The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 1 95 on their unique resiliencies during challenging times. Ultimately, because the military culture is so unique, counselors should seek out professional development so they can better understand how to help military spouses navigate this culture and enhance their resilience. When working with military spouses, professional counselors might explore spouses’ feelings of responsibility for their family members’ health and well-being that were described in our results. In addition, counselors can equip spouses with supportive mental health resources for their family members so they do not feel as if they need to care for them on their own. School counselors, in particular, can provide support for military-connected students at school and can connect military families with resources within both the civilian and military communities to support their mental health and resilience (Cole, 2017; Quintana & Cole, 2021). Our participants revealed that often 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 be empowering within the counseling relationship (Smith, 2006). Limitations Our recruitment strategy limited our sample size as we only sought participants that we knew through our military spouse networks. In addition, our sample lacked gender diversity, with all of the participants being female. Approximately 91% of active-duty service member spouses are female (DoD, 2022). However, the lack of male participants in the present study is a limitation, and the experience of male spouses is undoubtedly unique and worth exploring in greater depth. Research suggests that stressors and characteristics of resilience transcend gender categories (NASEM, 2019). Finally, in qualitative research, the researcher’s biases may impact their interpretation of the data. As military spouses, our own experiences may have impacted the way in which we described our participants’ experiences. We took several steps to mitigate these biases, including intentionally bracketing them and engaging in peer debriefing throughout the research process. Implications for Future Research The participants in our study described a need for resources and programs geared specifically toward military spouses. Future research might determine how to best develop and implement these programs that will help to enhance spouse resilience. Key areas of focus may be ways to leverage the military spouse community and enhance spouse sense of self, which were two protective factors that emerged from our data. In addition, existing resilience programs within the military that are currently aimed at the active-duty population should undergo a program evaluation to determine their effectiveness with military spouses. As a follow-up to our qualitative research, future quantitative research studies should address limitations noted previously. Specifically, future research should target a larger sample size and broader demographic of military spouses to further explore their understanding and definition of resilience. This larger and more diverse sample size would allow for greater generalizability and would assist with advocacy within the military. Finally, future qualitative research might explore the perceptions of male spouses, in particular, in order to determine their perception of resiliency and any unique areas of needed support.
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