Outpatient Mental Health Treatment for Veterans
As the country enters its third decade of continuous warfare, the mental health of veterans and service members has become a growing concern. The most widely publicized mental health issues among veterans are post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety.
Many veterans also struggle with survivor’s guilt, military sexual trauma, and the complicated emotions that come with transitioning back into civilian life. Fortunately, outpatient treatment can help with many of these issues.
On this page, you’ll learn what outpatient therapy for veterans looks like, the different types of outpatient care available, what services are available to support your recovery, and how to make the most of those services.
What Is Outpatient Therapy for Veterans?
Outpatient therapy for veterans is structured mental health care that doesn’t require staying in a hospital. In this type of therapy, veterans attend scheduled sessions while living at home and continuing their daily routines instead of being admitted to a facility for days or weeks.
It targets a wide range of mental health challenges, like:
- PTSD
- Depression and anxiety
- Moral injury (distress from their own actions or inactions that stray from their ethical or moral code), including guilt and shame
- Adjustment disorders
- Complex grief
Outpatient therapy respects a veteran’s independence while still offering real support without putting life on pause. Because it can be customized (weekly, biweekly, short-term, or long-term), it can be more sustainable and less intimidating than full-time care. Plus, it can fit around your regular schedule, so you don’t have to make mass shifts and changes – it can work to suit your life as it currently stands.
Difference Between Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health Care
Inpatient mental health care means staying at a hospital or residential treatment facility 24/7. It is recommended for veterans who face serious issues, like those who are at risk of harming themselves, are severely depressed, are experiencing psychosis, or are completely overwhelmed by PTSD symptoms.
Inpatient care provides round-the-clock support. Psychiatrists, therapists, and nurses are all on the site, and you receive multiple therapy sessions per day or week.
Outpatient care, on the other hand, is for veterans who feel stable enough to manage their day-to-day responsibilities but still need consistent treatment support. It is more of a longer-term recovery process, as you can continue your life around your therapy sessions as normal. Outpatient care helps veterans stay grounded, manage triggers, improve relationships, and stay connected to purpose.
Many veterans transition from inpatient to outpatient care depending on what life throws at them. According to a study, outpatient care for depression provides results comparable to inpatient programs.2 So, both work well – it’s just a case of what better suits your needs.
Types of Outpatient Mental Health Programs for Veterans
Outpatient care can be delivered in many different settings. Here are some of the most common types of outpatient programs and therapy approaches for veterans with mental health struggles:
Individual Counseling and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
In these one-on-one sessions, veterans are asked about how they’re doing and coping with their problems. Therapy begins by building trust slowly and respectfully, fully recognizing that opening up isn’t easy for veterans who have been trained to compartmentalize everything for survival.
CBT for veterans is the most commonly used form of therapy in individual sessions. It focuses on how thoughts influence emotions and behaviors. CBT also provides tools that help you manage real-life triggers, like anger outbursts, flashbacks, emotional numbing, hypervigilance, or panic in crowds. It is the first-line outpatient treatment for PTSD in veterans.3
Group Therapy and Peer Support Programs
Many veterans feel a deep sense of isolation once they transition out of service. They may struggle to connect with civilians who don’t understand what it means to carry survivor’s guilt, to have been hyper-alert for years, or to feel emotionally numb even in the safest places.
Peer support groups are built around this need for connection. They are led by clinicians trained in trauma care, and co-facilitated by other veterans who’ve been through their own healing journey.
Group outpatient therapy for veterans can be structured around specific issues, such as:
- Combat trauma
- Moral injury
- Substance use recovery
- Relationship problems
- Anger management
- Life after military service
Veterans report feeling more at ease around others who’ve worn the same boots and faced the same demons, which increases interpersonal trust levels.4 Being around people who nod in understanding without needing lengthy explanations lowers defenses and allows for more honest conversations.
