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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Military families encounter
numerous stressors in their life and the stresses of their
counterparts while dealing with extra stressors and transitions that
come with military life such as a child attending new schools,
moving and multiple deployments.
The FOCUS Program on Joint
Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, helps families deal with these
issues, free of cost.
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The Feeling Thermometer is a tool used in the FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress) Program designed to aid families and couples in expressing how they are feeling to each other and possible ways of calming themselves down. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel Schroeder)
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“FOCUS stands for Families OverComing Under Stress with
families being the emphasis,” said Kimberly Crosby, site
director at JBLM. “Our goal is to provide the skills and
tools to strengthen the ‘glue,' resiliency, in families.”
FOCUS is a resiliency-building program that promotes
family strengths and supports couples and parents. It helps
manage the challenges of military life while increasing
closeness, support, communication and adaptability.
Through the sharing of perspectives,
families make meaning together and thereby grow in cohesion,
mutual care and effective communication. Making meaning as a
family unit as well as enhancing resiliency skills has been
shown significantly to increase a family or couple's ability
to handle military and life stressors more effectively.
“Several families are not aware of the program,” said
Stephanie Self-Bence, family resiliency trainer, “so we
developed a tip of the month to reach out to families with a
small sample of what we do.”
February's tip relates
to Valentine's Day by providing ways other than gifts to
show love and affection toward family members. The program
wanted to provoke the thought process by asking questions
like, “How do you show affection to your children? How do
you show love to your partner?”
In response to those
questions, phrases of affirmation like, “Our family is
awesome,” “I can always count on you,” or “You're my best
friend” are a great way to show you care, said Crosby.
“Those are some small ways to show you care about
someone,” Crosby said. “We included this because it is a
very strength-based program. We are always looking for ways
to praise our families and to identify the strengths of
them. Just saying something positive to someone else is a
good way to boost their strength.”
The program works
with all of the family, instead of just one person, on
strengthening the family glue. The program encourages
married couples as well as dating couples to attend.
“We tailor our sessions and tools we bring into our sessions
to fit the needs of that particular family or couple. The
tools are geared around areas of communication and managing
emotions military families encounter with all transitions
they endure. The purpose of the program is meant as a
prevention program, so we are not doing counseling or
therapy, more educating and strengthening to overcome the
challenges they face.”
For the past four years,
Self-Bence has been helping families draw on strengths they
already have while filling in the “cracks” to form a
stronger family.
“Working with military families and
service members is my passion,” said Self-Bence. “My goal is
to give families the skills they need to move past any
problem and continue using them as they grow together.”
Learn more
about the FOCUS Project.
By U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Schroeder
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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