Military, veterans, and first responders · Cary, NC

Therapy for Military, Veterans, and First Responders in Cary, NC

You are used to being the one who handles it. The call comes in, you go, you do the job, and you carry whatever is left over home with you. Do that long enough and the leftovers add up. Sleep gets thin, the fuse gets short, and the people closest to you usually notice before you do.

Request your free consultation Call (919) 230-1446

At Prism Wellness in Cary, three of our therapists work specifically with service members, veterans, and first responders. You do not have to be in crisis to come in. You do not have to explain what a bad shift is, or translate the acronyms, or start with the worst thing you have seen. We start where you are, at a pace you set.

Who We Work With

We see adults from across the military and public safety community, including:

Active duty, Guard, and Reserve

Service members stationed in North Carolina or home between assignments, and spouses and partners carrying the other half of that life.

Veterans of any era

Whether you separated last year or thirty years ago, and whether or not you have ever used VA care.

Law enforcement

Patrol, detectives, corrections, and school resource officers.

Fire and EMS

Firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and search and rescue.

Dispatch and hospital staff

911 telecommunicators, emergency department and ICU nurses, and the people who take the call before anyone rolls.

Our office is at 113 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 130 in Cary, about an hour up the road from Fort Liberty and close in for Raleigh, Durham, Apex, and Morrisville. We also see clients by secure telehealth anywhere in North Carolina, which matters when your schedule does not look like anyone else's.

What Tends to Bring People In

Most people do not arrive saying they have post traumatic stress. They arrive because something at home stopped working. Common reasons people in this line of work come to see us:

Sleep that will not reset

Nights broken by nightmares, or a body that stays keyed up hours after the shift ended.

Hypervigilance off the clock

Scanning the room, sitting with your back to the wall, reading every car in the rearview. Useful at work, exhausting everywhere else.

A short fuse at home

Anger that arrives faster and bigger than the situation, then leaves you feeling like you are the problem.

Going numb

Feeling flat, distant, or checked out from the people you actually want to be close to.

Grief

Line of duty deaths, deaths on scene, and the losses that never got a real pause because the next call came in.

Moral injury

Something you did, saw, or could not stop that does not square with what you believe about yourself.

The transition out

Separation, retirement, or a medical board can take the mission, the schedule, and the people all at once, and that loss is real even when the decision was right.

Drinking or other habits that started as a way to come down

If that is part of the picture, our substance use and addiction therapy is here too, and no one is going to lecture you.

Any of these can travel with anxiety or depression. When they do, our anxiety therapy in Cary and depression therapy in Cary work alongside this care rather than as a separate appointment.

How We Work

There is no single right method, and we do not run everyone through the same program. Your therapist builds a plan around what you are carrying and what you want out of it. Depending on your needs, that plan may draw on:

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

A structured method that helps your brain reprocess stuck memories so they lose their intensity. You do not have to narrate every detail out loud, which is the reason a lot of people are willing to try it. EMDR is recognized as an effective treatment for trauma and PTSD by organizations including the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense. Read more about EMDR therapy in Cary.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Trauma leaves behind conclusions that keep the pain alive, such as I should have called it sooner, or I should have been faster. CPT works directly on those stuck points instead of talking around them.

Trauma-Informed CBT

Practical work on the thoughts and habits driving the day to day, done in a way that respects what your nervous system learned on the job.

Prolonged Exposure

Avoidance quietly shrinks a life. This approach helps you turn toward the memories and situations you have been steering around, gradually and safely.

Somatic and polyvagal informed therapy

The bracing, the racing heart, the crash after adrenaline. This work settles the body's alarm directly rather than only reasoning with it.

Grief focused work

Loss in this line of work rarely gets processed on the day it happens. Hollis is a Certified Grief Professional and this is a large part of her practice.

For people whose post traumatic stress has not eased through talk therapy alone, we also offer ketamine assisted therapy as one option to explore inside a wider plan of care.

If you are looking for help for your kids rather than for yourself, our child and adolescent therapy works with the moves, the deployments, and the parent who is not home.

Asking for Help Without It Costing You

The hardest part of this is usually not the therapy. It is deciding to make the call, because the culture you work in rewards handling it and asking around about a therapist can feel like handing someone a file on you.

Here is how it actually works with us. Prism Wellness is a private outpatient practice. We are not part of the military health system, we are not your department, and we are not your employee assistance program. We do not perform fitness for duty evaluations and we do not write reports for your command or your chief unless you ask us to and sign a release. What you say in the room stays in the room, with the narrow legal exceptions every therapist in North Carolina has, including immediate danger to yourself or someone else, abuse of a child or vulnerable adult, and a court order. If you use insurance, your plan receives the standard claim information it needs to pay, which is true of any medical visit.

