Depth-oriented psychotherapy for veterans, service members, and military families. In San Antonio and online across Texas.
Therapy for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families
Veterans, current service members, and military families carry clinical material that civilian outpatient practice often does not meet on its own terms. The work asks for cultural literacy, clinical preparation, and the willingness to stay with what most therapists step back from — combat trauma, moral injury, military sexual trauma, the loss of a service member, the long aftermath of deployment on the family system, and the reorganization of identity that comes with transition out of service. This page is for those who want a civilian provider who has done the work to understand military life and who can hold this material with the depth it asks for.
Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC | Texas LPC #89856 | English and German
At a glance
Who this page is for: Veterans, current service members, military spouses and partners, parents and adult children of those who serve or have served
What this work addresses: Combat trauma, PTSD, moral injury, military sexual trauma (MST), the transition out of service, grief, deployment-related strain, identity and meaning after service, and the long aftermath of military life on family members
Specialized training: Star Behavioral Health Provider (SBHP), Tier 2 — civilian-provider training in military culture, common clinical presentations, and clinically appropriate care for service members, veterans, and family members. Listed in the SBHP provider directory.
Theoretical orientation: Depth-oriented, existential-relational, trauma-informed, transpersonal — see Depth-Oriented Therapy for the full theoretical detail
Therapist: Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC
License: Texas LPC #89856
Office: 1528 W Contour Dr, Suite 102, San Antonio, TX 78212
Service area: Online statewide in Texas; in person in San Antonio
Languages: English, German
Insurance accepted: Aetna, BCBS, Curative, United Healthcare, and Medicare (traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans from Aetna, BCBS, and United Healthcare). I do not take TRICARE.
Veterans, service members, and their families often carry clinical material that goes underserved in civilian outpatient practice. I completed the Star Behavioral Health Provider (SBHP) Tier 2 training to be a civilian provider who is culturally informed, clinically prepared, and able to offer depth-oriented work to those who want it. Being listed in the SBHP directory is part of the same commitment: to be findable to this community, accountable to its standards, and available for the kind of work this material often asks for.
Why I trained for this work
What this work is for
Therapy with veterans, service members, and military families addresses some of the hardest material in psychotherapy. Combat exposure and moral injury. Military sexual trauma. The long shadows of deployment, and the strain those years place on the family system. The loss of a service member. The deeply difficult work of transition out of service, and the reorganization of identity that comes with it.
It also addresses the quieter material. Relationships shift across deployments and returns. The meaning that was given to you by the military has to be remade when the service ends. The body and the nervous system carry what they were trained to carry. A sense of purpose, once provided by mission and unit, has to be found again on different terms.
Adult family members carry their own material. Spouses and partners hold the household together across deployments and the aftermath. Parents grieve children who serve and children who have died. Adult children of service members carry the unspoken inheritance of what their parents brought home and what they could not put down. All of this belongs in therapy.
Who this work serves
I work with:
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Veterans of any era — Vietnam, post-Vietnam, Gulf War, post-9/11 (OEF, OIF, OND), and others — working through combat trauma, PTSD, moral injury, military sexual trauma, the long process of transition into civilian life, and the existential and identity work that often surfaces years after service ends.
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Current service members seeking depth-oriented therapy as a complement to or in place of the care available through military channels, with attention to the confidentiality differences in civilian care
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Military spouses and partners carrying the weight of household, parenting, and emotional labor across deployments, returns, and the aftermath
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Parents of service members and veterans working with what it is to love someone in service, including the grief of having lost them
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Grandparents and other close relatives of service members or their spouses and partners. I see you, too. The stress, anxiety, or grief you encounter is often not acknowledged. It is disenfranchised. Still, you are also part of the military families and carry your own burdens that are worth addressing.
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Adult children of veterans and service members working with the inheritance of a parent’s service — what was carried home, what was passed down, what was never said
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Bereaved family members grieving a service member who has died, whether in service or after. See also Grief Counseling.
I work with religious, secular, and spiritually inquiring clients. The military system carries its own ethical and spiritual weight — questions of duty, oath, what was done and what was witnessed, brotherhood and sisterhood, what the body and soul carry from having served — and these are welcome in the room.
How this work proceeds
The work begins where you are. We make room for what you bring without me explaining it away or attempting to recruit it for a particular framework. Where what you are bringing is military-specific, we attend to it in the language and the frame that fits the experience itself, not the nearest civilian translation.
Specific methods used as the work calls for them include EMDR for trauma processing — combat trauma, military sexual trauma, the trauma of loss; IADC® Therapy for grief, particularly the loss of a service member or family member; parts work (IFS-informed) and narrative approaches for the parts of you formed by service and for the reconstruction of story that moral injury often calls for; mindfulness-based approaches and somatic awareness for the body’s role in carrying what was done and what was witnessed; and existential and meaning-centered work for the longer questions — what does this mean, what was it for, what do I do with what I have done, and what now. Trauma-informed principles govern the pacing throughout.
