VETERANS & THEIR FAMILIES

Therapy for PTSD for Veterans and their Families | Your Family Wellness Village | Mental Health Counseling Practice in Glen Ellyn, IL

THERAPY FOR PTSD, FOR VETERANS & THEIR FAMILIES

What to expect: Therapy for veterans can be incredibly helpful in addressing post-traumatic stress and adjustment symptoms being experienced. Treatment can be done individually or with your partner/family and will focus on identifying and managing symptoms being experienced through tools such as mindfulness, emotional regulation, and processing trauma. Sessions typically will occur weekly or biweekly and can last anywhere from 4 months up to a year or longer depending on the severity of symptoms being experienced and the goals the client would like to achieve.

At this time, about 40% of military service members experience some sort of mental health concerns and as many as 1 in 5 veterans experience symptoms of PTSD. It can be difficult trying to navigate those on your own, so connecting with a counselor can be a great way to get additional support and resources.

If you start noticing the following, don’t wait to seek help:

Being easily startled

Feeling tense, on guard, or on edge

Having difficulty concentrating

Having difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or having nightmares

Feeling irritable and having angry or aggressive outbursts

Engaging in risky, reckless, or destructive behavior

Having intrusive thoughts or flashbacks

Recurring memories or dreams related to your trauma

Avoidance of people, places, or things that remind you of your trauma

It is important for people with mental health symptoms, especially symptoms of PTSD, to work with a mental health professional who has experience treating these conditions. The main treatments are talk therapy, medications, or a combination of talk therapy and medications.

Common issues addressed are:

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Anxiety and Panic attacks

Depression

Grief and Loss

Breakup and Divorce

Injury and Disability

Moral injury

Suicidal thoughts

Some models of therapy target PTSD symptoms, while others focus on social, family, or job-related problems. Effective modalities often emphasize a few key components, including learning skills to help identify triggers and manage symptoms. An experienced counselor for veterans can help people find the best treatment plan for their symptoms and needs.

What therapy can look like:

Focus on recovery: Empowering you to take charge of your treatment

Developing tools to manage symptoms with healthy coping skills: Mindfulness, Emotional Regulation, Management of Intrusive Thoughts or Flashbacks

Education and knowledge around symptoms: What do your symptoms look like? What triggers them?

Processing trauma to begin to heal from it

Care that is sensitive to gender and cultural issues

Family & Couple Services: Able to include family or partner in services as needed

With a focus on processing and healing from trauma using a client’s innate strengths and tools such as mindfulness, our veteran and PTSD specialist Casey Divane can work with you to learn to identify and manage your triggers, process your trauma, and develop healthy coping strategies for addressing your symptoms. She will help you learn to create a healthy safe space for yourself and build systems to help support your mental health and well being.