Description

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This textbook aims to educate students across all mental health disciplines on the importance of using strengths-based resilience as a tool when working with military families. Organized into three main sections using the military deployment cycle, including the stages of pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment, this textbook examines some of the key resiliency skills that operate in military families so that students can understand how many families not only survive, but learn how to thrive, during great challenges.

Chapters address the military at home, resilient family systems, the importance of effective communication and social support, the impact of trauma and moral injury, and the transition from military to civilian life following service. Filled with case vignettes, self-assessment tools, and evidence-informed interventions, readers learn multiple ways to measure, assess, and strengthen family resiliency throughout the book. In addition to these skills, specific examples are highlighted that draw lessons from the military community on stress management and posttraumatic growth in the context of family life. The book finishes with an appendix that includes suggestions for therapists on the use of cultural humility to improve treatment.

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-connected populations and their families. Professionals from disciplines including clinical social work, marriage and family therapy, psychology, healthcare, and theology as well as instructors of courses on military social work, military psychology, and mental health will all find this text an invaluable resource.

About the Author

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Julie Canfield, PhD, LICSW, is a clinical instructor at Boston College School for Social Work and maintains a private practice in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to providing effective mental health treatment to active-duty service members, military veterans, military-connected children, and families impacted by military service. Dr. Canfield is the military spouse of a combat veteran and holds a doctorate in social work from Smith College School of Social Work. Her research career has focused on improving clinical treatment and practices for childhood trauma, secondary traumatization in family systems, and improving professional resilience among child and family trauma therapists. Dr. Canfield holds a master's degree in social work from Hunter College of the City University of New York and a bachelor's degree from New York University.