You also do not have to come in with a diagnosis or a story ready. Plenty of people start with sleep. That is a completely reasonable place to begin.

Online Therapy Across North Carolina

Rotating shifts, 24 hour tours, drill weekends, and a commute from Fayetteville or Fort Liberty all make a standing Tuesday at four difficult. We see clients by secure telehealth anywhere in North Carolina, in person at the Cary office, or a mix of the two depending on the week. Tell our care coordinator, Tori, what your schedule actually looks like when you reach out, and she will factor it into who she matches you with.

Meet Our Military and First Responder Therapists

Who you sit with matters more here than almost anywhere else, because the first thing most people want to know is whether they will have to explain the job before they can talk about it. These three clinicians work with this population by choice.

Hollis Vilagos

LCMHC, CGP

Trauma and PTSD service members and veterans grief attachment wounds high performance populations

Read Hollis’s background

Cayla Kenna

LCSW

Complex trauma military anxiety attachment family of origin

Read Cayla’s background

Lesley Kellogg

LCMHC, LCAS, NCC

Complex trauma anxiety family issues founder of Prism Wellness

Read Lesley’s background

Meet the full team → Our Therapists

Hollis Vilagos is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and a Certified Grief Professional who previously served as an embedded mental health counselor with MARSOC, the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. Cayla Kenna is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and our clinical lead, and works with complex trauma, military experience, and the attachment patterns underneath it. Lesley Kellogg is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and the founder of Prism Wellness, and works with complex trauma, anxiety, and family issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you take Tricare?

Yes. Tricare plans are seen by our fully licensed therapists only. Lesley and Hollis are in network with Tricare. Cayla is a certified out-of-network Tricare provider, which means we file the claim for you, accept payment directly from Tricare, and accept the Tricare allowable charge as payment in full. Coverage and referral requirements differ from plan to plan, so tell us which Tricare plan you have when you reach out and we will confirm your coverage, and anything your plan requires, before your first session.

Will my command or my department find out that I am in therapy?

Not from us. Prism Wellness is a private outpatient practice, not part of the military health system, your department, or your employee assistance program. We do not send reports to a command or a chief unless you ask us to and sign a release, and we do not perform fitness for duty evaluations. Every therapist in North Carolina has the same narrow legal exceptions to confidentiality, including immediate danger to yourself or someone else, abuse of a child or vulnerable adult, and a court order. If you use insurance, your plan receives the standard claim information it needs to pay.

Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to start therapy here?

No. Many people who do this work carry real symptoms that do not meet the full definition of post traumatic stress, and therapy helps either way. Only a licensed clinician can assess PTSD, and that is a conversation you can have with your therapist rather than something you need sorted out before you call.

Do I have to talk about the worst thing I have seen?

Not on day one, and not before you are ready. Your therapist will ask what is going on now and what you want to change, and the harder material gets approached at a pace you set. Some approaches, including EMDR, are built so that you do not have to narrate every detail out loud at all.

Can you work around shift work and an unpredictable schedule?

We will try. Between telehealth anywhere in North Carolina, in person sessions in Cary, and clinicians with different availability, there is usually a workable option. Tell Tori, our care coordinator, what your rotation or duty schedule looks like when you first reach out, and she will factor it into the match rather than handing you a slot that will not survive the month.

Do you work with spouses, partners, and family members?

Yes. Military and first responder life is carried by the household, not just the person wearing the uniform, and partners often arrive with their own version of the strain. We see adults individually. If your child is the one struggling, our child and adolescent therapists work with the moves, the deployments, and the parent who is not home.

Can this be done online in North Carolina?

Yes. We offer therapy in person at our Cary office and through secure telehealth for clients anywhere in North Carolina, which covers Fayetteville, Fort Liberty, and everywhere else in the state. Many people find it easier to do this work from their own space, and you can mix the two formats as your schedule changes.

Do you take my insurance?

We accept Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Tricare, and United. Tricare and United plans are seen by our fully licensed therapists only. You can see which networks each clinician takes on our team page, and we will confirm your coverage before your first session.

This is not a crisis line. If you're in immediate danger, call or text 988.

Take the First Step

You have spent a career being the person other people call. It is allowed to work the other way once. A free consultation is a low pressure way to meet a therapist, ask what you want to ask, and decide nothing else that day. When you are ready, we are here.