Center City Philadelphia Vet Center
The Center City Vet Center developed a Veteran Community Engagement Board where Veterans and community stakeholders engage with Vet Center staff to provide feedback on services and work together to build better community relations.
We collaborate with grass-roots and community agencies to help Veterans and meet their needs.
At the Center City Philadelphia Vet Center, our staff are trained to work with military sexual trauma and address the unique factors that arise in a military setting. Our staff stays current through monthly consultations and focused training sessions.
We provide information about the effects of experiencing military sexual trauma and offer talk therapy to help you process effects of the MST in your life and relationships.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is also available at the Center City Philadelphia Vet Center.
Here at Center City Philadelphia Vet Center, our staff utilize interventions in helping Veterans and service members with PTSD, addiction and substance abuse, including
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)
- Harm Reduction
- 12-step facilitation
Center City Philadelphia offers counseling to family members who have lost a service member while on active duty.
Our staff works to help you process how the loss has affected you and help you reconnect with life.
We can provide Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to address issues related to grief and bereavement.
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center has male and female counselors who work with families, including Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers.
Our counselors implement the following clinical therapeutic modalities:
- Family Systems
- Emotionally Focused Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Strategic Family Therapy
- Structural Family Therapy
- Attachment-based Family Therapy
In addition, counselors may provide education to family members regarding the Veteran’s military related problems and/or post military readjustment. We will offer future groups in communication skills and spousal support.
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center can help you know where to go and how to register for:
• How to get VA medical benefits and register for care
• Where to go to file claims and other forms
• Understanding your VA education benefits
• Education and referral for VA burial benefits
• Housing and home loans
At the Center City Philadelphia Vet Center, we have diverse clinical and office staff, including a bilingual Spanish speaking counselor.
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center is a supportive environment for Veterans to connect to each other and to understand and manage their symptoms of PTSD. We provide a mix of individual and group counseling. Our services are not time limited. Veterans can complete a course of evidenced based therapy and continue in treatment for continued therapy and support.
We provide evidenced based therapies for individual treatment of Veterans and service members, including
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
We can connect you with resources in our community, including
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center has a female Veteran counselor and other female counselrrs .
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center is staffed with LGBTQ+, Queer affirming therapists.
We understand that the transition from military to civilian life can be a challenge. We offer a variety of ways to assist you in that process such as:
• How to get VA medical benefits and register for care
• Where to go to file claims and other forms
• Understanding your VA education benefits
• Housing and home loans
• Education and referral for VA burial benefits
The Center City Philadelphia Vet Center can also connect you to Veterans Service Organizations in your community.
At the Center City Philadelphia Vet Center, our staff work in a variety of therapeutic modes, including:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Client-Center Therapy
- Supportive Therapy
How we're different than a clinic (FAQs)
How we’re different than a clinic
What are Vet Centers?
Vet Centers are small, non-medical, counseling centers conveniently located in your community. They’re staffed by highly trained counselors and team members dedicated to seeing you through the challenges that come with managing life during and after the military.
Whether you come in for one-on-one counseling or to participate in a group session, at Vet Centers you can form social connections, try new things, and build a support system with people who understand you and want to help you succeed.
Who is eligible to receive services at Vet Centers?
Vet Center services are available to you at no cost, regardless of discharge character, and without you needing to be enrolled in VA health care or having a service-connected disability. If you’re a Veteran or service member, including members of the National Guard and Reserve, you can access our services if you:
- Served on active military duty in any combat theater or area of hostility
- Experienced military sexual trauma (regardless of gender or service era)
- Provided mortuary services or direct emergent medical care to treat the casualties of war while serving on active military duty
- Performed as a member of an unmanned aerial vehicle crew that provided direct support to operations in a combat theater or area of hostility
- Accessed care at a Vet Center prior to January 2, 2013, as a Vietnam-Era Veteran
- Served on active military duty in response to a national emergency or major disaster declared by the president, or under orders of the governor or chief executive of a state in response to a disaster or civil disorder in that state.
- Are a current or former member of the Coast Guard who participated in a drug interdiction operation, regardless of the location.
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Are a current member of the Reserve Components assigned to a military command in a drilling status, including active Reserves, who has a behavioral health condition or psychological trauma related to military service that adversely effects quality of life or adjustment to civilian life.
We encourage you to contact us, even if you’re unsure if you meet these criteria. If we can’t help you, we’ll find someone who will.
Our services are also available to family members when their participation would support the growth and goals of the Veteran or active-duty service member. If you consider them family, so do we. We also offer bereavement services to family members of Veterans who were receiving Vet Center services at the time of the Veteran’s death, and to the families of service members who died while serving on active duty.
Do I have to be enrolled in VA health care to access Vet Center services?
No. You don’t have to be enrolled in VA health care or have a service-connected disability.
What about my privacy?
Safe and confidential. Our records can’t be accessed by other VA offices, the DoD, military units, or other community networks and providers without your permission or unless required to avert a life-threatening situation. Here, you can be as open as you want—there’s absolutely no judgment.