Psychological support for ex-military families

There is a complex interaction between familial functioning and veteran mental health, with familial relationships often being affected. Family therapy is not routinely recommended or offered for veterans in the UK. This study used a narrative approach to explore the experiences of veterans and spouses having received family therapy. Specifically, this study aimed to explore what stories individuals in an ex-military family would tell of their experience of family therapy, what narrative themes occurred and what the perceived impact on familial relationships was following family therapy. Individual narrative interviews were conducted with four veterans and five spouses. Individual interviews were followed by joint couple interviews with two couples. Main findings suggested that typically veterans would tell a ‘romance’ story while spouses were more likely to tell a ‘tragedy’ or ‘epic’ story. Narrative themes occurring from veterans, spouses and couples included: family therapy helpful, lack of support, changes in veteran, impact of difficulties on family relationships and military culture and transitioning. Finally the study found that family therapy had positively impacted familial relationships, particularly highlighting improvements in couple communication and shared or alternative perspectives to be important. Limitations, clinical implications and future directions are discussed.