What form of therapy is most beneficial for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress and why? what are your thoughts on Group Therapy?

One-on-One therapy with a counselor that went through PTSD and beat it would be ideal. In Group Therapy there would not be many individuals willing to go first or even add their own 2 cents to someone else's comment.

From personal experience I can honestly say no one method seems to be best. I think all have helped me. I have even done EMDR. I think it depends on the individual and your openness to getting help with the issue.

Ugh, I couldn't handle group therapy, there are some real challenges with some of those people in the sessions. I was in one probably 3 sessions. At break at the second session a couple guys took me aside and tried to coach me into what to do and say for the attempt to up the PTSD disability rating. After the fourth session, I quit going. A couple months later I was in the facility and the counselor was walking down the hall, he stopped me and said, hey, we miss you at the sessions, what happened?
I told him I was not comfortable there, and what the other "patients" were trying to "coach" off line. I told him, I know what I feel and I don't have to lie about it just to get a higher rating, I was there to seek a resolve to either rid myself of this condition or learn to live with it, and I wasn't getting anywhere. He stared at me for about a minute then said, ok thank you for being honest about it. A few months later I received a letter from VA upping my percentage of PTSD disability, then I received a letter and a list of civilian therapists in my local area I was authorized to contact for private sessions. I spent two years with one of those, it seemed to work tremendously, plus meeting a woman who was an ER RN and trauma nurse, we hit it off so much we married. I still have issues, but she is able to "ground" me as she can hear so much better than I do and can hear helicopters, planes, potential other triggers.

Personal experience: I felt more comfortable in group therapy, my husband and I also sit and share things (he's prior service as well).

Sgt Joe LaBranche First let me say I'm not an expert or a Licensed Professional. With that said from what I know and what I've been involved with during my career and recently with Virtual World Solutons, d/b/a Sponsor a Vet Life most of the veterans that I've worked with say there are different programs that work differently on each individual. On other words, what works for one individual my not work for others and there are a lot of veterans that don't like the group therapy and some that do. There are some of us that don't agreed with going back and creating the original incident that led to the PTSD, TBI, or MST. So, I guess what I'm saying is that one size doesn't fit all. Even the program I'm promoting may not be the answer, but we encoruage veterans and active duty members to at least check it out before they say "No that isn't for me!". We've seen some very good results in our program, which is based on 3D Immersive Interaction with one or more veterans in the Virtual World and a very happy and pleasant port system that allows veterans or individuals to be in a positive environment and one that offers them others to talk to when they are down or feeling depressed. I have provided a link below to register for a free and confidential demostration for those who are interested. Again, I'm not an expert and I truly believe that it comes down to what is making the best impact and progress for the individual when it comes to the treatment or therapy they choose! Here is the link for our Thursday evening webinars: http://www.sponsoravet.life/#!webinar-/dxphe

Treatment is specific to each case. There is no one method.

That said, there are general things that everyone should do. Take care of your body. Eat right, and get some exercise. Don't isolate. Keep in contact with good, supportive people. Eliminate or limit contact with bad, unsupportive people -- even if that is your MOTHER!

Get a *good* therapist, and let him/her guide you with specifics. With the huge demand for PTSD, this is the hardest part!


As an aside, I am ashamed as an American with the way the government has treated the people who were wounded at its orders. I have a friend who works for the VA and processes disability paperwork. He tried to blame a lot of the backlog on people who file frivolous claims. (Ex: I have PTSD because my drill sergeant yelled at me.

I told him that that was no excuse for the VA (and Congress) to not have enough people/funding to take care of it. BS claims are always there, so it goes with the territory.

OK. Off my soapbox!

It's important to recognize triggers and learn the skills to address the triggers. You can control your brain chemistry with training, think of therapy as training

The only thing I can even come close to for group therapy is Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I was sent to school while in the Navy to be a Departmental Drug and Alcohol Advisor and we were required to attend 3 AA meetings to see how they are beneficial. The meetings I attended were pretty good, I think because everyone there were regulars they had no issues opening up.
I think if someone is comfortable with opening up in front of a group then it could be beneficial. I suppose it depends more on the person and their comfort level.

Find something that you connect with and take it slow and enjoy

Live with PTSD was hard at first. I had to try several things. The most evective was learning to socialize again without the frat of my reactions. I found a bird that I take a lot of places, I did equine therapy, and participated in WWP peer groups. I now volunteer every chance I get,