Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC)

MISSION:  To provide individualized psychosocial opportunities that will build on each Veteran’s strengths, abilities, needs and preferences while providing wellness tools and encouraging community involvement in meaningful self-determined roles.

VISION:  To foster a collaborative network of relationships that will affirm, challenge, and inspire Veterans toward meaningful personal recovery. We believe that everyone deserves a chance to realize their purpose in life, and be a part of their chosen community.

PHILOSOPHY:  To provide a supportive learning environment for those Veterans demonstrating difficulties with community adjustment, interpersonal rela­tions, medication, vocational and/or educational issues. The PRRC also encourages family or significant others to be involved in the Veteran’s treat­ment through support and family education groups.

• Open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
• Hours can be flexible to cover the needs of the Veteran and their families.
• After hours services are available on an as needed basis.
• PRRC Veterans may also be seen for individual sessions with PRRC staff as needed.
• Veterans are expected to be scheduled for routine follow-up in the Mental Health Clinic for management of medication, as well as Primary Care for medical issues.

PRRC offers several groups throughout the week. PRRC groups meet for 12 weeks, and the groups offered change throughout the year. Below you will find list of groups that have been offered in PRRC. This list is provided to give you an idea of the types of groups offered in PRRC. To learn more about groups running currently, please view the current group schedule. 

Learning/Skill Building Groups 

ACT: This group utilizes weekly mindfulness exercises, metaphors, and stories to assist you in processing personal experiences, values, and goals. As you participate you will grow in openness, mindfulness and value directed behaviors. 

Anger Management: Everyone gets angry, but many of us have a hard time feeling in control when this emotion comes over us. This class is aimed at learning skills to manage your anger more effectively. We’ll work on skills to help develop self-control over your feelings and actions in a supportive group setting.

Assert Yourself: Being assertive means expressing yourself effectively and standing up for your perspective, while being respectful to others. If you don’t know how to be assertive, you may experience frustration, anger, hopelessness, or guilt in your relationships and have reduced mental wellness.  In this group, you will learn skills for communicating assertively.

Balance Your Thinking: People experience mental health symptoms in different ways. Some people hear voices, and others have strong beliefs and feelings that someone may harm them. Others may find it difficult to think clearly and in an organized fashion. The focus of this group is to assist people who may experience symptoms related to psychosis, by developing strategies to think with balance. This journey can be tough, but you don’t have to do it alone. Check out the group if you would like to add skills to your toolkit

Coping with Emotions: The specific skills taught in the class are grouped into the following four segments: understanding and naming emotions; learning how to cope with the intensity of emotions and reducing vulnerability to emotional impulsivity

Depression Untangled: This group focuses on helping you understand and manage depressive symptoms by building insight, developing practical coping strategies, and using cognitive reframing techniques to untangle the patterns that contribute to the depression cycle.

Face Your Feelings: Do you wonder if you feel things too strongly? Do you wonder if you "should" have more emotions then you do? Do feel a lot of emotions rapidly? Do some of your emotions result in coping behaviors that have negative effects for you and others?  If so, this group is for you! Come learn how you experience your emotions, what your emotions look like at various intensities, and how to cope in positive ways.

Improving Self-Esteem: In this group veterans will learn how low self-esteem develops, how to identify common triggers that damage self-esteem, and ways to address those triggers and improve self-esteem.

Inspiring Motivation: This group will help you build motivation by fostering a sense of optimism. You will learn skills to improve your ability to cope with and solve problems, better manage negative emotions, overcome procrastination, and to approach challenging situations in a more planful way. 

Interpersonal Effectiveness: Learn how to skillfully get what you want/need from others, how to build healthy relationships and get rid of unhealthy relationships, and how to keep balance in relationships (accepting the other person while also working to improve the relationship). The class will include handouts and worksheets each week, which are encouraged to help build skills outside of the class time.

Moving Past Anxiety: This group will discuss and practice various coping skills and activities to help reduce the symptoms of anxiety. The group will use skills from DBT, CBT, and others to help veterans learn concrete skills to address symptoms of anxiety and its impact on their life. 

Self-Care & Empowerment: Learn about caring for yourself and increasing your overall wellbeing. In this group, we will discuss all aspects of self-care, problem solving, and more. 

Self-Compassion: Are you your own worst critic? Do you notice that you “beat yourself up” a lot or that your self-talk is mostly harsh and critical? In this group you will learn about the concept of self-compassion and how it can improve your mood, thoughts, and daily functioning. We will practice simple activities to apply self-compassion in a meaningful way.

