Providing Specialized Mental Health Services to Military Families
The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center in New York and the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Child & Family Service in Hawaii are part of the Cohen Veterans Network, a national network of nonprofit mental healthcare clinics. The Steven A. Cohen Centers Military Family Clinics strengthen mental health outcomes for military children and families with personalized, evidence-based treatment, ensuring that every patient has access to high-quality, effective care that helps them to lead fulfilling and productive lives.
Working with Military Families in New York
The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center provides mental health services to military children, veterans, and their families. The Center, located in the NYU Langone Medical Center, offers free services to address the needs of post-9/11 veterans and their families. Dr. Sonia Mbabazi leads the Child and Family Program which focuses on short-term treatments that address military families’ challenges: frequent relocations, parent-child separations due to deployment, and co-parenting concerns.
Psychologist Dr. Will Folberth explains that the program tends to see child patients who are faced with challenges like, “moving based on [the] parent’s work which impacts child separation from a parent, either from deployment or training somewhere else in the country. We’ve also seen loss of parents… not necessarily through the service, but other means as well.”
Stories of Resilience
Folberth shares stories of resilience such as a teen grappling with the aftermath of a family member’s suicide. Through trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, the Center equipped the teen with coping mechanisms guiding the teen towards healing and emotional well-being.
Additionally, the clinic intervened in a family’s struggle with communication barriers, made worse by the veteran father’s PTSD. Through individual and family group therapy, the Center facilitated transformative changes that led to positive family dynamics and enhanced the children’s academic performance.
Empowering Military Families in Hawaii
Across the Pacific, there’s the Steven A. Cohen Family Clinic at Child & Family Service in Hawaii. Janet Covington is the clinic director and military spouse who oversees the operations. Her team works closely with Child and Family Services, their parent organization. Located in Oahu, the Clinic works with military children and assists victims of the 2023 Maui wildfire.
Here, play therapy emerges as a powerful tool for healing. It provides a haven where children can express their worries and anxieties. Covington says, “a child’s first language is play. If we can get a younger child into a playroom, they can play out their worries or anxieties. It is rewarding to see how play therapy helps children heal.”
Hope for Struggling Teens
The Clinic is a safe space for minors to discuss their mental health struggles. “One of the wonderful things about the program is being able to support children — many of whom don’t know who to turn to.” Covington said. One of their teen patients, whose parents were deployed, was struggling in school and with thoughts of suicide. She felt isolated and unsupported at school but could share her struggles with her psychologist. The Clinic’s support led to the teen’s improved mental health and academic performance.
Today, this former client is in college and writes to the clinic occasionally to update them on how she’s doing. “The clinic [provides our patients] with a safe place to be able to talk about their heartaches, their concerns, their challenges in a non-judgmental and very supportive way,” shared Covington.
Looking Ahead: More Staff, Expanded Reach
“One goal is to have more trainees,” explained Folberth. Hiring graduate and postdoctoral interns who have worked on the Child and Family Program team is beneficial because they are familiar with the clinic’s cases and practices. “[We work] to provide a high level of care and to see positive outcomes through the families we treat.” Similarly, Covington says the Clinic in Oahu wants to expand its virtual and in-person services and outreach to military families in Hawaii.
Funding for the Steven A. Cohen Clinics is made possible through the generous support of the Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Learn more about our work in military children’s mental health and read our Spotlight on Military Children’s Mental Health.
For more information about the Cohen Clinics’ work visit the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center and the Steven A Cohen Family Clinic at Child & Family Service.
