A Depth Psychological Approach to Moral Injury and PTSD in Veterans: Restoration and the Returning Warrior
February 20, 2025 – July 31, 2025
Lifelong Learner Membership Rate: $876 | Offered Live via Zoom
Program Description
A Depth Psychological Approach to Moral Injury and PTSD in Veterans:
Restoration and the Returning Warrior
This innovative new graduate certificate from Pacifica Extension will offer a broad approach for working with the moral injury and PTSD affecting the psyches of veterans and their families. It has the distinct advantage of combining perspectives from four internationally renowned authors, educators, and transformational leaders in the fields of Analytical Psychology, Military Psychology, and Military Psychiatry each of whom specialize in war mental health trauma. The therapies and modalities covered in this certificate will include not only the biological, but the psychosocial and psychospiritual aspects of the veteran’s journey as a whole, and that of their loved ones.
In order to expand and enrich the standard approach to veterans suffering from mental illness, a wide variety of perspectives will be discussed and explored, providing a more diverse and effective therapeutic palette for clinicians and counselors to use to augment traditional methods of treating these individuals. This course will blend together classic techniques of analytical psychology such as active imagination, dream analysis, ritual and creative work to the unique cultural, moral, and psychological traumas that face veterans of today’s modern global military experience.
Offered online over 24 weeks, this 12 module certificate course has the distinct advantage of combining four perspectives from four internationally renowned authors, educators, and transformational leaders in the fields of Analytical Psychology, Military Psychology, and Military Psychiatry. Because the practices and ideas contained within this course are open to everyone, this Certificate neither requires nor confers a license or degree. It is designed as an overview offering a range of concepts, techniques, and strategies by surveying a number of key approaches to veterans of all levels of the military.
It will be of interest to clinicians, coaches, activists, veterans, military families, and concerned citizens—looking for a more holistic and engaged way forward, focused on the unique and intense biological, psychological, social, and psycho-spiritual stressors that comprise the modern military veteran’s lived experience. The Certificate offers a range of readings, lectures, weekly reflections, and live sessions, so participants will need to make sufficient space in their schedules to learn as much as they can over the 24 weeks.
Career Competencies:
- Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Interventions Competency:
Apply depth psychological approaches to effectively address PTSD and moral injury in veterans, integrating both traditional and innovative therapeutic techniques such as active imagination, ritual, and dream analysis.
Clinicians and counselors will develop the skills to work with veterans’ complex trauma, recognizing the intersection of biological, psychological, and psycho-spiritual factors. They will learn to utilize integrative methods in clinical settings to address the unique needs of veterans.
2. Cultural Sensitivity and Archetypal Approaches Competency:
Demonstrate an understanding of the cultural, spiritual, and archetypal dimensions of the military experience, tailoring interventions for veterans from diverse backgrounds.
Participants will explore how different cultures, both indigenous and modern, view warriorhood and trauma. This competency will help professionals create culturally competent and sensitive approaches to working with veterans, ensuring that their healing process respects and integrates their unique backgrounds.
3. Holistic Trauma Healing and Family Engagement Competency:
Design and facilitate holistic therapeutic interventions that engage not only the veteran but also their families, applying tools like the Soldier’s Heart model and the Spiritual Warrior archetype.
Participants will gain skills to engage military families in the healing process, recognizing the interconnectedness of individual and family trauma. This competency will empower professionals to guide families in understanding the complexities of PTSD and moral injury, fostering a more supportive and comprehensive healing environment.
Program Format
Every other week you will learn from:
- a 60 minute pre-recorded video presentation by Dr. Goodwyn, Ed Tick, Roger Brooke, or Kate Dahlstedt;
- a list of required or recommended Readings/Videos/Resources
- online Discussion with the other participants and instructors, based on the responses you post each week to that week’s assignment; and
- a Live 90 minute online session with one of the instructors for each module.
Live sessions are scheduled at varying times in order to maximize participation, and will be recorded for those who cannot attend a given week.
The four instructors each cover a different perspective on Jungian Depth Psychology for Veterans, as described below.
