Noteboom The Law Firm

Marriage Education Programs Help Returning Veterans

May 27, 2010 - Most veterans must undergo a certain amount of adjustments to successfully transition back into civilian life. While those veterans are adjusting to being back with their families, their families are also adjusting to having their soldier back in their lives.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers are sending personnel to San Diego next month to train in marriage education programs. The programs are tailored towards families whose marriages have been affected by a combat deployment. The personnel sent to receive this training will include:

• Chaplains;
• Counselors;
• Social workers; and
• Behavioral health specialists.

The VA personnel are being sent to San Diego to learn how to reproduce an earlier developed experimental yet instructive course for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The program helps those spouses whose lives have been affected by combat deployments strengthen their renewed bond. The couples are shown skills in how to enhance:

• Communication;
• Emotional understanding;
• Expression;
• Empathy; and
• Healthy conflict resolution.

 Very often returning veterans lack an aptitude for openness, sympathy, and compassion. The program aids in helping to develop or re-develop these emotions that are so critical to successful marriages. The program endows these couples with skills they can take with them to continue to build their relationships once away from the workshops.

Both veterans and their families must adjust in many ways upon a combat veteran's return to the civilian world. The more skills and strategies couples possess to help them make their adjustment periods as easy as possible, the more likely their relationships will be healthy.