Understanding Military Culture - CFR Post-Graduate 5-Week Course

Registrants will have the choice of attending in person at CFR's University City Office or virtual through a Zoom link. If you plan to attend in person, you must email kseitz@councilforrelationships.org at least 48 hours before the class begins.

This course focuses on the cultural factors associated with military service and veteran status, the impact on establishing and sustaining effective relationships, and implications for mental health treatment. The role of both acute and chronic stressors associated with military life and re-integration into civilian life are examined. The tension between empathy and vulnerability within the therapeutic relationship and a culture in which vulnerability and help-seeking are often perceived to be stigmatizing are explored to identify the potential client and systemic barriers clinicians will face in providing mental health counseling to this population.

Topics of this course include stressors associated with military life and duties (e.g., the impact of the military deployment cycle; combat and other dangerous military duty exposures; family separation; and reintegration from military service to civilian life). Additionally, there will be a specific focus on women in the service, post-deployment issues, grief and loss, suicide, moral injury, military sexual trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, intimate partner violence, substance abuse, and intergenerational trauma.

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