Earn a Certificate in Military Counseling
Why clinicians choose to be trained in Military Couseling?
Help active duty service members, veterans, and their families heal and meet their goals.
Get recognized for your competence in military counseling and related services by earning your CMCC Certificate.
Become competent in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment in military counseling.
Increase your knowledge, awareness, and skills of the unique cultural differences in working with those connected to our military.
Become more marketable as an expert in military counseling.
Learn how to address service members and veterans' medical, psychosocial, behavioral, cultural, mental health, family life, vocational, and career transition needs.
About The Clinical Military Counseling Certificate Program (CMCC)
Serving clients that are active duty service members, veterans, veterans with disabilities, and military families can be deeply rewarding—but it also comes with unique challenges and nuances that most behavioral health training programs do not address.
The Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) micro-credential was created to fill this gap. Offered by the Telehealth Certification Institute, it equips behavioral health professionals with specialized knowledge and skills to competently assess, diagnosis, and treat a range of mental health, and psychosocial issues related to the military.
At the Telehealth Certification Institute, our mission is to prepare healthcare professionals with exceptional continuing education and networking opportunities, empowering them to deliver the highest quality care. Guided by our vision - for everyone to easily find a qualified, knowledgeable, and ethically trained behavioral health clinician - we prioritize:
- Excellence: We uphold rigorous standards and a commitment to quality.
- Kindness: We are people-centered, valuing compassion in all interactions.
- Growth: We promote continuous learning and professional development.
- Collaboration: We build collaborative partnerships with colleagues, teams, and communities.
- Fidelity: We maintain loyalty to our clients and staff.
- Integrity: We respect and affirm all individuals.
- Innovation: We embrace creativity and strategic thinking.
- Wellness: We support holistic health and work-life balance.
In line with these values, the Telehealth Certification Institute developed this microcredential featuring specialized curriculum to help practitioners deliver the highest standard of care to military-connected clients.
- Military Culture & Family Life: Understand the core values, mindset, and traditions that shape military life.
- Mental Health & Behavioral Factors: Gain insight into co-occurring conditions, trauma, and chronic stress unique to the military experience.
- Evidence-Based Protocols: Learn proven interventions for PTSD, substance abuse, and other common challenges faced by military populations.
- Career Transition & Reintegration: Master vocational rehabilitation techniques to help veterans and service members transition and reintegrate into civilian life successfully.
With 12.5 hours of self-paced recorded content, enjoy flexible, on-demand instruction featuring video presentations, expert interviews, and interactive exercises. Strategies taught throughout the program can be directly implemented in private practice, community agencies, VHA settings, and other clinical environments serving military personnel and their families.
By earning this microcredential, participants will be able to:
- Conduct Competent Assessments: Competently assess, diagnose, and treat mental health conditions within the context of military culture.
- Implement Targeted Treatments: Utilize evidence-based protocols specifically adapted for active-duty service members and veterans, including veterans with disabilities.
- Enhance Military Resiliency: Develop tailored interventions that foster resiliency and support medical, physical, and psychological holistic well-being of the military community.
- Facilitate Career Reintegration: Apply vocational rehabilitation strategies that ease the transition to civilian life.
- Integrate Ethical & Cultural Competence: Uphold the highest ethical standards while demonstrating sensitivity to the cultural nuances of military life.
Your instructor, Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC, is a military family member, practitioner, counselor educator, and researcher within the field of clinical military counseling.
- Practitioner and Counselor Educator with over 35 years of experience in rehabilitation and mental health counseling.
- Program Developer: Created the national Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) in 2016, along with the Military and Trauma Counseling (MTC) Certificate Program in 2015 at East Carolina University.
- Subject Matter Expert: Has practiced and published extensively in stress, traumatic stress, disaster mental health response, and chronic illness and disability, particularly within military populations.
- Influential Leader: Served on multiple statewide and national professional counseling boards, author of 11 professional books and 40+ journal articles and book chapters.
With Dr. Stebnicki’s expert guidance, you will gain practical knowledge, innovative strategies, and a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding military-connected clients.
