Life happens and unfortunately, it does not come with a handbook or instructions. Life Skills are all about self-discovery: exploring new ways to think, interact and problem-solve in our dynamic, everchanging military environment. The Fleet and Family Support Centers (FFSCs) offer evidence-based services that are focused on increasing resilience; building and maintaining healthy relationships; enhancing protective factors; strengthening interpersonal competencies; and mastering respective roles, tasks and responsibilities throughout the military family life cycle. Explore the following workshop topics to help you prepare for and navigate whatever life throws your way.
Anger & Emotion Regulation
Anger is a normal emotion. Unfortunately, the resulting behavior- when out of control- can lead to problems in your personal and professional life. Keep your cool by utilizing strategies to identify emotions and their common expressions; and, when necessary, regulating and changing them to better maintain control of the situation.
Communication & Conflict
Dialogue is rarely, "I talk; you listen". There are many steps to effective communication, productive listening, and empathetic validation. Unfortunately, there can be even more barriers to prevent it from happening and steep consequences when things go wrong. Become more effective at managing dialogue and conflict by understanding the role each plays in the other and learning the strategies to navigate each.
Coping Skills
Sometimes life happens, and sometimes it hits you like a brick wall. In these moments of significant stress, the best you may be able to do is survive without making things worse. Selecting and practicing coping skills based on situations, factors and levels of emotional distress; developing distress tolerance skills; and understanding effective ways to set goals and change behaviors can all be immensely helpful when weathering the high-stress storm.
Healthy Relationships
How can it sometimes be so challenging to interact with our loved ones, coworkers, friends and family? Interpersonal effectiveness is critical to accomplishing one’s goals while still maintaining relationships and self-respect. Understanding the interplay between each, your values and your boundaries will help you to identify the best way forward to preserve them all.
Leadership Training
Develop and enhance skills relating to time management, problem-solving, decision making, career development, team coaching, project planning and execution, memory improvement, effective note taking, understanding human behavior, team motivational techniques, and more.
Mind, Body, Mental Fitness (MBMF)
Dive deep into stress resilience, mindfulness and meditation, living core values, flexibility, problem solving and connection in this six-part series. Change your views of stress by exploring how stress affects the four domains of resilience, practicing energy management and learning skills to turn stress into growth opportunities. Increase focus and awareness while decreasing harmful reactivity. Define your values: understand their relation to your goals, glean how they help you to stay on course while facing stress, and identify how they compare/contrast to your organization’s values. Explore your thoughts, emotions and behaviors; how they differ and interact; and how to deal with them better. Learn basic steps of problem-solving, building healthy and helpful coping skills, and recognizing the dynamics and interactions of personal and group challenges. Gain strategies to increase unit cohesion and peer relationships.
Mindfulness
Is the goal of meditation really just clearing your head and thinking about nothing? No; not in the slightest. Learn how to actually practice mindfulness, understand its benefits, and study the multiple ways our brains pay attention to our surroundings and the impacts of each on our working memory.
Parent Education
As if parenting alone was not enough of an adventure, parenting in the Navy introduces a whole new level of joys and challenges completely unique to the military. Increase your parenting effectiveness by learning general information for parents of all-age children, or by attending a class tailored specifically to your child’s developmental stage. Note: Parenting education that focuses specifically upon prenatal period to age three can be found through the New Parent Support Program.
Resilience
How are some people able to bounce back from stressful situations so much faster than others? The simple answer is resilience. Learn how to define it, how to identify its risk factors and strengtheners, how to describe the characteristics of a resilient personality, and how to utilize coping skills and other interventions to build it.
Stress Management
Stress is a normal, natural part of life. It is a brilliant motivator, but unfortunately, it can also feel overwhelming at times. Identify your body’s responses to both short-term and excess stress, distinguish excess stress from burnout and learn ways to deal with each, reduce emotional vulnerabilities that make us feel like we are losing control, and learn the benefits of mastery and the ways to build it.
Suicide Prevention
Suicide in the Navy is everyone’s concern. Anyone is capable of making a difference and contributing to suicide prevention at any time. To be most effective, learn to identify the contributors, risk factors and warning signs of suicide; to assess someone’s reasons for not seeking help; to ask, care and treat before, during, and after a suicide attempt; and to practice lethal means safety per NAVADMIN 263/14. Note: If you or a loved one is experiencing a crisis, please see the FFR Suicide Prevention page for programs, links and phone numbers to help.
Updated 10 March 2026