
Military Couples Counseling: Strengthening Your Relationship with Supportive Tools and Engagement
Military couples face unique challenges. Military life impacts not just the individual, but the couple and the family. Impacts can include long-distance deployments, frequent relocations, social isolation and disconnection from family support, and high stress and potential for trauma. These unique impacts can add significant strain on a relationship. When I work with military couples, I target these specific issues and help the couple remain strong and build resilience despite the factors working against the relationship.
I provide a safe space to work through these complexities, rebuild intimacy, and improve understanding.
Here are just a few of the common issues military couples often experience:
Long-distance relationships and frequent separations
Reintegration after deployment
Managing stress and trauma related to military service
Balancing work-life demands
Communication breakdowns
Navigating parenthood and family dynamics during deployments
Coping with PTSD, anxiety, or other mental health challenges
How I Can Help
As an attachment-based therapist, I specifically focus on the following modalities:
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): Help couples understand and see each other, to be vulnerable about needs and fears, and to create a relationship that feels like a safe harbor through the storms of life.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy: The Gottmans are the experts at communication skills and conflict management. Learning how to talk about things matters as much as, if not more than, what couples talk about.
Military and Relationship Psychoeducation: Understanding and normalizing the challenges military relationships face matters. You are not alone in what you are going through as a couple.
Attachment Styles and Traumas: Understanding your own and your partner's attachment needs, wounds and fears are key to learning how to interact differently. You and your partner bring your own lenses to a relationship. I want those lenses to be the present moment, not you and your partner's younger selves' lenses.
The Benefits of Military Couples Counseling
Improved Communication: Learn how to express your needs and feelings in a way that fosters understanding and connection.
Rebuild Trust and Intimacy: Strengthen the emotional bond between you and your partner.
Better Stress Management: Learn coping mechanisms for managing the stress and anxiety that comes with military life.
Resilience During Deployment: Develop strategies to stay emotionally connected during long deployments and separations.
Support in Transition: Ease the transition back into civilian life and re-establish your relationship after deployment or relocation.
Confidential and Supportive Environment
I know discussing sensitive topics, particularly related to military service, can be daunting. I am experienced in working with military families and promise to provide a confidential, empathetic environment to help you and your partner navigate your challenges.