PYC 6810 – Military Culture and Language

PYC 6810 – Military Culture and Language

Connect with military clients through a better understanding of their language and culture.

Format: Online

Duration: 12 weeks (Summer)

Credits: 3

Required Prerequisites: Must be admitted to the Antioch Online Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program

Mental health care professionals know that working with military personnel and their families pose many challenges. Military culture in America has its own social norms and history with which people having a military background experience varying levels of identification.When you can begin to demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of the culture as it relates to their own personal historyit helps facilitates your work with this population. As a mental health care professional who demonstrates a sensitivity to the many aspects of military culture, this will help to connect more readily with service members and their families.

Course Description<

Mental health providers working with military clients and their families need to understand their clients’ background including the military social system and the language that creates and sustains that background. This course will provide clinicians with a rich variety of information on how to talk with military families, using the same language used by those families to describe themselves and their lives., to gain a better understanding of their experience with the military social system, the hierarchy, history, and values their hold, and how these factors create and sustain your clients.

What Kind of Work Will I Complete?<

The projects you complete for this course help students develop a better understanding of the lived experience of the military sub-culture.

Sample Project: Cultural Immersion Projects

You will be asked to attend at least two military or veteran events and reflect on the cultural elements of the activity as you connect your experience to coursework references. Events may include a parade, a picnic, or visiting a military base to talk with members about their military experiences. As you reflect on your participation in the event, consider how you may be able to use the information you’ve gained in your work with clients, and explore this in your paper.

Sample Course Topics Include:

Throughout the course your studies will focus on a core set of topics that coincide with the course’s learning objectives. Sample topics are:

• Military Cultural Identification
• Military History in an American Context
• Military Nuts & Bolts: Language, Services Branches & Rank Structure
• Who is in the U.S. Military?
• Military & Civilian Culture in the U.S.
• Military Culture & Mental Health
• Military Culture & Counseling

What You’ll Learn<

To effectively work with military clients you need a firm grasp of the military culture, including its language and hierarchy, and how these relate to the already-rich history of a person. By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Explain how aspects of military culture impact the counseling process.
• Identify some of the cultural factors that can influence risk and resilience in military
  service members and veterans.
• Deeply analyze a particular topic related to military culture.
• Explore how military culture affects the larger American culture.
• Apply knowledge acquired to support the recovery of military individuals.

Final Paper

Analytical Paper

Your final paper provides an opportunity for deep exploration into a military counseling topic that holds particular interest for you. As you uncover the complexities involved in the development of the issue, you will demonstrate how you understand military culture and counseling interact when you synthesize class information, literature review, new references related to the topic, and learning outcomes from class modules.

For more information about this course, or other courses in the Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Antioch Online, please call (855) 792-1049 or request more information.