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of the emotional difficulty involved (e.g., Carr, 2011, 2013). By doing so, clinicians may breach the mechanisms that accommodate the conspiracy of silence (Danieli, 1984) surrounding the Veterans’ traumas and their aftermaths. Furthermore, it is increasingly acknowledged that in order to treat Veterans, clinicians must get familiar with the military culture (Beder, 2017; Hall, 2011; Litz, Lebowitz, Gray, & Nash, 2016; Meyer, 2015). A recent study has found that Veterans prefer being treated by therapists with a military background, typically a Veteran (Johnson, Ganz, Berger, Ganguly, & Koritzky, 2018). It is assumed by Veterans seeking mental-health services that such individuals may have a better chance of understanding their patients’ military experiences and thus are more likely to assist in alleviating the Veterans’ loneliness rather than exacerbate it. Getting familiar with military culture may facilitate similar processes.
Alternative therapies are also being developed. For instance, acknowledging that Veterans’ bifurcation of society to the us and the them is the foundation of their isolation has given rise to various peer-support therapies wherein Veterans work together towards healing, once again establishing the comraderies they had in the military (Caddick, Phoenix, & Smith, 2015; Hundt, Robinson, Arney, Stanley, & Cully, 2015; Pfeiffer et al., 2012). It is recommended that Veterans locate such a peer-support program to be part of, so they have a safe haven wherein they can feel better understood. Similarly, a novel therapeutic approach entitled “I was There,” utilizes film- making workshops wherein Veterans team up to create a short film that will tell their story (Tuval-Mashiach, Patton, & Drebing, 2018). Participants do not only work together with those who understand them, but also get to give voice to their experience and have it appreciated by others, thus reducing their experiential isolation twofold. As one female Veteran who participated in the program attests:
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