Veterans In Action (VIA) takes a unique approach to supporting veterans through Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), which differs significantly from traditional PTSD treatments. While both approaches aim to help veterans, they have distinct focuses and methodologies.
Conventional PTSD treatments typically include:
These treatments primarily focus on reducing PTSD symptoms and processing traumatic memories. They are often time-limited interventions, with CBT and CPT typically lasting 8-15 sessions, while EMDR can vary in duration.
VIA’s approach, centred on Post-Traumatic Growth, differs in several key ways:
While traditional treatments aim to reduce PTSD symptoms, VIA’s PTG approach emphasises personal growth and positive psychological change. It focuses on areas such as improved relationships, new life possibilities, enhanced personal strength, spiritual development, and greater appreciation for life.
Unlike the time-limited nature of traditional treatments, VIA offers ongoing projects and activities that allow veterans to engage over extended periods. This continuous involvement provides sustained support and opportunities for growth.
Traditional treatments focus primarily on trauma and its psychological impacts. VIA’s PTG approach considers the whole person, aiming to help veterans rediscover strengths, develop new skills, and find renewed purpose in life.
While traditional treatments typically occur in clinical settings with professional therapists, VIA’s approach heavily emphasises peer support and community integration. This helps combat social isolation and provides a supportive environment for growth.
Traditional treatments often involve talking through experiences and learning coping strategies. VIA’s approach actively engages veterans in hands-on projects like vehicle building, media production, and overland expeditions. These activities help develop new skills and rediscover old ones, contributing to increased confidence and sense of purpose.
Traditional PTSD treatments often involve processing past trauma. While acknowledging past experiences, VIA’s PTG approach is inherently future-oriented, encouraging veterans to envision and work towards a positive future.
It’s important to note that VIA’s approach is not intended to replace traditional PTSD treatments. Instead, it complements these therapies by providing support before, during, and after clinical interventions. This can help veterans prepare for therapy, reinforce coping strategies learned in sessions, and maintain progress after treatment ends.
While traditional PTSD treatments like CBT, CPT, and EMDR play a crucial role in helping veterans manage trauma-related symptoms, VIA’s PTG approach offers a complementary path. By focusing on long-term engagement, holistic growth, peer support, active skill development, and future-oriented thinking, VIA aims to help veterans not just cope with their past experiences, but thrive and find new purpose in their post-military lives.
This comprehensive approach recognises that recovery from trauma is a multifaceted journey, requiring support on multiple levels and at various stages. By integrating PTG principles throughout the recovery process, VIA’s approach aims to enhance the effectiveness of traditional PTSD treatments while providing additional avenues for personal growth and healing.
I needed focus I needed something to fill my time, well maybe not fill my time but something to focus on like a target, a needed to get back my drive.
I started to help VIA ‘Veterans In Action’ and found something that I could do, use the old skills that I learnt in the army and more since I left which I did not register I had.
I had been missing that motivation to do something that I wanted to do and gain that level of self-gratification and achievement.
Everybody has a skill set, but it’s the motivation to use it we can lose, VIA have various projects on the go all the time, hopefully I have found my niche to help them and myself to gain personal gratification by being a member of a team again and a job well done.
After discussions I realised that it’s this which advances my mental well-being and my ongoing fight against depression and the feeling of worthlessness.
I have woken up, helping hand in hand with fellow soldiers suffering from labelled disorders finding strength from weakness, realising what helps them generally does helps me, the recognition has been an awakening.”
Ian ‘Chalky’ White former 17th/21st Lancers and B Sqn 22 SAS
Veterans In Action have been filming our expeditions for many years for our YouTube Channel, Veterans Expeditions Overland, and through this experience of not only running the expeditions but also capturing footage that enables veterans who have taken part in a place of reference to recapture how they felt by taking part.
The Veterans In Focus project enables veterans to learn new skills and record not only the expeditions we run but also the day-to-day work on all projects connecting them all together so everyone feels involved in all aspects of the work we do.
VIA take a long-term approach to helping veterans who suffer to enable them to grow within a project working alongside their peers. All this can be achieved within this project which can be ongoing and would allow veterans to learn new skills or to pass on skills learned during their time in the services
Some of the outcomes of the project are a sense of purpose, regaining confidence and working in an environment alongside other veterans where they can instantly feel relaxed, chilled-out, secure, and safe.
Veterans can work at their own pace, stop thinking negatively, concentrate, learn new skills, be part of building something, and most importantly where problems are understood this will positively impact mood and stress levels.
For those involved in the project, they can also get involved on an expedition HERE
I became involved with VIA in 2010 after my life took a turn for the worse and was invited along to do some fundraising with them. This helped me no end and in time my life got back on track. I completed a Union Flag Walk with them from Cape Wrath to Land’s End which again helped as walking and talking with other veterans with similar stories was a great help in understanding how I was feeling. I gained control of my life again.
In 2019, I took part in an overland expedition travelling through the Spanish Pyrenees and whilst away my life took a turn for the worse again due to family problems back in the UK. On my return I had to start again and rebuild and focus on the future and with the help of Veterans In Action I got back on track and took control.
I now own and run my own courier business.
Mark Colman former Royal Engineers
To date, we have travelled 25,000 miles travelling through 30 different countries and some of them several times both on overland expeditions for humanitarian aid through the pandemic and more recently supplying medical humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
It is important to note that to take part in one of our overland expeditions we insist that veterans get involved in the BUILD IT part of the project. The reason for this is part of the Post Traumatic Growth process which is our method for helping veterans so that veterans can grow within a team of their peers, learning new skills and relearning old skill sets that may have been forgotten after service.
Leading up to an expedition involves expedition training which will include off-road driving, navigation, camp setups, camp cooking and daily maintenance, something most veterans will understand from their time in the services.
It would be unfair for any individual to turn up on the day of an expedition who hadn’t previously been involved as everyone else would have been working together over a long period of time so due to the very nature of the mental health problems of those we take out on expedition turning up on day 1 for any individual could become very difficult to find where they fit in no matter how welcoming everyone was.
It is the involvement long-term on building the vehicles that enable veterans to grow that gets them to a place where they fully enjoy all aspects of the expedition experience starting from the minute that an overland expedition sets off.