T.M. Galtress ~ Author

T. M. Galtress, known as Tom to friends, was raised in California, where he continues to live and work. His professional life has spanned radio broadcasting, childcare, the service industry, and mental health. He holds a master’s degree in social work and is licensed by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a clinical therapist.

Tom integrates story and narrative into his clinical work, drawing on influences such as psychoanalyst Carl Jung, psychologist Carl Rogers, and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. These frameworks inform both his therapeutic approach and his creative work, emphasizing meaning-making, identity, and human experience.

A longtime science fiction enthusiast and social advocate, Tom views his writing as an extension of his concern for contemporary social conditions. Much of his work is shaped by the observation that modern Western culture often operates in ways that are misaligned with fundamental human needs. He explores themes such as profit-driven prioritization, fragmented healthcare systems in the United States, and increasing social isolation, particularly as these structures diverge from the relational, communal supports that sustained human life for most of our evolutionary history. His stories frequently examine what happens when people live increasingly compartmentalized lives, physically and socially, and what is lost when connection, interdependence, and shared meaning are treated as secondary.

Raised without religion, Tom converted to Catholicism in the mid-2000s and later to evangelical Christianity. During the COVID-19 pandemic of the 2020s, he underwent a process of faith deconstruction that led him to explore alternative spiritual frameworks. While none fully contained his experience, he now identifies as an agnostic mystic, with philosophical and spiritual leanings toward Taoism, Druidry, and nature-based traditions.

At times, Tom understands his creative work as a form of channeling, whether interpreted as intuition, emergent myth, or expressions of collective consciousness shaped by the moment in history. He sees his stories as modern mythmaking, narratives intended to speak to the psychological, social, and spiritual conditions of contemporary life.