Relationship Health and Safety
Our lives are significantly enriched by healthy relationships. Building a family, weathering difficulties, and enjoying life’s pleasures—these are among the many reasons people desire a spouse or partner. No relationship is perfect. Relationship problems, such as communication difficulties or anger and aggression, may be affecting you, and you may require assistance. The VA can assist you, wherever you may be in your relationship.
Support for your relationship
The VHA offers several options to navigate complexities of a relationship. The following options are some of the ways in which the VA can help in supporting you with your relationship.
Couples counseling
Through couples therapy, partners develop communication skills to navigate complex issues. The therapist’s job is to create a space for listening and mutual understanding, not to pass judgment or control your relationship. Licensed therapists at the VA offer a range of treatment modalities to help couples strengthen their relationships.
Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy
For couples experiencing high conflict, Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy can be very beneficial. IBCT’s main objective is to improve communication and build a secure emotional connection in the relationship while promoting emotional acceptance.
Warrior to Soulmate
Warrior to Soulmate helps couples reconnect spiritually and romantically. The VA Chaplaincy’s PAIRS Warrior to Soul Mate (W2SM) program aims to quickly enhance wellness by strengthening Veterans’ relationships with significant others. This evidence-based group program provides intensive training to build crucial skills for strong, resilient, and fulfilling relationships. Check out Warrior to Soul Mate (w2sm.com)
Strength at Home for Couples
Strength at Home for Couples is a group for partners to connect, share experiences, and realize that relationship difficulties are common. This group consists of 8 weekly sessions with other couples. Learn more about one couple’s experience with Strength at Home.
Healthy Relationship Groups
These groups are designed to provide you with space to learn about healthy relationships and develop skills to help you cultivate healthy relationship behaviors.
The Relationship Spectrum
In each relationship, there are both strong points and difficulties. Relationship Spectrum helps you identify your relationship strengths and challenges.
Assistance with intimate partner violence (IPV)
Severe relationship conflict may be more difficult to resolve than improving communication. Research reveals a significantly higher IPV rate among Veteran families than the overall population. Stress and conflict in military relationships are often exacerbated by deployments, trauma, and related health problems. The Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program aids those affected by or involved in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
IPV services offer individual and group therapy, safety planning, and resources to aid in healing. IPV is defined as aggressive behavior; this can include, but is not limited to, emotional, psychological, physical, sexual, or stalking behaviors. Learn more about the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program.
Strength at Home group
A 12-week group, Strength at Home, supports Veterans who are struggling with anger and aggression in their intimate relationships. This program helps Veterans understand how their experiences and trauma impact their communication and relationships.
This intervention, based on extensive research, has been shown to lessen anger, aggression in relationships, and PTSD symptoms. Veterans dealing with various challenges find Strength at Home beneficial. For those whose anger affects relationships or who are involved with the justice system because of IPV, this group offers valuable information and support. Learn more about the Strength at Home program.
Recovering from IPV through Strengths and Empowerment (RISE)
For Veterans who have experienced IPV, RISE is a trauma-informed, evidence-based therapy program that helps them decide what is best for them. With a therapist, you can develop safety plans, enhance coping mechanisms, learn about IPV, and expand your support network. This is a Veteran-guided process, so you determine what you need most and what you will work on first. RISE Program flyer for Veterans
Safety planning
A personalized, actionable plan to minimize relationship risks is a safety plan, covering the stages before, during, and after leaving a relationship. It is also used to increase safety if one choses to remain in the relationship.
Current or former partners who inflict verbal, emotional, psychological, sexual, or stalking-related harm on an adult are engaging in intimate partner violence (IPV), a form of domestic violence.
From infrequent verbal abuse to frequent, severe physical harm, sexual assault, or life-threatening abuse, the range of IPV behaviors is vast. In potentially violent relationships, prioritizing the safety of everyone—yourself, loved ones, children, pets, and property—is crucial.
VA staff will help you decide what’s best for you. Staff will support you in exploring all options, rather than insisting you report to police or get a restraining order.
The safety planning resources listed below can help you develop strategies to enhance your safety. For more information or assistance with safety planning, connect with the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), www.thehotline.org, or visit the www.myplanapp.org website.
Assistance with an experience of sexual violence
Courage group
Veterans healing from sexual trauma can find support and skill-building in the Courage group. Courage aims to help and support Veterans, especially those who can connect with others of the same gender. Traumatic experiences are not discussed in detail; instead, group members examine feelings, coping mechanisms, and techniques for healing and growth.
Connect with our Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program Coordinator
Katie Card PsyD
Relationship Health and Safety Program Coordinator
VA Sheridan health care
Phone:
Email: Kaitlyn.Card@va.gov
If you have concerns, questions or want to learn more about Relationship Health and Safety or IPV resources, please talk to your primary care provider, who can refer you to a mental health specialist, such as a social worker or psychologist, and help connect you to support.
National & State Organizations
National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE(7233), https://www.thehotline.org/
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, 1-
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV),
Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN), 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), http://www.rainn.org
Strong Hearts Native Helpline, 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483), https://strongheartshelpline.org
WY Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, 1-