Victor Montgomery III is an educator and an expert in Crisis Intervention, Suicide Rescue, Combat Trauma and Addiction Counseling. Vic believes in the client-centered value of heart-to-heart resuscitation'. He practices the style of counseling for eliciting behavioral change, helping veterans and active duty warriors examine and resolve the key issue of ambivalence. An increasing number of veteran combat warriors experience a 'wounded soul' and culture shock and therefore have returned home to their families with a unique set of mental and behavioral health distresses that need to be evaluated carefully. For many, the idea of suicide looms nearby. Mr. Montgomery is the author of Healing Suicidal Veterans Recognizing, Supporting and Answering Their Pleas for Help (New Horizon Press, October 2009); and seminar speaker and author of Life in the Balance Seminars designed for communities interested in understanding the dynamics of war trauma, the psychological wounds of war and what happens in the war zone. Vic demonstrates how to recognize suicide signs - symptoms and triggers, alcohol and drug addiction awareness and what family and friends can do to help a depressed and struggling vet. Vic enlisted for the Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, California at the age of 18 and went through the advanced Infantry Training Regiment (ITR) combat training at Camp Pendleton as a 0311 'grunt', expert rifleman. This gung-ho 'leatherneck' served in the USMC from 1963 to 1967. He traveled across the "pond" (Pacific Ocean) in 1964 on the troop transport ship called the USS Mann and served 13 months overseas, initially stationed with 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Iwakuni Japan as military police base security and later received TAD orders to secure and support MAG and VMA air units flying Skyhawks and Phantoms out of DaNang and ChuLai Vietnam. As a Marine Corps veteran, and trained interventionist, Vic has worked with countless veterans and their families through VA crisis hotlines and out-patient clinics from California to New York. He received his Masters degree in Higher Education from the University of Phoenix; Graduate Studies in Clinical Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Human Development from Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, California. Vic received specialized training for veteran suicide crisis interventions and rescues by clinicians at the VA Medical Center and in 2008 served on the National Suicide Crisis Hotline in Canandaigua, New York as a hotline therapist. The author has worked many years as a primary therapist, family counselor, educator, and certified and registered addiction specialist. He has counseled men and women and families for over twenty years. Today, Vic and his wife reside in Western Upstate New York.

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