FORT BLISS, Texas — The Fort Bliss Army Community Service offers a monthly Master Resilience Training course open to all Fort Bliss civilians.
Master Resiliency Training or MRT is a quarterly requirement for all military personnel that is designed to open soldiers up emotionally and encourage them to explore the different stressful events they experience in their daily lives.
By exploring these experiences, the program strives to better understand why people react the way they do, with the end goal being to improve on those reactions, thus creating a more well rounded individual.
According to Terry Broomfield, program coordinator for the Master Resiliency Training program on Fort Bliss, this exploration often leads to soldiers going home and speaking with their spouses about the day’s training. Going on to say that sometimes there becomes a gap in the conversation between the soldier who attends the training and the spouse who did not.
“Resiliency is not a just a soldier skill – it’s a life skill,” said Broomfield. “MRT is the best program that I have seen to help people grow and develop that life skill.”
To develop resiliency, MRT is taught in individual blocks that build upon each other through short lessons that are designed to stimulate group discussions.
One example of a lesson is to have attendees write down three recent and positive experiences, then having them share those experiences with the class. The lesson teaches the attendees how to search for positives things in their daily lives and improve their confidence to share their thoughts with others.
“There are so many programs offered to soldiers from the time they join the Army, and that’s great, but with programs offered by ACS, such as MRT to civilians, the soldiers’ ‘better halves’ are being taken care of by the Army as well,” said Pam Thomas, an employee of ACS, who is also one of the many certified MRT instructors at Fort Bliss.
The MRT to civilians course is held Monday through Wednesday, from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm, then ending with a half day on Thursday that gets out by lunchtime.
“Three and a half days is a long time for someone to commit to an Army class, but everyone that I have talked to who has taken the class has overwhelmingly told me it was well worth the time,” said Thomas. “As trainers, we have all gone through the class ourselves and I totally agree with them.”
To learn more visit: www.blissmwr.com/acs or call the Fort Bliss Family Resiliency Center at 915-569-5970.