For the full description of how I think about and work with depth-oriented therapy, see Depth-Oriented Therapy.
What this work can address
Therapy with veterans, service members, and military families can address:
Combat trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including the trauma of witnessing and of acting
Moral injury — the wound that comes from doing, witnessing, or failing to prevent something that violates one’s moral framework
Military sexual trauma (MST)
The transition out of service — loss of identity, structure, mission, community, and meaning
Substance use that surfaces around trauma or transition, with referrals to specialized substance-use care when that is the right level of support
Grief over a service member who has died, in service or after
The strain on marriages and partnerships across deployments and returns
The accumulated stress of being a military spouse, partner, or parent
The work of adult children whose parents served
The existential and spiritual questions that arrive after one has done, witnessed, or survived what military service can ask
What this work does not replace
This page is about depth-oriented psychotherapy in a civilian outpatient setting. It is not a substitute for:
VA care. If you are eligible for VA mental health care and it is working for you, continue it. Civilian therapy can complement VA care; many clients use both.
Crisis services. If you are in crisis, contact the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing 1, by texting 838255, or by chatting online. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Substance use treatment when that level of care is needed. I refer when it is the right next step.
Service-connection or disability documentation. I do not provide forensic evaluations for VA disability claims.
Get in touch
Ready when you are
When you are ready, schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
Click this link to choose a day and time for a free, confidential consultation or schedule a session.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about therapy for veterans and military families
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No. I am a civilian provider who has completed Star Behavioral Health Provider (SBHP) Tier 2 training in military culture and the clinical needs that veterans, service members, and families often bring into therapy. Some clients prefer a therapist who has served, and that is a legitimate preference. Others want a civilian provider who has done the work to understand military life and who will keep doing that work alongside them. That is what I offer.
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Therapy with me is confidential within the standard limits all psychotherapists work within (imminent risk to self or others, abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, court orders). I am a civilian provider; I do not report into military or VA systems. This is one of the practical reasons some service members and veterans seek out civilian care.
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No. I do not take TRICARE. I accept Aetna, BCBS, Curative, United Healthcare, and Medicare. Of course, I also accept private pay.
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No. That is forensic-evaluation work; I do depth-oriented psychotherapy, which is a different scope of practice.
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Moral injury is a wound that comes from doing, witnessing, or failing to prevent something that violates one’s deeply held moral framework. It often presents alongside PTSD but is its own thing, and it tends to respond to a different kind of work — one that involves the moral and meaning-making layers of the experience, not just the threat-response layer. Depth-oriented therapy is well-suited to the moral injury layer of this work.
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Yes. The spouse’s or partner’s experience is its own legitimate clinical territory, and many do this work without the service member being involved. If the relationship itself is the focus, that may call for couples therapy.
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Yes. The inheritance of a parent’s service — what was carried home, what was passed down, what was never said — is real clinical material and worth working with on its own terms.
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Yes. The main practical differences are confidentiality (civilian care is independent of military reporting systems within the usual psychotherapy limits) and scheduling around duty obligations. We can talk through both at consultation.
For fees, insurance, telehealth setup, and in-person availability, see the FAQ page.
Further reading
The following are credible sources for reading more about military mental health, combat trauma, moral injury, homecoming, and the long aftermath of service. The list combines books written for the people who would actually read them with the authoritative organizations that serve this community.
Books
Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. For veterans, clinicians, and serious readers: the foundational book on moral injury and the betrayal of what’s right in combat. Drawing on Vietnam veterans and Homer’s Iliad, Shay’s work shaped how the field now understands moral injury.
Karl Marlantes, What It Is Like to Go to War. For veterans and family members: a Vietnam Marine veteran’s reflection on what combat asks of a person — written years after his service and with the depth of having sat with the experience.
Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. For veterans, families, and general readers: a short, widely read book on community, belonging, and the particular difficulty of coming home from a tightly bonded unit into an atomized civilian world.
Authoritative resources
National Center for PTSD (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). https://www.ptsd.va.gov/ — For veterans, families, and general readers: the leading U.S. clinical and research resource on PTSD, including military-specific content.
Veterans Crisis Line. https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ — For veterans, service members, and families in crisis:24/7 confidential support; dial 988 and press 1.
Star Behavioral Health Providers. https://www.starproviders.org/ — For those seeking civilian providers trained in military culture: the program through which I am trained and listed.
Military OneSource. https://www.militaryonesource.mil/ — For active-duty service members and family members: Department of Defense resource hub covering counseling referrals, family programs, and transition support.
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). https://www.taps.org/ — For surviving family members of fallen service members: peer support, grief care, and resources.
Understand. Heal. Grow.
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Understand. Heal. Grow. —