11 TPC Digest Rebekah Cole, Christine Ward, Taqueena Quintana, Elizabeth Burgin Military Spouses’ Perceptions of Their Resilience Read full article and references: Cole, R., Ward, C., Quintana, T., & Burgin, E. (2024). Military spouses’ perceptions of their resilience. The Professional Counselor, 14(1), 83–99. doi: 10.15241/rc.14.1.83 11 TPC Digest Military spouses face many challenges as a result of the military lifestyle. Both the military and civilian communities have placed significant focus on enhancing the resilience of military spouses. However, no research currently exists regarding spouses’ perceptions of their resilience or how they define resilience for themselves and their community. To fill this gap, our qualitative study explored the perceptions of eight military spouses regarding their resilience. We individually interviewed each military spouse for 1–2 hours. We followed the steps of the transcendental phenomenological data analysis process to analyze this data. The distinct feature of transcendental phenomenology is its first step, which involves the researchers recognizing and bracketing their biases so they can analyze the data without any interference. We selected this design because each of our research team members were military spouses. We recognized the need to mitigate our biases in order to present a true representation of the participants’ perceptions, free from our own preconceived notions. The following themes emerged: 1) shaped by service member and mission priority; 2) challenges within the military lifestyle; 3) outside expectations of spouse resilience; 4) sense of responsibility for family’s resilience; 5) individual resilience; and 6) collective resilience. Our study’s results indicate that spouses’ definitions of resilience are currently shaped by service member and mission priority. Our participants also described how they often felt burdened by outside expectations of their resilience as well as by a sense of responsibility for their family’s resilience. Overall, the spouses relied on themselves and the military spouse community to overcome the challenges they faced. They expressed a desire for resources aimed specifically at enhancing spouse resilience and more awareness about resilience resources already in place throughout the military. Professional counselors are called to be trained and ready to meet the unique needs of military spouses, especially in understanding the nature of military culture and its impact on spouse mental health and well-being and enhancing spouse resilience in times of adversity. Our study echoes the continued struggles of military spouses already noted in the professional literature, suggesting that new and innovative ways of understanding and approaching military spouse resilience is needed within the counseling community. We discuss ways military leadership and the counseling profession can best understand and enhance the resilience of military spouses. Notably, our participants revealed that oftentimes the expectation of resilience is burdensome for spouses, which serves as a contradiction to its purposes. Counselors are called to acknowledge the challenges of the military lifestyle and provide support for navigating these challenges, rather than expecting spouses to face these hurdles alone. In addition, counselors might focus on more holistic manifestations of resilience, recognizing that some spouses can be resilient, yet still struggle. Approaching spouses from a strengths-based perspective, rather than from a deficit perspective, can also be empowering within the counseling relationship. Rebekah Cole, PhD, MEd, NCC, LPC, is a research associate professor at the Uniformed Services University. Christine Ward, PhD, is an associate professor at Walsh University. Taqueena Quintana, EdD, NCC, ACS, BC-TMH, LPC, is an associate professor at Antioch University. Elizabeth Burgin, PhD, NCC, LPC, RPT, CCCPTS, is an assistant professor and program coordinator of the Military and Veterans Counseling program at William & Mary. Correspondence may be addressed to Rebekah Cole, rebekah.cole@usuhs.edu.
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