AMHERST — Shared experiences of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) along with coffee and muffins were the breakfast mix at Bangs Community Center last Friday.

Some 30 people gathered around a vinyl covered table, among them Vietnam War veterans, a handful of college students, community members, and at the head of the table, Ed Tick, psychotherapist and author. The Bangs Community Center organizes community breakfasts twice a month, and Tick was the most recent guest.

Tick, who describes himself as “humanist” and “spiritual pilgrim,” initiated a dialogue about his area of expertise, PTSD and the Vietnam War.

Born in New York City and a Belchertown resident of 12 years, he counseled veterans in the 70s before the term PTSD came into usage. This Veterans Day, a documentary on the subject of PTSD and Vietnam starring Tick will air on PBS as part of the war’s 50th anniversary this year, adding to his library of books and poetry on the mental health condition that plagues at least 15% of those who served in Vietnam.

While Tick didn’t serve any time in uniform, he started his career as a therapist after the close of the war, which took place from 1964-1975 and was fought to limit the spread of communism in Asia.

When America’s forces were returning home, Till began to be flooded with the horror stories of those who had gone to the Indochinese Peninsula.

“I needed to serve and I didn’t have to during the war, so I’ve been serving ever since,” he said Friday. “I have been seeking the most comprehensive practices for healing for what we call post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Unraveling the reality of how American soldiers were welcomed on their return from the war, he said, “Our country is broken … the rift between veterans and civilians is severe.”

He continued: “Veterans carry their history, their war wisdom, their warrior wisdom pretty much alone without opportunities to share, and the rest of us don’t know. This isolation, this alienation, is one of the many, many sources of the failed homecoming of our warriors.”

A few of those impacted by their memories around the table were Pete Rogers and Bob Predmore, both of whom touched on the “ghosts” of memories that haunt them.

Gene Herman said that even the words Tet Offensive, one of the main conflicts in Vietnam that he fought in, would always trigger negative memories. But he thanked Tick for his work, saying that Tick helped him grow, “from a closeted veteran to a warrior for peace.”

But how did the Vietnamese react to the conflict? How did they internalize the war? According to Tick, quite differently.

Over the 19 healing pilgrimages he has led for veterans to heal and return to the country they last knew as a war zone, Tick learned about the war’s aftermath from a Vietnamese perspective. It is an ambition of his to publish a book asking the question of why Vietnamese are what he described as “OK” despite having fought in the same war.

For one, Tick said that PTSD is not solved with pharmaceuticals alone. Medications, he said, “save lives and relieve symptoms, but they don’t transform the wound into love and friendship.”

Karma is also key to healing, a cultural element that has steered the Vietnamese away from PTSD symptoms, according to Tick.

Survivors guilt is mentioned frequently by veterans who have served and watched their peers die all around them, and yet they were saved. But Tick explained how the Vietnamese conception of Karma insulates them from these feelings.

On one of his pilgrimages in Vietnam, Tick was told by a Vietnamese man who had fought to, “Try to understand that in Buddhism, the bullet is the messenger of karma. If it’s your turn, then it’s your turn — it’s not up to me.”

He continued, “The universe just conspired to bring all these forces together at the same moment, and the bullet determines karma.”

According to advice he has received while in Vietnam, “Just make good karma, that’s all you have to do,” said Tick.

Tick also introduced those at breakfast to three people he has encountered, all of them Vietnamese who fought in the war against the Americans, and shared their stories.

Tam Tien was a Viet Cong vet, fighting with the communists. But every time Tick goes to Vietnam he shares a home with Tien – visits Tick calls, “amazingly human.”

Tien is of the opinion that, “Vietnamese and American veterans must be the same mouth and the same lips, telling the same story,” and to facilitate this he welcomes Tick and veterans into his home whenever Tick comes to visit.

Tick shared that Tien has told veterans that, “the last time we were here, we are all frightened of each other, and we couldn’t sleep. But from now on and forevermore, you have to come and sleep in peace on our pillows and have good dreams, and let our friendship heal.”

This level of hospitality among the Vietnamese, despite being in conflict with them, was something that shook Pete Rogers when he went on a pilgrimage to Vietnam, he shared.

There, he found a woman who had, “been exposed to what our unit had done,” but invited him into her house. He said it’s a memory he will never forget for as long as he lives.

Nguyen Tam Ho served in war for 25 years with the Viet Minh and Viet Cong, fighting against the Japanese and the French in addition to the Americans. The “minuteman from the Mekong Delta” or as Tick calls him, “Mr. Tiger,” witnessed his delta bombed with Agent Orange, leading to the region to resemble a “moonscape” said Tick.

After fighting, he spent his life repairing the devastation – a project his son has picked up since his death in recent years.

One of the aspects of the war that many Americans who fought have a hard time overcoming, is that they have not seen the Vietnamese revival since they left some 50 years ago, Tick said.

“Vietnam stinks,” “I don’t want to go back there,” “I still smell the burning gasoline,” Tick said is common to hear from those who fought in the war.

“No – you can go back and see it is beautiful,” Tick said. “The land has recovered, the people are happy and welcoming, and those old images get washed out of the mind.”

Telling the story of Huu Ngoc, who died at 107 in March, Tick gave a perspective of time’s shortness he learned from Ngoc.

Ngoc, a revered teacher and elder, and head of a publishing company, was lecturing on the 3,000-year history of his country. Tick noticed the Vietnam war wasn’t even mentioned.

Ngoc replied – “You had only been here for 12 years – that’s a blip in our history,” despite the Vietnam War being one of the longest conflicts in American history, second only to Afghanistan.

But regardless of the conflict’s brevity in Vietnamese terms, Tick was told that, “You Americans were especially brutal – more than other invaders.”

In Vietnam the war is referred to as the, “American War,” or “The last anti-colonial war.” Ngoc’s reaction to the events were that, “It’s a waste and also a mystery to go through hell.”