Offer new avenues of treatment as a mental health professional at VA

Just as our Veterans come from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, VA's mental health services adapt to those individual needs. With a plethora of pathways for you to pursue, VA offers unique specializations and unique opportunities to join our team.

For example, at South Texas VA, the Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor (LPMHC) internship program is working to meet the needs of Veterans while also strengthening VA from within. That's because the program provides a pathway to employment within VA after graduation.

"What I enjoyed most from the program was the support we got from the entire psychology department, so we always had someone to work with us and we were never alone," said Payton Bostick, former intern. "It just really fostered my love for working with Veterans, so I wanted to stay with VA and continue my work full-time."

That love of Veterans guides all our work and empowers our mental health professionals to explore new avenues of care.

"What we do is Veteran-centric and goal driven, so we allow the Veterans to dictate for themselves the life they want to live," said Dr. Crystall Matthews-Wells, psychology program manager for the Hope Recovery Center in the VA Fayetteville Coastal Health Care System. "We help articulate those goals and break them down into objectives. And that is our starting point."

Work at VA

Learn more about several unique efforts to support mental health professionals, and how you can find a mental health career of your own, at VA Careers.