Newest estimates state that 20 - 40% of Iraq returnees come home with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder with its multitude of disabling symptoms. Countless more return with severe disabling wounds to body and mind. Our society and the institutions meant to serve veterans are in crisis and at a loss as to how to respond to this massive wounding. The war’s violence is so severe that it can cause the true self to become distorted or lost for life.

Military service today is an incomplete modern version of the archetypal warrior’s journey. This journey in its ancient, cross-cultural, and modern manifestations will be explored. The inner world of combat and its universal dimensions will be examined in detail. PTSD will be considered not just as a stress and anxiety disorder, but as an identity disorder, soul wound, interrupted initiation and social wound. Participants will learn how to utilize psycho-spiritual interventions and community activism to rebuild veterans’ identities, shrink trauma, and restore wounded dimensions of soul. Also, participants will be able to apply an understanding of PTSD to actual treatment philosophies, strategies and cases so that they can bring hope and healing to our veterans and their families. Finally, participants will be able to describe the spirituality inherent in war and how to use it to achieve a holistic understanding of PTSD and help heal our veterans and society.