New program training clinicians in psychology of combat is an attempt to help fill the gap
By Peter Cameron, Special to the Tribune
When Daniel Brautigam tried to tell therapists how he felt having urine thrown in his face at Guantanamo Bay, he experienced the same frustration as thousands of other returning veterans who have sought counseling."They had no idea how to respond to that. It looked like to me that they were grossed out, and they're supposed to be helping me," said Brautigam, 31, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following his return to Hoffman Estates from tours with the Navy in the Northern Arabian Gulf and Cuba.
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 11 percent to 20 percent of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are suffering from PTSD. Others think the number is higher.
When vets seek therapy, they want a professional who can relate to soldiers in combat, and that usually means a therapist who has military experience. Without such empathy, therapy often is doomed, vets say.
Because most psychologists and mental health care professionals don't have a military background, there's a void in the safety net for vets. Some veterans' organizations have stepped up, training members to help their peers, and the Soldiers Project provides free counseling from licensed professionals and veterans by phone to newly returned vets.
A counselor to ex-soldiers for 35 years, Ray Parrish, 58, a self-described angry veteran, sees the problem on a daily basis. He is the benefits director for Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Chicago and helps those trying to navigate the bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration.
"There quite literally are not enough people that have knowledge of veterans' experiences and who have the professional expertise to provide them the health that they need," Parrish said. "That means that all of the veterans get inadequate care."
A new attempt to fill the gap is coming from the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, which this fall is launching a military specialization track for its doctorate of clinical psychology program. Joe Troiani, a faculty member and Navy veteran who created the track, said the school hopes to prepare students for the specific psychological problems that stem from military service. They will take such classes as the psychology of terrorism, and psychology of combat and conflict.
But some vets scoff at the idea of learning about the horrors of war in the classroom.
"You're dealing with a whole different mindset with a soldier," said Tim Miller, 30, of Chicago, a veteran of the Iraq war who is now studying to be a clinical psychologist at Argosy University. "You can't just wrap your head around that from reading a book."
Troiani called that criticism fair but said the school is training students how to treat the psychological effects of combat, rather than trying to re-create the experience of living in a war zone.
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