Lights! Camera! Action! There will be a one-day talk show format filming of Army couples in Seattle on Jan. 15. Participants will be reimbursed for their travel expenses to Seattle and paid a $500 compensation fee. Fort Lewis couples are encouraged to apply.

When military couples face struggles concerning communication, trust, jealousy, and faithfulness, the consequences - such as depression - can be extremely harmful to the people involved. Military couples are especially susceptible to these challenges because of the long deployments they face. The Army has put a lot of effort into strengthening not only marriages but interpersonal relationships across the board. The Army program Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, or CSF, focuses on five dimensions of strength. One of the five is family, and Gen. George W. Casey has appointed Doctors John and Julie Gottman to create a program to help soldiers with family struggles.

The program will be an interactive online format that millions of people - both soldiers and their family members - may access. The goal is to create four modules that focus on the most common challenges faced by Army couples as they experience the deployment cycle.

The one-day talk show will be an exciting and fun experience for the participants. Dr. Julie Gottman will interview three couples at a time just as if they were sitting together in their own living rooms. The topics will vary but may include how to sustain trust and manage conflict and recovering from past conflicts. There will be an emphasis on challenges Army couples face. These interviews will be edited to form the backdrop for the modules that will be used online. Couples will be encouraged to share their relationship triumphs as well as their difficulties in a judgment free, safe environment. The participants will be helping other military couples as the film will be used to reach out to other soldiers and families around the world.

There are a few requirements participants must meet to apply. The participants need to be open and willing to disclose personal experiences, and the program prefers that the couple have experienced the deployment cycle at least once.  Because edited footage from these films may be shown throughout the military, all participating couples will be required to complete consent and release documentation.  The program is looking for a cross section of representation of the Army. All ranks, ethnicities and ages between 18 and mid-30s are encouraged to apply. Couples do not need to be married; dating or engaged couples may be included as long as they are in a committed relationship.

Applications will be accepted until Dec. 21. Interested couples should e-mail militarycouples@gottman.com with CSF Couples Project in the subject line. The e-mail must include the following information: the full name of each partner, their ages, ethnicity, and e-mail addresses as well as good contact phone numbers and the best time to be reached. The researchers ask that the e-mail also include how long the couple has been together, whether or not each partner has been married before, and the number of times and the lengths of deployments of the soldier.