Setting Boundaries: In this group, you will learn why setting boundaries is important, why it may be difficult for you, and how to overcome challenges and set boundaries. Time will be given in group to discuss specific successes or challenges with boundary setting.

S.M.A.R.T.  Goals: Using the acronym – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely – in this group, Veterans will develop the skills, in a supportive group setting, to explore, practice, and achieve personal recovery goals. Veterans self-determine their goals and discuss their progress with the group for ongoing encouragement and support.

Social Skills Training: Social skills are the skills we use when interacting with other people. In group each social skill is broken down into a few easy steps. You would then practice the social skill by acting in a pretend situation called a role-play. This process will help you learn how to communicate better with others, get along better with others, and get more out of life. 

Social Wellness: In this group, you will learn how to improve your social wellness by addressing barriers to socialization and setting goals to increase positive social connections. In addition, local events will be highlighted each week to encourage positive socialization in the community. 

Stigma: This group will help you develop more positive ideas about who you are as a person and help you to reject negative and untrue beliefs others have about mental illness, as well as negative ideas you may have come to believe about yourself.

Stress Management: Stress is the body’s response to situations perceived as dangerous.  Stress reactions are protective for short periods, but when prolonged, physical and emotional issues develop. This group will help the participant identify and initiate healthy stress management techniques.

VA Calm: This mindfulness and compassion based group will offer opportunities to practice meditation. You will also be provided with support in developing your personal practice outside of the group. No prior experience is needed! This will be a small, closed group and will provide an opportunity to practice in community with fellow veterans in the PRRC.

Wellfocus: This group will utilize WELLFOCUS Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) which is based on the assumptions that difficulties in mental health can occur when we struggle to be fulfilled and happy, that positive emotions and strengths should be valued, and that therapy should be built on personal strengths and positive experiences. The aim of this group is to promote wellbeing through: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.

Practicing/Skill Implementation Groups

ACT Lab: This group is reserved for veteran who have previously taken ACT and will build on knowledge obtained. Veterans will process their current experiences using ACT metaphors and mindfulness. 

Act with Purpose: We feel better when our actions are in line with our values. When our behaviors are in line with our values, we feel purposeful. This group will encourage you to create individual goals and teach you how to address mental and emotional hang ups that often keep us from succeeding in our goals. 

Balance Your Thinking Lab: In this group veterans discuss their own personal experiences with psychosis. Staff and Peers offer support and encouragement to use skills taught in Balance Your Thinking (completion of this group is required prior to taking the lab). 

DJ Recovery: When words fail music speaks. Life in Music is a process group based on Mindfulness and ACT principles. This group will utilize modern music as a tool to solicit rich discussion on weekly themes.  While group members listen to the songs they will be encouraged to process emotions and thoughts evoked by the song. The group will listen to music from various genres such as country, hip hop, rock and roll and more!

Improving Emotional Wellbeing: Research has found that emotional wellbeing improves when we adopt regular practices of self-reflection, being in the moment, being kind to ourselves and others, and fun/creativity. Each week veterans will learn about and participate in a practice that can improve their emotional wellbeing.

Meditation and Intention Setting: This group uses meditation and a brief time of introspection to help you refocus your day and identify personal intentions (goals). 

Personal Growth Project: This group uses specific motivational skills to assist you in identifying and working toward a personal goal. Both facilitators and your peers will assist you in building motivation and identifying personal strengths that will empower you to work toward that goal.

Recovery Discussions: Each week we will utilize a reading to prompt conversation. You will process your own experience hearing the reading and share relevant personal experiences. Facilitators and veterans give you support and feedback.

Self-Compassion Lab: you your own worst critic? Do you notice that you “beat yourself up” a lot or that your self-talk is mostly harsh and critical? In this group you will learn to actively apply the concept of self-compassion through group discussion and daily practice. Prior to taking this group, veteran are asked to take Self Compassion 

Stinking Thinking & Better Behaviors: Our minds can be greatest assets as humans. Other times our minds can seem like they work against us with things like intrusive thoughts (aka STINKING Thinking), worry, and mental forecasting. How we behave part in this process. Your behavior can influence your feelings and thoughts as well! In this group you will learn about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This treatment modality combines thinking/cognitive interventions with behavioral interventions. CBT will help you through using logic and reason to work through your challenging thoughts, and behavioral interventions to motivate you through. 

