My first time meeting Dr. Edward Tick (Ed) was at a friend’s home. A quiet, humble man, an authentic smile, powerful yet kind gaze, and a prominent turtle on his belt! We would later discuss the loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta Caretta, native to the Mediterranean (under protection as deemed by the WWF), a symbol of good luck, protection, motherhood, and wisdom. Dr. Tick spoke of his spiritual transformation on top of a hill on the isle of Poros, a Greek island of the Saronic Bay, place of ancient worship to the sea-god Poseidon as well as one of the Asklepieian healing centers (the most well-known sacred healing center being in Epidaurus).

Dr. Tick is an honorary citizen of the island, featured in several articles of Saronic Magazine (March 2023). My own turtle 🐢 paraphernalia in appreciation of this reptile, includes creation of a heavy tile mosaic, that for years sits in my parents’ garden. Dr. Tick has been training healers, civilians seeking healing, veterans, all suffering from “soul wounds” to pilgrimages in Greece, to places of transformative soul healing, writing about these experiences in several of his books, including his latest: Soul Medicine: Healing through Dream Incubation, Visions, Oracles, and Pilgrimage, and his poetry book Coming Home in Vietnam.

I first read his book, The Practice of Dream Healing in the early part of the millennium, how honoured we are to continue sharing his wisdom through today [Dr. Tick’s complete works can be found here].

Asclepius (or Asklepios in Greek) son of Apollo and the mortal princess Coronis, a Greek (Hellenic) god of medicine taught by the Centaur Chiron, the art of healing . One who recognized his own wounds and would establish a sanctuary at Epidaurus so others could heal their own “wounds”; his immortal daughters His daughters, Hygieia, Aceso, Iaso, Aegle, and Panacea, representing the stages of the healing process and pharmaceutical treatment. His sons Machaon (Μάχαων — the Father of Surgery) and Podalirius (Ποδαλείριος), a legendary healer. 

Dr. Tick has deep knowledge and appreciation of the lands that relate to the warriors and healing, as well as being a poet, rekindling our interest for Jungian archetypes, and dream incubation.

As my own psychology students stated, it gives another dimension to their understanding of healing and becoming better therapists, at a time where the field of psychology places far too much emphasis on replicating studies or “hard science”, forgetting often what we are here to do, to listen and help people truly heal … how can we remove “soul” from “Psycho-logos” (as indicated on Tick’s presentation)?

Ed’s own story of healing from almost paralysis, is powerful. As he calls himself the “Compopolitan” citizen of the globe, his love of Socrates and subsequent philosophers who wrote about the latter, leads us all to think that we too “know nothing” [ἕν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα –“the one thing I know is that I know nothing” attributed to Socrates by Plato symbolising that we know only little, and how complacent it is to consider ourselves ‘wise’]. Of course, even in modern cognitive behaviour therapy based on stoic philosophy, we help patients with various reframing techniques by using the Socratic method of questioning their logic (eg. If this is true, then? What do you mean by the word “courage”? to help define and revise). Dr. Tick reminds us that holistic healing ❤️‍🩹 goes beyond, as it should integrate the mind, body, heart, and more deeply, the soul.

Dr. Tick is a transformational healer, holistic psychotherapist, educator, consultant and international journey guide, but he is also a poet, his selected poetry and prose can be found on WordPress on this page. After his presentation to over 200 persons both in Athens, Greece and global virtually, he read “I am The Bull…” in Greek Ο Ταύρος Εγείρεται, poetry book published in Greek and English (Athens) translated by George Kanavos, which will be presented in a local bookstore in Athens; powerful words of transformation symbols of life, death, and the resurrecting of spirit. The entire process of combining poetry, art, music, to bring forth that which is set in the unconscious or conscious mind are powerful mediums, in a world that continually needs collective healing. This is ever more powerful for those who suffer from trauma including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and we have much knowledge now of how both individual therapy but also the community can facilitate our healing.

This power of transformation, is reflected even in the god Hephaestus (Ήφαιστος), whom Dr. Tick reminded me to seek commonality and inspiration, since my recent foot injury involves taking the “next steps”; thus, encouraging me to seek a new approach to my own thinking. What do we each need to learn at this point in your life when we have these experiences? Hephaestus, son of Zeus and Hera, was conceived with help of an herb — we may assume this acted as a teratogen, as this lead to his being born “lame”, his feet were malformed, they are often depicted in statues as curved; modern scientists believe this was indicative of a clubbed foot (What makes Hephaestus lame? 1997).

Hephaestus may have been sent in exile and rejected by his mother, but was brought back by Dionysus to be ‘reinstated’ in the gods of Olympus, and the goddess Aphrodite may have become his wife, she was not exactly faithful… Hephaestus a talented blacksmith and craftsman, creator of fire, made weapons and military equipment for the gods and certain mortals, including Achille’s armour, and the famed winged helmet and sandals for Hermes (anyone see the FTD florists logo?), and inspired many humans as the patron of craftsmen and manufacturing.

We all carry wounds, let’s facilitate each other’s healing, we do not walk alone.