and skills that will empower these courageous families to more easily heal and become stronger and more resilient as they go through life.

"This practical workbook will help others understand the highly complex factors that cause dysfunction within military families. Using a clear format that avoids jargon, providers and families can work through the eight practical steps that focus on reconnecting the family and improving resiliency. This excellent book will surely become core material for anyone interested in working with military families."
—Bradford Felker, MD, Director, Mental Health Primary Care Service, VA Puget Sound Health Care System and Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine

"Healing Stress in Military Families: Eight Steps to Wellness is a timely, practical publication that recognizes and addresses the impact of traumatic stress on countless 'hidden victims,' our military families. The focus on empowerment and goal-directedness—versus illness, disorder and dysfunction—is so needed today."
—Mark D. Lerner, PhD, President, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

How to Use this Book xiii

Introduction All in the Family: Sources of Stress xix

The 8 Steps to Healing and Wellness

Step 1 Connect 3

Step 2 Explain 17

Step 3 Discover 31

Step 4 Empower 47

Step 5 Improve 61

Step 6 Process 85

Step 7 Challenge 103

Step 8 Grow 127

Appendices: Handouts for Families and Clinicians

Appendix A Handouts for Military Families 151

Appendix B Clinicians’ Resource Guide 205

Appendix C Service Members and Military Families Resource Guide 209

References 215

About the Authors 223

Index 225

LORIE T. DECARVALHO, PHD, is the Director of Behavioral Health Services at the Central Valley General Hospital in Hanford, California.?? She is coauthor, with Julia Whealin and Edward M. Vega, of Clinician's Guide to Treating Stress After War: Education and Coping Interventions for Veterans and Strategies for Managing Stress After War: Veteran's Workbook and Guide to Wellness, both published by Wiley.

JULIA M. WHEALIN, PHD, is the Deputy Director for Education and a Research Health Scientist at the National Center for PTSD in the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System.?? She is coauthor, with Lorie T. DeCarvalho and Edward M. Vega, of Clinician's Guide to Treating Stress After War: Education and Coping Interventions for Veterans and Strategies for Managing Stress After War: Veteran's Workbook and Guide to Wellness, both published by Wiley.