Mediation competencies for everyone who works with military families include skills needed for:
- increasing the effectiveness of work with family conflicts within these families and their surroundings;
- promoting the social adaptation of war veterans;
- and restoring contact between all members of military families, taking into account the interests of children.
This training will help participants understand the psychological consequences of military service and the specifics of family conflicts in military families. It will also provide knowledge about the social and legal aspects that affect the lives of all family members and form competencies that will help them work effectively with conflicts in military families.
Tasks:
- Studying the features of military subculture. Researching the psychological and behavioral difficulties that military families face.
- Studying and working through one's own reactions to the topic of war and military experience. Developing a skill for communicating with military personnel and their families.
- Forming stabilization skills for acute stress reactions and working in conflict situations with a high level of emotion.
- Studying the typology of conflicts that arise in military families and their surroundings, and deepening the understanding of the specifics of these conflicts.
- Developing skills for working with conflicts in military families, nonviolent communication, and peaceful resolution of conflict situations.
Topics:
- Specifics of the psychological state of military personnel: Traumatic experience. Constant tension. Difficulties with adaptation.
- Communication barriers and ways to overcome them: Building trust and working with resistance.
- Categories of military families: Career/contract/conscription/POWs/missing in action/veterans/wounded. Specifics of requests in the work.
- Empathy and emotional intelligence: The ability to understand the emotional state of family members who are experiencing stress, anxiety, loss, or other difficult situations related to military service. At the same time, considering the limitations regarding the emotional component when working with military personnel and veterans. Working with aggression.
- Knowledge about the psychological consequences of military service: Understanding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and other psychological consequences that military families may face.
- Knowledge of the specifics of the military subculture: It is important to understand the difference in the experience of military personnel, as this can significantly affect the conditions and quality of work with military families.
- Communication skills: The ability to effectively communicate with family members, taking into account their individual characteristics and needs, as well as the ability to adapt the communication style to a specific situation.
- Skills for assisting with acute stress reactions: The ability to use stabilization techniques.
- Knowledge about social and legal aspects: Understanding the rights and obligations of military personnel and their families, as well as having information about available social programs and legal assistance.
- Ability to work with conflicts: The ability to recognize and analyze conflicts, apply effective conflict management strategies, and help the parties to a conflict find solutions that satisfy the needs of all parties, considering the child's interests.
- Stress management skills: The ability to independently cope with stress and emotional strain that arises when working with difficult family situations in military families.
- Trauma-informed practice: Identification of trauma, theories of grieving, and the connection between trauma and conflict.