Understanding and Working within the Military Culture

This book chapter, authored by the Boulder Crest Institute’s Deputy Director Dr. Bret Moore, addresses clinical practice in the military.

The ability to understand and appreciate the military culture and to tailor clinical practices based on that understanding and appreciation is imperative for clinicians working with service members. The military is a unique culture that possesses its own set of norms, values, and customs, as well as its own language and class structure. To be effective, the clinician must be aware of these cultural issues. Not to be will affect individual treatment outcome and potentially have a significant effect on the military unit. This chapter provides a brief background on what draws men and women to the military; reviews the various norms, behaviors, values, and traditions of the military culture and applicable clinical implications; and provides recommendations for improving clinical practice through training, education, and supervision. Throughout this chapter the authors use many generalizations, primarily because of scope and page constraints and not a lack of recognition that there are variations among the different branches of the military, as well as within each branch itself. Gaining military cultural awareness is no different from gaining cultural awareness of any other group. It is a matter of taking time, making an effort, and applying what is learned to practice.

Read the Chapter “Understanding and working within the military culture” https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-09244-001