ABSTRACT
All of my work has been directed to understand how families best support each other in overcoming adversity. My family resilience approach expands the mental health fi eld’s focus on symptomatic individuals to facilitate the family’s powerful role in their recovery. In military families, like all families, serious crises or an overload of stress can break down their functioning. It can happen to any family in situations of trauma, tragic loss, disruptive transitions, or chronic disabling conditions. Although some individual lives and bonds are shattered, what is remarkable is the potential for individual and family resilience-the capacity to rebound-and even grow stronger-when family members pull together as a team to master their challenges. Families hold the keys to resilience.
