Table 1.

Illustrative quotes from family members and veterans at baseline

	Family members	Veterans
Knowledge of PTSD	“Oh, I guess very little. I kind of know the shell of it probably. I know what everybody knows, but I wouldn’t say it’s deep….I really haven’t [sought out information about it], no. Which seems like an oversight now that we’re talking about it.”	“She doesn’t understand trauma. She probably thinks she does….She knows what caused it, and I kind of talked to her about it once in a while. But if you haven’t been through it you don’t know what it is.”
Expectations of individual treatment	“I’m assuming just kind of talking about the triggering event and talking about you know…the parts of his behavior that may actually be coming from or consequences of that event.” “I know that a lot of his sessions revolve around um, desensitizing him to the experiences that he had.”	None
Disclosure about trauma events	“I think [talking about the trauma] will be good for him. Good to get that out, maybe he’s telling Dr. X things he’s never told me. I don’t know. But that’s good, I think. It’s good…I don’t think it can hurt him at all.”	“She has a general understanding of some of the events. But as far as, you know, details, no she doesn’t have any of those.”
Goals and motivations for participation in the BFI	“[The veteran] really really wanted me to do this [family program]. He brought it up a couple of times and I said ‘No, I have [family obligations] and everything.’ He brought it up a second time and I was just like ‘Yeah, I’ll think about it’ and then the third time he actually brought a phone number. My husband…he’ll throw things out there and it’s just out there and I’m like ‘Yeah whatever.’ This is something he came back to numerous times, I knew it meant something to him. And because he was coming to me, instead of me engaging him, I figured ‘If it means that much to him, I’ll go ahead and do it.’” “[I want to learn] what I should say, what I should do or how far to push or how far not to. If the stuff that I’m doing is the right thing to be doing….How to deal with it when he has flare ups….” “And I think from his perspective, you know, talking for him now, which I shouldn’t do, but I think he would really like for me to better understand PTSD and kind of understand some of his behaviors that maybe I don’t associate with PTSD that might be linked and so I think he’s hoping that I’ll be more aware.”	“I think it’s just [for her] to have more of an understanding of the numbness. And how it impacts the way I interact with people… I guess just maybe more patience with the process.” “[I want her] to accept what I have. To accept what I have.” “I’m pretty poor at communicating about PTSD and anything like that. And I’m told that I’m a pretty emotionless person. So I figured if we both entered this study then maybe she could get more insight as far as things that I’ve gone through, or people like me have gone through, and maybe different ways to approach different scenarios.” “I mean just because I have a diagnosis of PTSD doesn’t necessarily mean I know enough about it to convey that to my wife, so….”
Potential negative outcomes from the BFI	“I feel like in all honesty it could only get better. I don’t think it would be a negative affect at all. Because it would just be stagnant, it would just be what it is anyways. So yeah I feel like this only can go well I guess.” “My only concern is that me and my husband have gone to couple therapy. It didn’t work out well for us. I mean he felt, he didn’t feel validated or heard on a lot of the appointments. And the appointments that he did feel validated or heard, I didn’t feel validated or heard. So every time we left couple therapy we never felt better. I think it wasn’t very productive in the sense that we really did try and we went for a couple of months and it was not productive, and so because of that I’m afraid that if I tried to put myself in any of his therapy he’ll take a step back from it. And I really need him to be involved in it.”	“She could come to realize that, you know, the man she fell in love with and married isn’t me anymore. Like, I constantly go back and think about how damaged I am now. So she could go through this study and realize just how damaged I really am and cut her losses, save face. Try and move on, find somebody else, somebody better I guess. I don’t know how realistic that fear is but….”