About

Non-fiction author and poet, Edward Tick, PhD is a transformational healer, psychotherapist, writer and educator. Ed has been working to heal the invisible wounds of violent trauma for over forty years. He is honored for his groundbreaking work in the spiritual, holistic, and community-based healing of veterans and other survivors of severe violence who suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and moral injury. He has published breakthrough books in this field, including the award-winning War and the Soul, introducing the concept of soul wounding and how to heal it to the fields of military and trauma studies.

Dr. Tick cofounded the nonprofit Soldier’s Heart, Inc. with his partner Kate Dahlstedt and serves as its director from their national offices in Troy, New York. In addition to War and the Soul he is the author of the nonfiction books Sacred Mountain, The Practice of Dream Healing, Wild Beasts and Wandering Souls, Warrior’s Return, the audio set Restoring the Warrior’s Soul, and poetry books The Golden Tortoise and The Bull Awakening.

Dr. Tick is an internationally recognized educator, author, expert on the military, veterans, PTSD, Viet Nam, and the psychology, spirituality and history of global trauma, warrior traditions, and military-related issues. He also uses creative and expository writing and the teachings from literature and the humanities in warrior recovery. For decades he has conducted trainings, retreats, and workshops across the country and overseas. He has trained staff, taught and worked with wounded warriors at major Department of Defense and Veteran Administration facilities and at colleges, universities, hospitals, health care and community centers across the country and overseas. Defense Dept. and VA facilities use his pioneering work and he has served as the military's subject matter expert trainer on PTSD and Moral Injury for the past decade. Since 2000 he has led annual journeys to Viet Nam, practicing international war and trauma reconciliation and healing. In Viet Nam he leads veteran reconciliation poetry readings for warriors from all factions of the war. Ed's burning commitment is to bring the lessons of healing from severe trauma, including the use of writing and the humanities, from those special audiences most directly impacted to the general public – all of us -- experiencing dimensions of global trauma on a daily basis today.

Ed has also conducted original and groundbreaking work and writing in the ancient Greek tradition. His book The Practice of Dream Healing is a classic in archetypal and depth psychology. It offers the most comprehensive account in decades of ancient Asklepian dream healing practices and their origins of Western medicine and psychotherapy and its applications to holistic healing today. He has led more than twenty pilgrimages to Greece since 1995, teaching the ancient traditions and the use of myth, poetry and literature for deep soul exploration and unfolding.

As a poet, Ed has two published collections on the above traditions, The Golden Tortoise on journeys in Viet Nam and The Bull Awakening, poetry from Crete and Santorini. Affirming that poetry is the language of the soul, Ed uses poetry extensively in the healing processes and for exploration of the deep hidden dimensions of psyche and culture.

Ed's books and other works have been translated into Greek, Vietnamese, Bulgarian and Japanese.

In all his work Ed's deepest devotion is to the unfolding and restoration of soul as a meaningful and living concept in our personal and collective lives. Only by healing the sacred core of life can we transform ourselves and our wounded world for the better. Poetry and writing are among the greatest tools we have for this sacred work.

Other Works

  • Restoring the Warrior's Soul: An Essential Guide to Coming Home (audio set)

    2016
  • The Bull Awakening: Poetry of Crete and Santorini

    2016
  • Wild Beasts and Wandering Souls: Shamanism and PTSD

    2007
  • War and the Soul: Healing our Nations Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

    2005
  • The Golden Tortoise: Viet Nam Journeys

    2005
  • The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine

    2001
  • Sacred Mountain: Encounters with the Vietnam Beast

    1989

Awards and Recognition

  • Veterans Hero of the Month, Warriors Film, Nov. 2016 Certificate of Recognition, International Peace-Making, Santa Barbara, California, 2016 Stakeholders Local Hero Award, Capital District, NYS, 2015 We Serve Veterans National Award in Mentoring Veterans, 2014 Cultural Achievement Awards, Artists and Humanists’ Projects, New York City, 2011 Subject Matter Expert in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury, US Military, 2010-present Tzedek Professor in the Humanities, 2008-09, University of Oregon Twenty-first Century Visionary Award, UTNE Reader, Fall, 2008 Honorary Doctor in Arts of Peace, United States Peace Academy, 2008 “People Who Make a Difference,” Times Union, Annual Awards, 2008 “Local Luminary,” Chronogram Magazine, November, 2007 Award of Distinction, Communicators Awards, Bioneers Radio, 2007 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in Psychology Award, 2005 Independent Publishers Book Awards in Mental Health/Psychology, 2005