Resilience and Military Families

This textbook aims to educate students across all mental health disciplines on the importance of using resilience as a tool when working with military families.
Organized into three main sections using the military deployment cycle, such as pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment, this textbook examines some of the key resiliency skills found in military families so that students can understand how many military families not only survive, but often thrive, during these challenges. Chapters address the military at home, resilient family systems, communication and social support, the effect of trauma and moral injury, and the transition from military to civilian life. Filled with case vignettes, self-assessment tools, and evidence-informed interventions throughout, different ways to measure, assess, and strengthen family resiliency are highlighted to draw lessons from the military community on stress management and posttraumatic growth. It finishes with an appendix on key resources and further reading.
Following two decades of war and a global pandemic, this essential textbook is a crucial read for all mental health professionals training to work with miliary populations and their families, such students of clinical social work, marriage and family therapy, and psychology, as well as instructors of courses on military psychology and mental wellbeing.