Over the past year, Old Dominion University has been placing graduate students in counseling with Fleet and Family Support Services in Norfolk, where interns work with military clients and their families. In 2024, Navy veteran Amanda Henderson was one of the first interns to go through the program.
“I jumped on it because I knew that my experiences in the military really help,” she said. ”So often, a big complaint that I hear is that civilian therapists might not be up to speed on military issues. I am.”
Henderson joined the Navy in 2014 and left during the pandemic in 2020. She spent most of her time as an intelligence officer, before ending her career at Naval Air Station Oceana, where she was helping sailors who were transitioning out of the Navy. Her internship was part of her last semester before she graduated from ODU with a master’s in clinical mental health counseling…