Married to: Matthew Weathers
SOY Location: Fort Gordon
Years as Milspouse: 11
Areas of Focus:
Corie Weathers is devoted to the military community, so much so that as a licensed professional counselor she has dedicated countless hours to using her professional degree to support military families, especially military children and military spouses. It was during her first deployment that Corie’s skills would be put to the test. Her husband deployed with his unit to a remote location in Afghanistan. Because of her skill set, she was asked to be the head coordinator for the Care Team and a member of the Go-Team, which was tasked to work with new widows once they were notified of their soldier’s death. When she accepted the position, she never could have known that the unit would lose so many soldiers; Corie was right beside many spouses in their most trying time. For her work, Corie was awarded the Honorable Order of St. Joan D’Arc award as well as the Commander’s Award for Public Service. She is a ‘Give an Hour’ member and volunteer, offering professional counseling to service members free, for one hour a week. She and her husband help strengthen military marriages by creating and leading weekend marriage retreats.
So it is no surprise that in 2015, Corie continues to bring that compassion and drive to the military community. Every duty station has brought new changes to her practice and she alters her counseling to fit the needs of that new home. In one duty station, she shares, she may focus mostly on military spouses, where in others the greater need for therapy in the community may be with teenagers. Yet it was her work providing counseling for military spouses where Corie saw a real, unaddressed need for help. While our military members may be dealing with the anxiety of retirement, downsizing or physical or moral injury, military spouses are dealing with employment and career issues, domestic violence, constant familial changes, suicidal thoughts and lack of purpose. In 2015, she plans to shine an equal light on the mental state of spouses by being a real voice of a hurting but resilient group and by getting the help and support to military families that is available to them.
In Her Own Words:
“Military spouses need more help, need a place to talk, to hurt, to be real without feeling it is unpatriotic or out of place. Bridging the gap will help provide the support and resources to help them thrive in their marriages, their personal goals, cope with the changes in their soldier, as well as the coming changes in the military.”