Talk, Explore, Discover: Each week you will hear stories about a person’s experience with various symptoms associated with depression and anxiety. These stories will provide encouragement and practical suggestions on how to cope with your own depression and anxiety. You will be encouraged to discuss with your peers how the stories relate to your own experiences and how what was shared can help you in your recovery. 

VA Calm: This mindfulness and compassion based group will offer opportunities to practice meditation. You will also be provided with support in developing your personal practice outside of the group. No prior experience is needed! This will be a small, closed group and will provide an opportunity to practice in community with fellow veterans in the PRRC.

Wellness Action Plan: This group is designed to help participants build practical tools for improving overall wellness using guided discussions and self-reflection activities. Members will create and personalize their own Wellness Action Plan focused on strengthening daily habits, coping skills, and long-term recovery goals.

Wise Relationships: It has been said that knowledge speaks but wisdom listens; that wisdom is the reward of experience and should be shared. That “the most dangerous person in the world is someone who listens, thinks, and observes” (Bruce Lee). This  group will process lessons from stories, poems, and fables and use them to discuss relationships and the skills needed to create and keep relationships healthy. 

Women’s Group: In this group, we will cover a variety of topics: values, communication skills, resilience, relationship skills, emotions, coping skills, and more! We will integrate learning, discussion, and elements of art in this virtual group. Please reach out to any of the facilitators with questions.

Recreation and Social Groups 

Game with Purpose: This group uses board games as a fun, engaging and therapeutic tool to promote social interaction, problem solving, and emotional expression. Through structured game play, participants practice communication skills, teamwork, emotion regulation and decision making in a supportive environment. This group will provide opportunities for connection, stress relief, and personal growth while encouraging creativity, laughter and positive peer interactions

Perspectives: This program provides a virtual opportunity to explore oneself and support their recovery journey through photography-based interventions with one’s own personal device. 

Talk and Play- Bingo: Group is designed to stimulate attention, memory, and problem-solving.  Group combines classic bingo with light cognitive exercises and group discussion to support mental health and overall well-being.

Vet to Vet: This group joins Veterans to talk about barriers to recovery.  Join with other Veterans and PRRC staff to promote healthy conversation (Social Skills practice), discuss current events, along with generating new ideas for PRRC programming/improvement.  Note: this is not a therapeutic group.

Veteran’s Veggies (offered seasonally): Veteran's Veggies is a therapeutic garden group that provides a peaceful and supportive place for Veterans with a wide range of abilities to interact with nature and enhance their wellbeing. The garden is utilized in a variety of ways to promote mindfulness, healing, resiliency, support and growth for Veterans. This group is located at the Veteran's Garden on the west lawn at the VA 

Your Stich Fix: In this group we will explore the art of crochet and knitting together.  We will learn basic stitches and help each other gain a new skill.  This group is for any skill levels, or none at all. Studies show that crochet and knitting can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression

Physical Health Groups 

Healthy Living: Developing a healthy lifestyle is a vital strategy for improving mood, thought processes, and accomplishing recovery goals. Nutrition and exercise are key factors for health and well-being. This group will focus on developing healthy eating habits, reading food labels, understanding the mind/body connection, learning proper exercise techniques and much more!

Get Fit/Stay Fit: Using a variety of methods (i.e. body weight, elastic band, and free weight) we will work towards better balance, flexibility and strength

Other

Tech Lab: PRRC Staff will be available to assist veterans with troubleshooting personal devices (laptops, iPads, cellphones), creating and checking email, connecting to VVC, and basic app, software and internet skills. This is by appointment & you will need to bring your own device.

Monthly Pizza Social: Offered once a month, come enjoy Free Pizza and spend time socializing with other PRRC veterans

Under general circumstances, during the first few months to first year in the program, Veterans will pursue their recovery goals by taking classes that promote knowledge and skill building.  Then, as Veterans become more confident in their skills, they might begin to take fewer PRRC classes as they start to apply these skills in a community setting related to their recovery goals.

Veterans can participate in the program as long as they need to in order to help them move toward their recovery goals, and Veterans that have graduated can return if their symptoms worsen and they need additional support. The phases are not formally set or documented for each participant, but rather serve as a guideline for Staff, Veterans, and other interested parties for what to expect in the Life Skills Enrichment Center.