Edward Tick

Ed Tick, Ph.D., is, first and foremost, a transformational healer. He is also a mythologist, psychotherapist, poet and writer, educator, and overseas journey guide. He holds an M.A. in psychology from Goddard College and a Ph.D. in Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Tick is a clinical member and has held various officer positions with the American Academy of Psychotherapists and the American Holistic Medical Association, as well as many other professional organizations. He is also an ordained interfaith minister.

A practicing psychotherapist for more than 30 years, Tick specializes in extensive and innovative work with survivors of severe trauma and violence — particularly combat war veterans — sexual and substance abuse victims, those with severe mental and emotional disorders, men's issues and deeply rooted psycho-spiritual healing. In all of his work, Tick applies his own innovative model of PTSD treatment based on worldwide research of spirituality, mythology and war/the warrior archetype, in order to develop a new, broadened and strengthened psycho-spiritual identity.

Tick is a nationally recognized expert on the psychological, spiritual, historical and cultural aspects of war, the Vietnam Era, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. He began treating Vietnam veterans in psychotherapy in 1979 before PTSD was a diagnostic category. Since that time, he has treated veterans and survivors of WWII, the Holocaust, Korea, the Gulf War, Central American conflicts, Lebanon, the Balkan wars, the Irish civil and religious wars, the Greek Civil War, the Middle East conflicts, and the Iraq War, among others. He has also served as consultant to numerous community, church and veterans organizations on the treatment of veterans and the training of staff for such work.

His remarkable work had taken him on healing journeys, spiritual tours, lectures, educational classes and workshops around the globe, and even to the position of co-founder of the Sanctuary International Friendship Foundation, a non-profit agency that directs and raises funds for projects to help heal war-torn Viet Nam.

As an expert in both the classical Greek and Native American traditions, Tick’s last book is fittingly titled, The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine (Quest Books 2001). In addition to War and the Soul which Quest is releasing this November, Tick will be releasing a book of prose and poetry based on his healing journeys to Viet Nam titled, The Golden Tortoise: Viet Nam Journeys, which Red Hen Press will publish later this year.