PTSD Outpatient Services
Prolonged exposure therapy (PE). It helps veterans gradually confront memories, places, or situations they’ve been avoiding. The goal is to reduce the intensity of fear and helplessness.5- Cognitive processing therapy (CPT). It breaks down and challenges the negative beliefs veterans often carry after trauma, such as blame, guilt, shame, or distorted thoughts about the world and themselves.6
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). It is a nonverbal therapy using guided eye movements to help the brain process and integrate traumatic memories in a less distressing way.
Medication Management
When physical symptoms, such as persistent insomnia, panic attacks, emotional numbness, or intense irritability, cause you trouble, you may be prescribed medications. Medications can reduce the intensity of your symptoms enough to make behavioral therapy more effective.
In an outpatient setting, medication management means that you meet regularly with a psychiatrist or prescribing provider who monitors your progress, checks in on side effects, and adjusts dosages as needed. For example, antidepressants like sertraline are used to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms, and prazosin can be prescribed for veterans experiencing trauma-related nightmares.
Those with comorbid depression may be prescribed SNRIs like venlafaxine to address both mood and anxiety components. Meanwhile, in cases of treatment-resistant mental health diagnoses, providers might consider augmentation strategies like adding a second antidepressant or prescribing a different, uncommon drug.
Medication effects often take several weeks to become noticeable, and side effects, such as gastrointestinal upset and sexual dysfunction, may require dose adjustments or drug changes.
Supportive Outpatient Therapy and Step-Down Care
That’s where step-down care comes in. It recognizes that healing doesn’t end when symptoms improve. In fact, the post-crisis phase is the most vulnerable for many people.
The sessions in supportive outpatient therapy for veterans focus on maintaining emotional stability, addressing emerging challenges, reinforcing coping skills, and giving veterans a space to talk through life as it happens.7 Therapists in this setting act more like long-term allies. They help veterans stay accountable to their goals and check in on medication adherence.
The sessions can also include life planning support, such as reintegrating into work or school, strengthening family relationships, and processing emotions that weren’t ready to surface during more intensive care.
Benefits of Outpatient Mental Health Treatment in Veterans
Many veterans have jobs, families, and responsibilities they can’t simply put on hold. Outpatient treatment allows you to stay present in your life and continue being able to show up for your mental health in a less intimidating setting. It’s care without confinement.
Outpatient therapy also provides consistent, sustainable support. You can continue to engage in therapy for as long as you need. The long-term connection allows deeper issues to come to the surface gradually, when you really are ready.
This type of therapy also aligns well with everyday life. You’ll work on coping strategies in a session, then test them in the real world, at your work and at home. When something doesn’t go well, you bring it back to your next session and figure out what to do differently.
It’s also discreet. If you’re worried about how people around you will perceive your decision to get help, outpatient care offers you privacy. You don’t need to explain an absence from work or disappear for weeks.
VA Outpatient Services and Resources
If you live far from a major city, the idea of driving hours to a VA hospital for routine care is daunting. That’s why the VA has also established community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs). These are small, local clinics that cut the distance between veterans and their care. The VA continues to expand these clinics into rural and underserved areas in order to close gaps that have existed for decades.
There are also Vet Centers. These are community-based facilities focused on readjustment counseling where veterans learn to transition from military to civilian life. Here are the therapy options for veterans that they offer:
Individual and group counseling for depression, anxiety, and readjustment stress- PTSD outpatient services
- Bereavement counseling for families who’ve lost service members
- Marriage and family therapy
- Military sexual trauma support
- Referrals to VA and non-VA services when needed
Family members can also receive support when they’re affected by a veteran’s service-related issues. Vet Centers are located in all 50 states, plus Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and D.C.
To better coordinate outpatient care, the country is divided into 18 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs). These are regional systems of VA health care that manage mental health resources for veterans, programs, and referrals across facilities in each geographic area.
Tips for Veterans in Outpatient Therapy for Better Treatment Outcomes
Starting outpatient therapy is a huge step, and it is not an easy one. Veterans have often been conditioned to stay strong, carry on, and keep moving ahead no matter what. So, sitting across from someone and opening up about things you’ve locked away for years takes courage.