Who Should Enroll
Anyone currently working with or seeking to serve military populations - whether in private practice, community clinics, hospital settings, telehealth, or other environments - will benefit. This microcredential is ideal for:
- Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists, and Marriage and Family Therapists currently working with or seeking to serve military populations.
- Graduate Students and Post-Graduate Professionals aiming to specialize in military mental health, trauma counseling, or vocational rehabilitation.
Why Earn the CMCC Microcredential
- Stand Out Professionally: Differentiate yourself as a clinician with recognized expertise in military counseling.
- Enhance Client Outcomes: Address the unique challenges of military culture, ensuring more effective treatment and improved client well-being.
- Expand Your Practice: Position yourself to serve a broader client base, including active-duty service members, veterans, and their families.
- Streamline Your Work: Gain clarity and confidence in addressing complex issues, leading to greater job satisfaction and reduced professional stress.
Invest in your professional growth and make a lasting impact on those who have bravely served our country. Enroll in the Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) program today and join a community dedicated to empowering military-connected clients and their families.
Elevate your practice. Honor their service. Become an expert in Clinical Military Counseling through the Telehealth Certification Institute.
About the Instructor
Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC
Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC, is professor emeritus and former coordinator of the Military and Trauma Counseling (MTC) Certificate Program (which he developed in 2015) in the Department of Addictions and Rehabilitation at East Carolina University. He also developed the national Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) in 2016, a 12-hour CE program offered nationally through the Telehealth Certificate Institute. Dr. Stebnicki has been a counselor educator, researcher, and practitioner with over 35 years of experience in the fields of rehabilitation and mental health counseling.
He has practiced and published in areas related to stress, traumatic stress, disaster mental health response, and the psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and disability. He has extensive experience working with active-duty military service members, veterans, veterans with disabilities, and military families. Dr. Stebnicki has published 11 professional books, over 40 journal articles, and book chapters and has provided over 120 national and regional presentations. He has served on many statewide and national professional counseling boards.
Military Counseling Courses
Military Counseling Articles
- Clinical Military Counseling Competency Training
There is a paradigm shift today in the counseling and psychology profession. How do we translate the theories, clinical strategies, and treatments for military service members, veterans, and their family members? The Clinical Military Counselor Certificate (CMCC) program will help you translate your clinical practice into the cultural lens of the military. My October article addresses the complex issues challenging both clinicians and military personnel.
- Help Us Support Veterans
Due to the critical lack of specialized competency-based training for clinicians, veterans face substantial barriers to receiving adequate mental health counseling and related services. The lack of specialized training in working with veterans, veterans with disabilities, and their families can lead to misdiagnosis and inaccurate assessment, inappropriate and ineffective treatment, attributing stereotypes, and persevering myths about veterans, which hinder their motivation for seeking counseling services. The current lack of comprehensive training in military counseling and related services, both during and after clinicians' graduate programs, is a significant concern. A national survey in 2016 of all nationally accredited counselor education graduate programs reported that only one program offered a certificate program in military trauma counseling. We developed and provide the Clinical Military Counselor Certificate (CMCC), which is an evidence-based, advanced, and comprehensive...
- History and Validation of the CMCC Program
BRIEF HISTORY AND PROGRAM DESIGN OF CLINICAL MILITARY COUNSELING CERTIFICATE (CMCC) Brief History and Design of CMCC The military community has become an emerging and major priority for mental health counseling and related services. Many active duty service members who transition to civilian life require ongoing medical, psychosocial, vocational, and mental health support. The military community is clearly a unique culture because of its language, rituals, organizational structure, values, mission, as well as differences that exist within each of the various branches of the Armed Forces (e.g., Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, Reservists). The CMCC mission began in North Carolina as a recognition that providing mental health and counseling-related services to North Carolinians were critical to serving the 35% of its residents who comprised active duty service members, veterans, veterans with disabilities, family members, and dependents. There...
