About the author
Rick Leach
Author of Foothold and From the Fire. The writer behind PsychiatRick.
Rick Leach is a writer, combat infantry veteran, former police officer, and board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. His work draws on his service in Iraq, his years caring for patients, and his own experience living with PTSD.
In Foothold: Living with Trauma and Finding a Way Forward, Rick shares the experiences that brought him into treatment and the difficult, sometimes uneven process of rebuilding his life. He brings the perspective of someone who has both needed help and learned how to offer it, writing candidly about trauma, family, shame, and the small moments when life begins to feel possible again.
His writing also includes suspense fiction, including From the Fire, exploring what people carry, what they keep hidden, and how the past follows them into the present.
Through PsychiatRick, he writes about mental health, politics, war, and the world we’re trying to live in. His work brings clinical knowledge and lived experience into conversations about power, trauma, and accountability.
Rick lives in California with his wife, Linsey, and their dog, Charlie.