Below are some tips that will help you make the most out of outpatient mental health therapy:
- Be honest, even if it’s messy. If you feel angry, numb, unsure, or not connected to the therapist, say so openly. Therapy is one of the few places where you’re allowed to tell the full truth without consequence.
- Don’t wait until a crisis to speak up. If you notice subtle shifts in your behaviors, like more irritability, trouble sleeping, or increased anxiety, bring it to therapy right away. Small changes are often early warning signs, and catching them prevents bigger setbacks.
- Show up even when you don’t feel like it. Some of the most important sessions happen on the hardest days. If all you can do is sit there and breathe, that still counts as showing up.
- Write things down between sessions. Keep a simple journal with yourself at all times to track moods, thoughts, triggers, or just questions you want to bring to your next session.
- Be patient with yourself. Healing is never linear. You’ll feel better one week and then be overwhelmed the next. Understand that it is completely natural to feel such contrasting emotions during your therapy.
Outpatient Mental Health Treatment at Mission Connection
At Mission Connection, we recognize that coping with mental health outside of inpatient care requires structured support.
Many veterans live with real emotional pain while still showing up for work, caring for family, or trying to function day-to-day. Our outpatient mental health programs are for exactly that kind of reality.
We treat a wide range of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and more. Our personalized therapy plans include one-on-one counseling, skills-based group therapy, and proven techniques like CBT and EMDR, or holistic mental health treatments like meditation and yoga, if these are more your thing.
For those who need additional structure, we also offer both partial hospitalization programs and intensive outpatient programs.
To learn more about outpatient mental health treatment for veterans at Mission Connection, give us a call or reach out online.
References
- Inoue, C., Shawler, E., Jordan, C. H., & Jackson, C. A. (2021). Veteran and Military Mental Health Issues. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34283458/
- Driessen, M., Schulz, P., Jander, S., Ribbert, H., Gerhards, S., Neuner, F., & Koch-Stoecker, S. (2019). Effectiveness of inpatient versus outpatient complex treatment programs in depressive disorders: a quasi-experimental study under naturalistic conditions. BMC Psychiatry, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2371-5
- Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration. (2015, January). Effective Treatments for PTSD: Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as First Line Treatment. https://www.pbm.va.gov/PBM/AcademicDetailingService/Documents/Academic_Detailing_Educational_Material_Catalog/66_PTSD_NCPTSD_Provider_Effective_Treatment_for_PTSD.pdf
- Williams, W., Graham, D. P., McCurry, K., Sanders, A., Eiseman, J., Chiu, P. H., & King-Casas, B. (2014). Group psychotherapy’s impact on trust in veterans with PTSD: A pilot study. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 78(4), 335–348. https://doi.org/10.1521/bumc.2014.78.4.335
- McLean, C. P., & Foa, E. B. (2024). State of the science: Prolonged exposure therapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 37(4), 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.23046
- Resick, P. A., Wachen, J. S., Dondanville, K. A., LoSavio, S. T., Young-McCaughan, S., Yarvis, J. S., Pruiksma, K. E., Blankenship, A., Jacoby, V., Peterson, A. L., & Mintz, J. (2021). Variable-length Cognitive Processing Therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in active duty military: Outcomes and predictors. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 141, 103846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2021.103846
- Justus Tönnies, Marayah Ayoub-Schreifeldt, Schrader, V., Hartmann, M., Wild, B., Friederich, H., & Haun, M. W. (2023). From inpatient to outpatient mental health care: Protocol for a randomised feasibility trial of a care transition intervention for patients with depression and anxiety (the AMBITION-trial). PLOS ONE, 18(11), e0291067–e0291067. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291067
- Veterans Health Administration. (2023, November 8). About VHA. Va.gov. https://www.va.gov/health/aboutvha.asp