Individual Session Descriptions
Learning Modules:
Week 1: The Importance of Rituals in PTSD and Warriorhood. (Lecture by Erik Goodwyn, with Panel Discussion- Roger Brooke, Edward Tick, and Kate Dahlstedt.)
Week 2: Archetypal Dimensions of the Combat Experience–world mythology. (Edward Tick)
Week 3: Exploring the Archetypal Conflicts of Woman Warriors. (Kate Dahlstedt)
Week 4: Religious, spiritual, and indigenous dimensions of warriorhood. (Edward Tick)
Week 5: Dreams in combat and after returning home in PTSD–archetypal dimensions. (Erik Goodwyn)
Week 6: The Loneliness Epidemic and Returning Veterans. (Erik Goodwyn)
Week 7: Active Imagination and the Nightmares of the Dead–transformation of PTSD via active imagination. (Roger Brooke)
Week 8: Storytelling, the Transcendent Function in War and Returning, in fiction, myth, and art. (Erik Goodwyn)
Week 9: Clinical applications of the Soldier’s Heart Model, with clinical vignettes. (Roger Brooke)
Week 10: Utilizing the Spiritual Warrior Archetype with Military Families. (Kate Dahlstedt)
Week 11: Designing a holistic retreat of a Warrior’s Return session. (Edward Tick)
Week 12: Panel Discussion. (Roger Brooke, Edward Tick, Kate Dahlstedt, and Erik Goodwyn)
Learning Objectives: (12 Hours):
Identify at least three ways in which ritual structures directly affect mental health and the unique place warriors across cultures have addressed this, with applications to individuals in modern nations.
Identify at least one example of how warriorhood has been understood by world cultures, including indigenous societies, as applied to modern veterans.
Describe the technique of active imagination as it is applied to modern PTSD in war veterans.
Identify and use the Spiritual Warrior archetype in sessions with military family members
Identify the four Social Instincts as described by Dr. Goodwyn, and ways in which returning veterans struggle to meet their needs.
Identify key aspects of the archetypal experiences of combat across world cultures and apply them to modern veterans.
List typical features of the traumatic dreams of veterans from both combat and non-combat areas, interpret them, and apply these interpretations for therapeutic interventions.
Use and apply the Soldier’s Heart model to veterans in psychotherapy.
Identify the key elements of a successful Warrior’s Return session and be able to apply it to returning veterans.
Identify the unique challenges facing women in the military in both archetypal and individual levels, and apply skills for women warriors.
Name the key features of the Transcendent Function and identify its manifestations in the stories veterans consume and tell themselves, and apply these features toward healing and integration.
SCHEDULE FOR LIVE ONLINE LEARNING SESSIONS:
Week 1: Zoom Session – Thursday February 20, 2025, 5 – 6:30pm PT
Week 2: Zoom Session – Thursday March 6, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Week 3: Zoom Session – Thursday March 20, 2025, 5 – 6:30pm PT
Week 4: Zoom Session-Thursday April 10, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Week 5: Zoom Session-Thursday April 24, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Week 6: Zoom Session – Thursday May 8, 2025, 5 -6:30pm PT
Week 7: Zoom Session – Thursday May 22, 2025, 5 -6:30pm PT
Week 8: Zoom Session – Thursday June 5, 2025, 5 – 6:30pm PT
Week 9: Zoom Session – Thursday June 19, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Week 10: Zoom Session – Monday June 30, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Week 11: Zoom Session- Thursday July 17, 2025, 5 – 6:30pm PT
Week 12: Zoom Session – Thursday July 31, 2025, 5-6:30pm PT
Required & Recommended Readings
Week 1
Required Reading:
Goodwyn, E. (2016). Healing Symbols in Psychotherapy: a Ritual Approach. Princeton, NJ: Routledge. Chapters 1 & 2.
