One of the more dominant populations in San Diego is our US military.  Our team has a vast amount of experience working with issues that are unique to military individuals and their families.  Both the Program Director and Supervisor have multiple years of experience working with both military personnel and their dependents.  Listed below are issues common to military family structures.  Therapy may be focused on ideas of social support, separation preparedness, the return home, fears of abandonment, and forgotten intimacy. We believe that military families and their situations are unique and our team will construct a treatment plan to best fit your needs.

Deployment Readiness

Preparing for separation can be very stressful both on service members and on the family. Often, planning and discussions do not occur as the family attempts to ignore the up-coming deployment. Therapy can assist couples in proper planning, mediation of conversations about concerns, and finding creative means to stay connected over the next several months.

Separation and Building Local Support

We do not know of a more difficult challenge than the separation of families and loved ones. It takes a lot of strength, patience, selflessness, and faith to make it through those times. The feelings of powerlessness, anger, confusion, and loneliness these situations bring are issues that may be addressed in therapy. Individuals may find the additional support that therapy brings helpful to manage these confusing emotions. Our therapists will also focus on the growth of community supports within the military and the greater San Diego area to assist your family while the service member is away.

Family Reunification

Returning home seems to have both positive and negative effects on the service member and the family. The extreme excitement often opens the door to disappointment. Then, the stress of another transition sets in. Issues of parenting, house-hold chores, intimacy, friends, and financial affairs may begin to appear in conflicts between family members. Questions of how to bridge the gap of time spent apart may not immediately have an answer. Support counseling may be beneficial during this re-adjustment to family roles and life.

Readjustment

Service members have often stated in session how easy deployments can be in terms of personal decision making. Little thought is given to common day-to-day matters such as what to eat, spending money, and personal choices around entertainment and time. The common day to day stressors of life are removed while new ones are faced. Coming home can be overwhelming as these stressors are reintroduced. The situation can be complicated if the individual served in an area of conflict or a position with extended periods of stress.  Therapy then is focused on stress management and positive coping skills to aid the service member through this period.