War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans and Their Families from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

“Ed Tick shows us how war tears away at the soul of soldiers and how it impacts the collective soul of the world. If we all read this book, it would change the face of war in our world and inspire us to find peaceful ways to create change.”
–Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval

“This is no ordinary brilliant book. It is a document that leads us to the possibility of healing from the wars that devastate so entirely that no one is safe. This book can save our lives.”
–Deena Metzger, author of Entering the Ghost River

“As the world hangs in the balance, Ed Tick illuminates the path that could pull humanity back from the brink.”
–Kenny Ausubel, founder, Bioneers Foundation and author of Seeds of Change

“War and the Soul is a healing book that rises from the battle for the heart of this culture. Veterans’ souls utter the anguish of wounds for which there is no medication. Ed Tick weaves the mythic background that alone can create understanding of these living tragedies. He offers both ancient and contemporary practices that can treat the loss of soul and the traumatic legacies of war and terror.”
–Michael J. Meade, author of Men and the Water of Life and director, Mosaic Multicultural Foundation

“Dr. Tick brings to the task a deep compassion for the worldwide legion of war victims. Beyond that, he brings a scholar’s sense of history, a visionary’s gaze into the heart of darkness, and a poet’s grace to make these poignant stories of personal agony somehow affirmative of the human spirit.”
–Stephen Larsen, PhD, psychology professor emeritus, SUNY and author of The Shaman’s Doorway

“Americans need to understand the message from our men and women in uniform whom we have sent into harm’s way. They are speaking to us in this pioneering book, War and the Soul.”
–Louise Carus Mahdi, Jungian analyst, author of Betwixt and Between, Crossroads, and The Real St. Nicholas

“Silence perpetrates war and its consequences. Ed Tick pierces the silence around PTSD. With this book, the healing begins.”
–Louie Free, founder and host, Free Radio Limited

“Walking through hell with his heart wide open, Ed Tick takes us on a journey of transformative power. Using history, mythology, psychology, story, and insight born of years of helping veterans, Tick allows us to bear witness to the agony as well as the healing of those who have endured the horrors of war. It is a journey from darkness through shadow and, patiently, tirelessly, into the light.”
–Richard Geldard, PhD, author of The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Greece and The Essential Transcendentalists

Edward Tick, Ph.D., is an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder. A practicing psychotherapist for more than 30 years, he is a nationally recognized authority on the psychological, spiritual, historical, and cultural aspects of war in the healing of PTSD. Dr. Tick specializes in transformational work with war veterans, survivors of severe trauma, and all those in need of deep psycho-spiritual healing. Dr. Tick has extensively studied both classical Greek and Native American healing traditions and successfully integrates those methods into his modern clinical practice. A writer, educator, and overseas journey guide, Dr. Tick holds an M.A. in psychology from Goddard College and a Ph.D. in Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He 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. Dr. Tick 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 Vietnam War, 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 a consultant to numerous community, church, and organizations on the treatment of veterans and the training of staff for such work. Dr. Tick’s extraordinary work takes him on healing journeys, spiritual tours, lectures, educational classes, and workshops around the globe. He is cofounder of the Sanctuary International Friendship Foundation, a nonprofit agency that directs and raises funds for projects to help heal war-torn Viet Nam. He resides in Albany, New York, where he and his wife Kate Dahlstedt are directors of Sanctuary: A Center for Mentoring the Soul and Soldier’s Heart(R), a non-profit program designed to create veterans’ safe-return programs in communities across the country. Dr. Tick’s last two books are entitled The Golden Tortoise: Viet Nam Journeys and The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine (Quest 2001). His first book, Sacred Mountain: Encounters with the Vietnam Beast, was published in 1989.