Power Hour: Beyond Resilience: Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress in Military Spouses 9/1/26
Date/Time
Time: 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Location: LIVESTREAM
Cost: $19.99
Credits: 1 CE Credits
Events open 15 minutes before the hour. Registration ends 30 minutes before the event opens.
Presenter(s)
CEU Creations presents:
Power Hour: Beyond Resilience: Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress in Military Spouses 9/1/26
FEATURING:
- A trauma-informed look at how secondary traumatic stress uniquely impacts military spouses across deployment, reintegration, and military family life
- Practical, strengths-based strategies to recognize STS, reduce barriers to care, and better support military spouses in clinical and community settings
EVENT INFO:
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Events open 15 minutes before the hour. Registration ends 30 minutes before the event opens.
COST:
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS:
Social Workers:
ASWB ACE – 1 Clinical CE credits
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work – 1 Contact hours
Psychologists:
APA – 1 CE credits
Counselors:
NBCC ACEP – 1 Contact hours
NY State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners – 1 Contact hours
Addiction Professionals:
NAADAC – This course is not eligible for NAADAC Contact hours.
Nurses:
California Board of Registered Nursing – This course is not eligible for California Board of Registered Nursing Contact hours.
Case Managers:
CCMC – This course is not eligible for CCMC CE Contact hours.
Long-Term Care Administrators:
This course is not approved for NAB/NCERS participant hours.
Attendance or applied credit certificate available for other credentials.
Please make sure to check with your own state board to ensure the transferability of CE credits.
Counselors: If this course awards Ethics hours, please note that some states do not recognize Ethics hours; in those cases, Contact hours will be awarded.
Target Audience: Social workers, psychologists, and counselors
Counseling Skill Group:
N/A
OVERVIEW:
This 1-hour training is designed to increase awareness and understanding of secondary traumatic stress (STS) among military spouses, reframing it as a systemic and relational response rather than an individual deficit. Military spouses often experience ongoing exposure to their partner’s trauma, operational stress, and the cumulative demands of military life, including deployment cycles, reintegration challenges, relocation, and role strain. Despite this, their experiences are frequently under-recognized in both military and civilian behavioral health systems.
Through a trauma-informed and systems-based lens, this training explores how STS develops within the context of military family life and how it is shaped by structural factors such as stigma, confidentiality concerns, limited access to services, and service member–centric care models. Participants will examine common signs and manifestations of STS in spouses, including emotional exhaustion, anxiety, relational strain, and somatic symptoms, as well as the ways these experiences are often misinterpreted or minimized.
OBJECTIVES:
By attending this training, you will be able to:
1. Define secondary traumatic stress (STS) and explain how it presents among military spouses within the context of indirect trauma exposure and military family dynamics.
2. Identify common signs and symptoms of STS in military spouses, including emotional, cognitive, relational, and somatic responses.
3. Explain how military culture, deployment cycles, and systemic factors (e.g., stigma, confidentiality concerns, access barriers) contribute to the development and under-recognition of STS.
4. Apply a trauma-informed, person-in-environment perspective to understand STS as a relational and systemic response rather than an individual pathology.
5. Recognize common barriers to care for military spouses and describe strategies to increase engagement, trust, and access to supportive services.
6. Implement practical, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches to support military spouses experiencing STS within clinical, community, or organizational settings.
AGENDA (all times are Eastern):
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Presentation
PRESENTER BIO:
Erika is an integrated therapist, educator, and doctoral candidate dedicated to advancing trauma-informed mental health care for underserved and military-connected populations. She currently serves as an integrated trauma therapist at Thrive Wellness & Recovery, where she provides evidence-based treatment for individuals navigating co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders.
In addition to her clinical practice, Erika is an adjunct professor of communication, teaching courses in interpersonal communication, conflict management, rhetorical thinking, and professional public speaking across diverse higher-education platforms. Her teaching emphasizes experiential learning, effective communication strategies, and empowerment-oriented practice.
Erika is currently a doctoral candidate in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky with a concentration in Military Behavioral Health. Her research focuses on secondary traumatic stress (STS) among military spouses, exploring systemic barriers to care and developing trauma-informed, family-systems-based frameworks to promote resilience and access to culturally responsive support.
COURSE PARTICIPATION INFORMATION:
To ensure you are ready to participate, please review these tips and tricks to ensure a better webinar experience.
This live webinar is fully interactive; a computer is required. Attendees may ask and answer questions throughout the presentation and participate in instructor-led discussions. Zoom account is not required.
You will receive a reminder email approximately 24 hours prior to the start of the training and a link to join the webinar will be in your CEU Creations account under Member Profile.
To receive credit, you must log in on time, attend the entire presentation, and interact.
POST EVENT: When the training ends, your attendance will be processed using Zoom analytics. Once processed, the evaluation link will be available in your account and we ask that you complete it within 3 days of the training. Once your evaluation is complete, your certificate will be available in your CEU Creations account within 24-72 hours.
Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions.
FINE PRINT
SOCIAL WORKERS: CEU Creations, #1239, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/22/24-11/22/27. Social workers completing this course receive 1 Clinical CE credits.
CEU Creations, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0616. This activity is approved for 1 Contact hours.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: 1 CE credits. CEU Creations is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CEU Creations maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
COUNSELORS: 1 Contact hours 
CEU Creations has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6941. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CEU Creations is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. CEU Creations, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0199. This activity is approved for 1 Contact hours.
ADDICTION PROFESSIONALS: This event is not eligible for NAADAC Contact hours.
NURSES: This event is not eligible for Nurses Contact hours. CEU Creations is an approved provider of nursing CEs through the California Board of Registered Nursing. Provider number: CEP17905. All states retain their own licensing authority through their own boards. Please make sure to check with your own state board to ensure transferability of the CE credits.
Cancellation Policy: Registrants must cancel their registration in their CEU Creations account. No email, faxes, or mail cancellations will be accepted. Cancellation fee: $25. Refunds will not be given for cancellations within five (5) business days prior to the workshop date.
Accessibility Accommodations: At CEU Creations, we are dedicated to providing an inclusive and accessible experience for all individuals. We strive to ensure our continuing education content, website, and services are usable by everyone, regardless of ability. We are continually working to enhance accessibility and user experience for all of our users. If you encounter any barriers, have questions, or wish to request accommodations, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact us at [email protected] and a member of our team will review your message and respond promptly.
Event Cancellation and Rescheduling Policy: In the event that CEU Creations cancels or reschedules an event, registered participants will be given the option to receive a full refund, a credit toward a different event of the same value, or to transfer their registration to the rescheduled date.