THE MILITARY FAMILY: Cohen Clinic prepares families for upcoming deployment, challenges

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- This Fall, members of Fort Carson's 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, will deploy to the Middle East-- all to support U.S. Central Command, according to The Mountain Post. 

Ahead of any deployment, it's natural for the military member and their families to experience feelings of anxiety, depression, and tension; the unknowns are countless. 

Here to help: the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic.  The clinic has 22 locations nationwide, with one of them being in Colorado Springs. 

"The family takes on a whole new identity, potentially," said Amy Moore, Cohen Clinic Director.

The clinic provides in-person therapy to individuals, couples, and children, as long as the serving member meets post-9/11 criteria. Face-to-face video therapy via CVN Telehealth is also available. 

"As a caregiver, especially, you're trying to look strong. You're trying to look supportive for your family member who's deployed, who's serving our country, and that's so much to handle on top of your shoulders." 

For Andrea Keits, a 28-year "spouse of the military," she's learned that flexibility and compromise made her marriage last. 

"I may look like I have my life together, but my sock is bunched at the bottom of my shoe.  Deployments are hard.  Families go through different things; no one's journey is the same," said Keits. 

She brings a lot of learned experience, now serving as the clinic's intake coordinator.  She remembers the demands that came, not being stationed close to family as she and her husband Derrick, expanded their own nuclear family. 

The Cohen Clinic accepts TRICARE health insurance. 

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