Veterans' Counselor

After all that veterans have given for their countries, many people want to give something back. Veterans’ Counselors spend their workdays helping veterans face their problems head-on, and overcome marital, family, and personal issues that the trauma of war has caused.

Your basic responsibilities as a Veterans’ Counselor mimic those of a traditional Therapist. You talk with people, ask about their problems, and help them find solutions to overcome negative thoughts and issues interfering with their daily lives. Yet your work as a Veterans’ Counselor differs from the traditional Counselor in one very important way. You’re trained to deal with the specific issues that veterans face.

Combat leaves both physical and mental scars, and you listen to the memories still haunting the men and women who have served in the military. You must be prepared to hear what are sometimes disturbing descriptions of what a veteran has faced in the past. Talking about memories they’ve avoided for so long is a crucial step for veterans in the long healing process.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the most common condition you treat, and you do so in one of two ways: prolonged exposure therapy or cognitive processing therapy. Both are focused on dealing with stressful memories while in a safe environment.

Regardless of who you treat and how, you help make lives better, not only of veterans but of their family and friends as well. War cannot be forgotten, but people can learn to accept their memories and move on.