Family Life chaplains complete training

By Aniesa HolmesAugust 12, 2014

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Family Life Chaplain Training Center director Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Jay Hearn, left, and Pastoral Institute counselor training and clinical services director Stephen Muse stand with graduates, Chaplains (Majs.) Christian Goza, Jason Lorenzen and Will... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING, Ga. (Aug. 13, 2014) -- The Fort Benning Family Life Training Center graduated its newest class of chaplains Aug. 7 at The Infantry Chapel.

Chaplains (Majs.) Christian Goza, Jason Lorenzen and William Nicholas completed an intensive 16-month academic and clinical program in preparation for their new assignments as Family Life chaplains at other installations. Part of their duties will be to train junior chaplains in Family ministry skills and pastoral care.

Family Life chaplain students at Fort Benning are majors who complete a master's degree in counseling from Columbus State University and a comprehensive counseling internship.

"Family Life chaplains receive advance clinical skills and offer pastoral treatment options across the force for Soldiers and Families dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, suicide and other complex problems," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Mike Reeves, Family Life Chaplain Training Center deputy director. "We felt like (the new graduates) would be very helpful for the unit ministry teams at all of the installations and this would help them advance their own counseling skills."

Rev. Stephen Muse, director of counselor training and clinical services for the Pastoral Institute, was the guest speaker for the ceremony. He said Family Life chaplains hold a great responsibility for helping Soldiers and their Families readjust to the many changes that occur during and following deployments.

"I view Family Life chaplains as the spiritual Special Forces in the military, the training is aimed at providing structure and support for two distinct missions," he said. "One is to enable warriors to fight battles and sustain their morale for the duration of the deployment ... the second is help warriors reconstitute their Families as they reenter their community as fully as possible after each deployment."

Goza, who will serve as Family Life chaplain at Fort Rucker, Alabama, said the program requires many hours of training and counseling at CSU and at Fort Benning, but provide effective tools in helping Soldiers and Families face a variety of challenges.

"I started praying for four years for the direction God wanted me to go, I didn't feel adequate to counseling, so I thought if I got some extra training in counseling it would help me," he said "As I kept praying about how God wanted me to pursue my career, every path I was on kept leading me to this."

With experience in marriage counseling, Goza said he hopes to see more couples take advantage of Family Life counseling as deployments decline and Soldiers adjust back to steady life at home.

"A marriage and Family was once very chaotic for some of them and there was no cohesiveness in what they did," Goza said. "Now, they are just trying to reincorporate their lives. With the Family Life program, we are trying to encourage Soldiers to come and see us. It's not a stigma to go and get counseling and we hope it helps."