- How to Become a Clinical Military Counselor
There is a paucity of literature in counseling and psychology that addresses how to facilitate therapeutic interactions with the military culture particularly in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of issues related to military mental health. The question becomes “How can I take what I know in counseling and psychology, as a civilian or community mental health counselor, and apply this to facilitating military mental health strategies and techniques?” This is a dilemma particularly for those who have had little or no opportunity to provide counseling and related-services to active duty personnel, veterans, veterans with disabilities, and family members. The following material describes credentials offered in the clinical military counseling area, occupational characteristics of different professions and settings that provide military counseling services, and our Clinical Military Counselor Certificate (CMCC) program.
- Military Myths and Negative Stereotypes
Materials Ready to Explore (MRE) Practice Guidelines Societal Myths, Stereotypes, and Stigma of the Military Culture Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC Click here for PDF INTRODUCTION The purpose of this MRE is to examine some of the more prevalent societal and clinical counseling myths, perceptions, and attitudes regarding the military culture. It is well documented that negative attitudes and perceptions impact the service members’ and veterans’ motivation for seeking medical and mental health treatment. Cultural myths and stereotypes regarding the military community can be both negative and positive. Some individuals in American society as well as clinical counselors attribute the characteristics and traits of military service members and veterans as possessing a high level of courage, honor, loyalty, confidence, toughness, and resiliency. Others in society may portray the military culture as possessing the potential to act in violence, have low impulse control, or...
- MRE Practice Guidelines: The Military Intake Interview
MRE Practice Guidelines: The Military Intake Interview Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LPC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC Click here for PDF Introduction to the Military Intake Interview The intake interview is critical in understanding your service member or veterans’ current medical, physical, psychosocial, vocational, family, and socio-cultural status as it relates to their military service. Military-specific intake interview questions are one of the most effective means to assess a range of critical life-events as it relates to your clients’ military life. Most standardized diagnostic tools do not address military mental health, career development as the service member transitions to civilian life, family dynamics within the deployment cycle, and other critical elements in military life. Thus, competent CMCC’s use person-centered skills facilitating attending, listening, and empathic responding to build rapport and gain the circle of trust with their military clients.
- New Certificate in Clinical Military Counseling
Press release download: Click here Professional counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other behaviorally-licensed professionals can earn the 12-hour CE Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) through the Telehealth Certificate Institute of New York. The mission of the CMCC credential is to provide training for professional counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other behaviorally-licensed professionals who serve or want to serve, (consider taking out just to make this section less wordy) active duty personnel, veterans, veterans with disabilities, and their family members. Graduate students engaged in their internships may also enroll in the CMCC program.
- Spirituality, Moral Injury, and Trauma in Military Life
MRE Guidelines for Practice Spirituality, Moral Injury, and Trauma in Military Life Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DMHCS, CRC, CMCC INTRODUCTION There is a growing body of literature in military psychology, moral injury, and trauma which suggests a strong association between having good spiritual well-being and military resiliency and readiness (Doehring, 2019; Smith-MacDonald et al., 2017). Extraordinary stressful and traumatic events in military life have long-term implications for service members’ and veterans’ mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. There are many experiences in warfighting that service members and veterans will never disclose to others outside their units or as reflected in after-action reports. Exposure to frequent killing of enemy combatants, the threat of being attacked, killed, or captured, witnessing death and injury, and handling the injured and dead bodies of unit members, civilians, and enemy combatants change the military service member in a...
- Why Military Counseling Training is Needed
There is a critical lack of both advanced and comprehensive training in military counseling and related services, both during and after clinicians' graduate programs. The lack of specialized training in working with veterans, veterans with disabilities, and their families can lead to misdiagnosis and inaccurate assessment, inappropriate and ineffective treatment, shaming veterans who seek services and deterring veterans from seeking further services. A national survey in 2016 of all nationally accredited counselor education graduate programs reported that only one program offered a certificate program in military trauma counseling (click here to see the full survey). The onboarding training that clinicians are receiving through organizations that provide military counseling does not appear to be either advanced or comprehensive. There are also substantial barriers to veterans and veterans with disabilities who seek services and for clinicians offering care. Veterans often seek...