Clinicians often tell Taqueena Quintana, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in Washington, DC, that they find it difficult to work as a civilian counselor with the military. They want to know how she did it even though she has no personal military experience.
Quintana was first introduced to the military as an advisor to a drug abuse agency. Some of her clients were veterans, and because she had not been trained to work with this population, she began doing her own research.
Later, as an additional counseling instructor, she had the opportunity to teach a class for combat veterans, and she noticed how her mental health problems had a direct impact on her personal and professional life. For example, one student suffered memory loss due to a traumatic brain injury sustained while on duty. He was excellent at speaking in class, but had difficulty completing written assignments, which affected his employment and his academics.
It was through this experience that Quintana discovered that she enjoyed working with veterans and decided to do so full-time, working as a consultant on a military base. She now owns Transformation Counseling Services, a private practice where she works with the military.
Connect with professionals who work with this population
Quintana, assistant professor of counseling at Arkansas State University and seconded resilience advisor for the Navy, admits that she would not have worked successfully with military clients without the support of her mentors, supervisors, and colleagues. Early in her consulting career, she attended ACA conferences and took every military presentation she could – not only to learn more about military mental health, but also to connect with others in the field.
Quintana also advises advisors to find supervisors and mentors associated with the military branches with which they would like to work. One of her superiors is a Navy spouse and another is an Army veteran. Not only do they advise them on advising military clients, they also point them out to potential employment opportunities.
Now Quintana is able to support other consultants who wish to work with this population. She volunteers in the National Board for Certified Counselors Foundation's mentoring program, which brings together counselors with similar interests and career goals. Quintana chooses one of her mentees specifically for the work she has done with the army. "They're looking for people in these [military] positions to get there themselves," says Quintana.
Keith Myers, Dean of Clinical Affairs and Associate Professor of Counseling at Richmont Graduate University, recommends that advisors join the Military and Government Counseling Association (MGCA), a division of ACA, or the ACA's Veterans Interest Network grant them access to magazines, newsletters and training courses. The Mission Psychology Center is another great resource for education and training, he adds.
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Photo by the US Marine Corps of a soldier sitting in front of a machine gun mounted on a helicopter
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Photo of the US Marine Corps by Lance Cpl. Brendan Mullin / Defense.gov
Gain experience with military-related organizations
Quintana found it helpful and professional to create her own knowledge base and basis for working with this population. “Often times employers want to see that you have knowledge or experience of the [the area in which] where you work,” she says. "That doesn't mean you won't find opportunities. It just means that you have to purposely position yourself in these spaces where you can take advantage of those opportunities (paid or unpaid)."
Myers, an LPC with a private practice for veterans in Marietta, Georgia, suggests that counselors work with military-associated organizations such as the Wounded Warrior Project (which provides programs and resources for wounded veterans who were killed on or after Aug. September) or Give An Hour (which provides free mental health care to veterans and their families).
Tanya Workman, an LPC and director of training for the licensed training program for professional mental health counselors at the Frank Tejeda Outpatient Department of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, recommends clinicians seek out opportunities at military hospitals and clinics such as this are looking for Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Endeavor, a Texas-based provider providing mental health care to veterans and their families regardless of their roles in uniform or discharge status. You can also volunteer with the Veterans Crisis Line, which connects veterans in crisis and their families with a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) responder, she adds.
There are also training programs for doctoral students. The VA's Office of Academic Affiliations offers a master-level training program for counseling students, says Workman, an ACA member and Army veteran. Some of the VA offices are offering internships for these students to train more mental health professionals in the specific mental health needs of military service members and veterans, she explains.
One position available to counselors is a deployed resilience counselor, says Quintana. These advisors work for the US Department of Defense or the Navy (but they do not need to be a military member themselves). As Quintana explains, the consultants go on tour with the unit and offer service members psychological counseling during their assignment.
Find experiences outside of the VA
"The VA is not the only facility where [counselors] can work with veterans and military on active duty," emphasizes Quintana. "There are organizations and agencies [such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army] that offer advisors the opportunity to position themselves to work with veterans and the military on active duty."
A military family life counselor is another professional position counselors may want to consider, continues Quintana. In this role, counselors are dispatched to bases in the States or overseas to provide solution-oriented, non-medical advice to service members and their families. It's a contractual position with organizations outside the VA and the U.S. government and doesn't require any prior experience working with the military, says Quintana.
Myers, an ACA member whose clinical specialties include veteran problems, trauma, and combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, agrees that consultants need not look for organizations that are solely veteran service providers. Veterans seek help from a wide variety of organizations, such as mental hospitals and inpatient treatment centers, he points out.
Myers actually discovered his passion for working with military clients when he accepted a job at a rehabilitation hospital that had an outpatient service for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and mental health problems.
A good fit
Adrian Marquez, a licensed mental health consultant and owner of the private practice Calm in the Storms in Melbourne, Florida, created and acts as the Sheepdog Program, a mental health and substance abuse program for veterans and firsts Program Director Responder. He carefully and carefully selects consultants for this program because he knows that the job can be demanding at times. But it's also worth it, he adds.
He is looking for advisors whose personality fits well with the military culture, but that doesn't mean they have to have military experience. For example, a clinician hired by Marquez is a marathon runner with a world record holder. When Marquez, a retired Marine sergeant and Marine raider, discovered that the advisor had trained for marathons to the point where his toenails fell off, he knew this advisor understood what it was like to push yourself beyond your limits to move. He had the perseverance attitude that so many veterans share.
According to Marquez, "it's about finding the right personality, the right character and the people who are willing to do [this work] with the right heart."
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Related reading: See the "From Struggle to Advice" column series on CT Online, including one on the subject, "Getting Started in Advising Military Customers"
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Lindsey Phillips is Counseling Today author and UX content strategist. Contact them at [email protected] or through their website at lindseynphillips.com.
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It should not be assumed that opinions or statements in articles appearing on CT Online represent the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
