Whilst traumatic events can happen to anyone at any time, military deployments to conflict zones make this much more likely. Afterwards it can be hard to make sense of the experience particularly for a group of people who are used to self-reliance, minimizing and boxing things off. These strategies do work in the short term, but they don’t tend to be good long-term solutions. This booklet is co-written by a clinician and a former soldier and offers serving military personnel, veterans and their families and friends tried and tested tools to make sense of the past and begin to engage more fully with the present.
The methods explained here can be used alone or with help from trusted others or a therapist.
Martina Mueller is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who works with OCTC and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. She specializes in working with patients who have experienced significant trauma in their adult lives and struggle to build a meaningful future as a result. She has a particular interest in multiple and war trauma and trains other clinicians in how to do CBT.
Paul Andrews served over 24 years in the British army as a Bomb Disposal Operator serving in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan as a high threat IEDD operator before his retirement. Since leaving the army he continues to work in the defence industry and actively supports veterans’ mental health, mentors recovering veterans and offers training to clinical staff
in veterans perspectives on mental health and recovery.
