Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) for WHI
What is WHI and what does WHI do?
WHI is brainchild of Adam O’Brien, PhD academic work on trauma, dissociation, and addiction. What WHI is becoming is the personal and professional education center for Healing as a profession because it is distinctly different from existing professional dynamics and business structures. WHI is educating the next generation of Healers, which includes a dissociation-informed, research-informed, and recovery-based “Path of the Wounded Healer”, developed by Dr. Adam in his post-doctorate application of his research.
WHI educates people, professionals, and communities on spiritual regulation, universal recovery, and healing states of consciousness.
FAQ for TRAINING
Can we use cannabis in this training to support our understanding of dissociation and psychedelic experiences?
YES! THIS IS IN LARGE PART WHAT WE DO!
Can I use THC?
Yes, but… If you are in a state where THC is not legal and/or you do not have the option of obtaining a medical cannabis card, then we recommend utilizing CBD in the cannabis education portion of our programming. Even then, we support people utilizing breathwork to build a psychedelic practice in places or in situations when cannabis products are not available.
Is this training evidence-based?
We suggest reading our dissertation and psychedelic position paper on this subject. You can access that HERE. Currently our programming is research-informed and WHI do not plan on going for the status of an evidence based practice (EBP) because the systems of governance and oversight provide too many obstacles (and are shortsighted in their worldview) and professional incentives to establish it as a EBP is not worth the cost and effort. Also, we know that because meditation is evidence-based and EMDR, then so is ours.
Can I get CE’s? No! Not until some systemic changes happen in the professions.
Do you educate people to become Healers? YES! We are training all Healers to become Healers and provide the preparation to become Healers. WHI recognize that establishing and re-establishing a new/old profession, we first have to define it as separate from the current professions. WHI did this in our manuals:
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org
Do you train people in psychedelic care? Yes! As we are a recovery-based program with addiction research to support our right to educate and re-educate anyone on our profession. We are re-establishing our right to be called Healers, because that is what we are.
Do you train professionals to treat addiction and dissociation with psychedelics? Yes! Our model is a universal model on trauma, dissociation, addiction, recovery, and unconscious, therefore, we can and are.
FAQ for COACHING
What am I signing up for exactly?
To either be coached through the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) or our Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH), depends on who you are and what you need from us. If you are a person in need of support, direction, or information, then coaching is right for you to orient you to our ADM. If you are any professional, you can take a ADM and PWH training. People reaching out to us are often wanting to learn about our work, but we can really only show them so coaching .
Is this Coaching or Therapy?
We provide Educational Coaching on unconscious healing, awareness, and bridging the conscious and unconscious divide. Therapy requires a diagnosis and treatment, which by having a diagnosis, you are required to meet medical necessity. Through our research, we see the need to support people in situations that are non-diagnosable, are often not billable for insurance purposes (V-codes), and do not meet medical necessity. For example, people in long-term recovery from addiction, trauma, and PTSD who no longer meet the criteria for those "disorders" but are still impacted by the echo (often existential and a form of morally injury) that these experience have had on their life. We help people deal with the intangibles, relational, and existentials of developmental and attachment trauma, normative/pathological dissociation, and universal addiction recovery.
What you are signing up for is to learn from states of healing, spiritual unconsciousness, and altered states of consciousness with meditation, breath, and psychedelic medicines (legal medicines only). We provide harm-reduction education, teach best healing practices, and coach people through our educational paths. We support our work academically with our Addiction as Dissociation Model and the Path of the Wounded Healer. If we are "treating" anything it is within the normal range of developmental trauma, normative dissociation, and universal addictions (perfectionism, altruism, and ambition), which are not currently diagnoses. In our approach, we support people with a Positive Psychology mindset rather than the pathology model. This is because true pathology is rarer than we think and is often displaced by the powers that be, arguably for profit motive.
When you have a PWH healer, coach, or personal trainer in your life, you have a supportive person who educates you on ways to maintain your mental wealth, regulation, self-healing, and guides you through the Path of the Wounded Healer. Sometimes this is long-term, sometimes it is a short-term relationship, but either way, having walked the Path of the Wounded Healer, you will never be the same because change is inevitable.
What do we do?...
We are a gym/spa that coaches and supports your personal maintenance and professional growth. We offer classes and educational opportunities to learn how to psychologically heal yourself through natural means. We provide the ongoing conscious and unconscious healing that is usually needed to keep thriving. Not everything emotional is a mental health disorder. Often times they may be spiritual or existential in nature. In our Gym and Spa model, we also maintain healing as a necessity for health and wellness. There are normative ranges of stress and mental health that need to be maintained in order to prevent spiritual and moral decay, pathology, and diagnoses over the life-span. We are preventative and if you have physical health needs, then you have mental health needs.
If you are using psychedelic medicines... we educate people on the benefits and risks of working with these medicines from our lived experience as a people in longterm recovery. As a recovery healer, we recognize the systemic roots of our universal addictions and our programming offers a solution to navigating the new psychedelic landscape with the same professions and professionals who took them away, made them illegal, and incarcerated generations for social control. We namely use cannabis as a healing agent to support overall health.
What is WHI?…
WHI stands for the Wounded Healers Institute and is the unconscious expression of Dr. Adam O’Brien’s academic research. WHI provides education on mental health (namely trauma, dissociation, and addiction) and does not “treat” what is not broken (e.g., normal responses to all too normal events). We are holistic in our resources and are a co-op of various providers that believe in WHI philosophy and approach. We use Bio/Neurofeedback, Brainspotting, BEMER Therapy, Integrative Medicine for Mental Health, Reiki, Polarity work, and Meditation/Healing States of Consciousness. We also utilize legal psychedelics (cannabis only) for spiritual and healing maintenance, building resilience, and supporting Posttraumatic Growth. WHI uses Educational, Coaching, Wellness, and Spiritual Models to provide accurate information on various topics, create action plans, and support maintenance healing. We also train and consult with people, professionals, and communities on Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) and the Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH). WHI is an ally and advocate for being on the right side of history and uses the collective unconscious to promote global healing. Lastly, WHI continues research on ADM and the development of PWH.
What WHI is not…
We are not clinical services and do not provide diagnoses, but we can support clinical services. Our process is educational, relational, recovery-based, and spiritual. We are non-pathologizing but accept that pathology exists. We believe we all have the wisdom to know the difference.
FAQ's for Posttraumatic Growth Gym and Spa
What is it?
Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) Gym and Spa is an online platform for people to learn and condition meditation into their lives, stress reduction and regulation, strengthen your resiliency, and learn psychedelic workouts to help with preparing and posting integration. You work with one of our trained coaches to guide you through our approach. Our approach is Path of the Wounded Healer, which is based on our research on the Addiction as Dissociation Model.
Career Coaching
Whether or not you are looking to explore new paths or revitalize your current career, basically, first we meet and I provide you with an assessment and then give you feedback. After that, we set some goals, depending on your need, we would see about supporting you in whatever transition you are looking to make. If there are barriers to making your goals, we work together to remove those barriers.
Have more questions? Contact us at support@woundedhealersinstitute.org Or Start the Orientation Class. It is free. It is time to workout your mental health.