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.