We are in desperate need of marital counseling right now....does anyone know if the military pays for this type of counseling?? I have heard that it does...but that you have to know how to request it. If anyone is having Tricare pay for you counseling would you please help me out here. I desperately want to save my marriage.
Thanks!

Same information as on my thread... Best of luck and God bless you and your marriage.

ND,

Too easy - glad to be of service. Please tell your husband and work on your relationship after exiting the relationship with the OM with the pledge of no contact. You will make half of the effort to reconcile and be well on your way to making this work. It would be even better if you could get him on MB before breaking the news to him and after you end it. This is a great place...

Call Military OneSource at 1-800-342-9647 or go to their website (www.militaryonesource.com) and lookup counseling for more information on the program. OneSource will pay for 6 sessions of individual counseling for you and if you can't finish working through it after that they will refer you back to the military or bill your insurance to continue. If you need MC, you and your husband can use the same program under his name for 6 comp sessions together.

Whatever you do - end it first (i.e. NOW), make it a permanent break, be honest and back away for the fireworks, and then be willing to work through it together with the goal of marital reconciliation as the endstate. He'll understand when the knife in his back stops hurting so much and you remove it by doing a lot of the dirty work ahead of time.

God bless you and your family.

sbmmal

You don't specify what branch, but if you're active Army (and things haven't changed too much in the last few years) you should also be able to go through your battalion chaplain and/or Army Community Services (ACS) for assistance along these lines.

As per the Tricare Handbook:

Chapter No. 9 - What's Not Covered
Counseling Services

TRICARE doesn’t cover nutritional counseling, diabetic self-help counseling, diabetic self-education programs, stress management, life-style modifications, marriage counseling (marriage counseling isn’t the same as treatment by a marriage and family therapist, which is covered under TRICARE Standard), etc. Counseling services may be covered under the expanded preventive care benefit, as long as they are performed in connection with immunizations, Pap smears, mammograms, or examinations for colon and prostate cancer. However, they are expected components of good clinical practice that are integrated into the appropriate office visit at no additional charge.

So your best bet looks like the Military One Source talked about above or a Chaplain.

Best of Luck!

Speaking from my exprience with Tricare.

Our PCP (primary care provider) submitted a referral to a therapist. Then I believe 8 visits were authorized. I just hope you get luckier than we did with the IC/MC.

As will (Most) tricare accepted provders, it's not top of the line.

We're retired military on Tricare Prime. They authorize (8?) visits without a referral, then the MC puts in for extended referral if needed.

Nursedana,

Yes, like everyone says here. Believe the Navy (and USMC?) will authorize 12 visits through their Fleet and Family Services, the USCG does it through the EAP program and I believe the Army has stepped up their program as well in response to the increased deployments and stresses on the families.
Most times you can work w/ the counselor if you need more than the 6-12 visits authorized. Don't know who's the WS in your case but if they (you or he) aren't out of the affair, then you're wasting your time in MC, though IC can help you though.

Best wishes,
No Way

As per the TRICARE policy "marriage counseling" per se is not a covered benefit, however "family counseling" is but must be initiated by the non-active duty member and initially the counseling is "family-centered". Air Force makes all active duty see the Life Skills department at the Military Treatment Facility but if "family counseling" is requested on TRICARE on-line/appt line by the non-active duty member then the active duty spouse is included and can be seen by a civilan behavioral counselor providing "family counseling" for at least 8 visits without a referral.

My problem as the AD person is my spouse refuses to go or initiate <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

You should speak to your TRICARE Health Beneficiary Advisor to see if there are any other specifics in your branch and location!

Good luck

nursedana, I hope you are still around because I wanted to suggest that there is nothing that marriage counseling can give you that will be as effective as this:

a) ending your affair NOW and committing to complete no contact
b) confessing it to your H

All the best counseling in the world cannot overcome deceit and infidelity. Marriage counseling will be entirely useless until your affair ends and your H is told the truth. Those things have to be overcome by you NOW before recovery even has a HOPE.

MC is nice, but it is for RECOVERY PHASE, you aren't there until you end you affair and tell the truth. You will also find some of the Harley books to be a great resource, particularly Surviving an Affair by Bill Harley.