Week 2
Required Reading:
Tick, E. (2005). War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Quest Books. Part 1, chapters 1-4
Tick, E. (2014). Warrior’s Return: Restoring the Soul After War. Boulder, CO: Sounds True publishing. Chapters 4 & 5
Week 3
Required Reading:
Women, War and Anger (pdf to be provided to registered participants)
Week 4
Required Reading:
Tick, E. (2005). War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Quest Books. Chapter 16
Tick, E. (2014). Warrior’s Return: Restoring the Soul After War. Boulder, CO: Sounds True publishing. Chapters 11, 12 & 14.
Week 5
Required Reading:
Goodwyn, E. (2018). Understanding Dreams and Other Spontaneous Images: The Invisible Storyteller. (Routledge). Chapters 4 & 5
Week 6
Required Reading:
Goodwyn, E. (2016). Healing Symbols in Psychotherapy: a Ritual Approach. Princeton, NJ: Routledge. Chapters 5 & 6
Week 7
Required Reading:
The Introduction and chapter 1 of Joan Chodorow (Ed) (1997). Jung on active imagination. Princeton University Press.
Recommended Reading:
Harry Wilmer: The healing nightmare: war dreams of Vietnam veterans. In D. Barrett (Ed.) (1996). Trauma and dreams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 8
Required Reading:
Goodwyn, E. (2016). Healing Symbols in Psychotherapy: a Ritual Approach. Princeton, NJ: Routledge. Chapters 8 & 9.
Suggested Reading:
Goodwyn, E. (2025). King of the Forgotten Darkness: a Raven’s Tale Fantasy. London, UK: Roundfire Press.
Week 9
Required Reading:
Brooke, R. (2017). An archetypal approach to treating combat posttraumatic stress disorder. In D. Downing and J. Mills (Eds). Outpatient treatment of psychosis: psychodynamic approaches to evidence based practice, pp. 171-196. London: Karnac Books.
Brooke, R. (2012). An archetypal perspective for combat trauma. Bulletin of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, 13(1), 2-7.
Week 10
Required Reading:
Soldier’s Heart Training: Military Issues and Needs (pdf to be provided to registered participants)
Week 11
Required Reading:
Tick, E. (2005). War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Quest Books. Chapters 11-15.
Tick, E. (2014). Warrior’s Return: Restoring the Soul After War. Boulder, CO: Sounds True publishing. Chapters 13 & 15.
Week 12
No Readings/ Discussion Panel
Program Details
Dates
February 20, 2025 – July 31, 2025, 5 – 6:30pm PT
Graduate Certificate with Erik Goodwyn, Edward Tick, Roger Brooke and Kate Dahlstedt
Access to D2L and course materials will be provided by February 13, 2025
International participation is encouraged and welcome
Registration Fees
$1095. – General Rate
$930.75 – Pacifica Alumni, & Senior Rate
$ 876. – Lifelong Learner Membership Rate
$657. – PGI Extension Student Rate
$30. – Continuing Education Credits ( CEC Hours)
Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) must attend all of the live Zoom sessions in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs as we will be verifying attendance.
You have the option of putting down a 50% deposit when registering for the program and paying the remaining balance in installments of your choice until May 8, 2025. You can select this on the registration form.
Limited scholarship and reduced tuition opportunities are available for this program. You can fill out a scholarship application form here. The deadline for scholarship applications is January 23, 2025.
All of the live Zoom sessions will be recorded and made available to everyone registered for the program. If you watch the recordings and keep up with the online discussion forum you will qualify for the certificate of completion. Live attendance to the Zoom sessions is not necessary unless you are looking to obtain Continuing Education Credits.
Membership Pricing
As a Member of our Pacifica Degree Student Membership program, you can receive 40% off of the General Rate for this program! To register and receive your special member-only, code please click here.
(Please note that the Pacifica Degree Student Membership program is only for current students at Pacifica Graduate Institute enrolled in a full-time degree program).
As a Member of Our Lifelong Learner Membership program, you can receive 20% off of the General Rate for this program! To register and receive your special member-only code, please click here.
Student Members and Lifelong Learner Members can input their member-only code in the DISCOUNT CODE box on the registration form to receive their membership pricing.
