My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens is a series of blogs by four military teens that highlights their feelings and experiences before, during, and after parental deployment. It provides support and education for all military teens and pre-teens by honoring their unique joys and sacrifices, addressing their fears and hopes, and exploring how parental deployment affects their lives. Although the four youth in My Story are fictional, the stories are real—the blogs are a compilation of real life experiences of military kids we have been honored to meet and learn from.
The blogs in My Story address issues such as:
- Pride in parent’s military service
- Sadness, anger and confusion regarding deployments
- The excitement of homecoming
- Challenges of reconnecting after deployment
- Finding a "new normal"
- Teen depression
- Dealing with parent’s emotional and physical challenges (e.g., PTSD, substance abuse, injury)
- Divorce
- Resilience and post traumatic growth
For more information about My Story, please see our website at www.SeedsofHopeBooks.com
About the Authors
Michelle D. Sherman, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and a nationally recognized expert on the effects of trauma and mental illness on the family. She directs the Family Mental Health Program at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and is an investigator with the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). She is also a clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and later earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Dr. Sherman has worked extensively with families dealing with a range of traumatic experiences, including military combat, domestic violence, and sexual assault. She co-chaired the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Presidential Task Force on Military Deployment Services for Youth, Families and Service Members, and is a Fellow of the APA Division 43 (Society of Family Psychology).
DeAnne Sherman, Michelle's mother, is a French teacher, trained dancer, and choreographer. She graduated from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she received degrees in French, education, and speech and theater. She owned and operated a dance studio for ten years where she worked extensively with teens and young adults. In addition to being an experienced public speaker, DeAnne also volunteers her time teaching and mentoring junior high and high school students in the performing arts. DeAnne's mission is to educate, affirm, encourage, and cherish each of her students, whether it is in the classroom, in the dance studio, or on the stage. In her free time, she enjoys exercising, traveling, and speaking French with her grandsons.