About the Teachers
Erik Goodwyn, MD,is a psychiatrist who has listened to the dreams and fantasies of suffering people from in both military and civilian settings. He is a veteran and a scholar published in anthropology, dream analysis, mythology, ritual, philosophy, and archetypal psychology. He has been invited to give lectures in Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, and all over the United States. His passion is the imagination in all its manifestations, which is why he is also an author of fantasy fiction. He feels the symbolic and fantastical imagery of the imagination is the only way to depict some of the most important and mysterious truths of the human soul, as depicted in his Raven’s Tale series.
Edward Tick, PhD, (www.edwardtick.com) is an archetypal psychotherapist, educator, poet, author, and international pilgrimage guide and activist. He is recognized as a “thought leader” on healing the invisible wounds of war. He has been working to heal these wounds from violent trauma in veterans, families, societies, and our world for over forty years. Ed is the author of five books of nonfiction, including the groundbreaking War and the Soul, and Warrior’s Return, now translated and used in both Ukraine and Russia, as well as three books of poetry and more than 200 articles. He is an editor of the international journal Close Encounters In War. He was chosen by the Pentagon as subject matter expert to train our U. S Military on healing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury. As well as active imagination, archetypal engagement, and the arts, he uses pilgrimage and cultural immersion for holistic healing and has been leading annual healing journeys to both Viet Nam and to Greece since 1995. Since the beginning of the Ukraine War, he has counseled, trained, and supported military and civilian war trauma healers in both Ukraine and Russia. He is a specialist in archetypal psychotherapy and uses the humanities, literature, and worldwide indigenous practices for modern healing. All his work is concerned with restoring the soul and spirit to our wounded warriors and modern world.
Roger Brooke, PhD ABPP is Professor Emeritus at Duquesne University, and a psychotherapist in private practice in Pittsburgh. He was Director of the Military Psychological Services at Duquesne University, where he developed an archetypal model for healing combat trauma. He is an affiliate member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and an adjunct faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute of Pittsburgh Analyst Training Program. He is author of Jung and phenomenology: classic edition (Routledge, 1991/2015) editor of Pathways into the Jungian world (Routledge, 1999), and numerous writings on the interface of Jungian psychology, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and psychotherapy. In his youth he volunteered for the South Africa paratroopers to impress his girlfriend. (It didn’t).
Kate Dahlstedt, LMHC, graduated from Hartford Family Institute and has 40 years of experience in mental health counseling and working with veterans. She has experience and is an essential team member of the Warrior’s Heart program that serves veterans and their families.
General Information
Location
Hosted Online
Cancellations
Cancellations 14 days or more prior to the program start date receive a 100% refund of program registrations. After 14 days, up to 7 days prior to the program start date, a 50% refund is available. For cancellations made less than 7 days of program start date, no refund is available.
For additional information, including travel, cancellation policy, and disability services please visit our general information section.
Continuing Education Credit
This program meets qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education credit for Psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014) Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing education for psychologists. Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Full attendance is required to receive a certificate.
This course meets the qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (#60721) to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.
For Registered Nurses through the California Board of Registered Nurses this conference meets qualifications of 12 hours of continuing education credit are available for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177). Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.
Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for each program and its content. Full day attendance is required to receive a certificate.
Continuing Education Goal. Pacifica Graduate Institute is committed to offering continuing education courses to train LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs to treat any client in an ethically and clinically sound manner based upon current accepted standards of practice. Course completion certificates will be awarded at the conclusion of the training and upon participant’s submission of his or her completed evaluation.
CECs and Online Program Attendance: Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Online programs must attend all live sessions (offered via Zoom) in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs.
For additional information, including travel, cancellation policy, and disability services please visit our general information section.
Registration Details
February 20, 2025 – July 31, 2025
- Number of Classes: 12 Classes
- Class Length: 1 ½ hours
- Class Time: 5pm – 6:30pm PT
- CECs: 12
Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Online programs must attend all live sessions (offered via Zoom) in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs.
All of the live Zoom sessions will be recorded and made available to everyone registered for the program. If you watch the recordings and keep up with the online discussion forum you will qualify for the certificate of completion. Live attendance to the Zoom sessions is not necessary unless you are looking to obtain Continuing Education Credits.
