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.

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.

Is this training evidence based? 

We suggest reading our dissertation and 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 provide too many obstacles, are shortsighted in their worldview, and professional incentives to establish it as a EBP is not worth the cost and effort.

Can I get CE’s? YES!

 

FAQ for COACHING

What am I signing up for exactly? 
To either be trained by or coached through our Path of the Wounded Healer, which is based on our academic research with the Addiction as Dissociation Model.

Is this Coaching or Therapy? 
We provide Educational Coaching on unconscious healing, awareness, and bridging the conscious and unconscious divide. Therapy requires a diagnosis, which by having a diagnosis, you are required to meet the criteria for medical necessity. Through our research, we see the need to support people in situations that are non-diagnosable and are often not billable for insurance purposes (V-codes). 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) that these experience have had on their life. We help people deal with the intangibles, relational, and existentials of trauma, dissociation, and 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 also provide harm-reduction education, teach best practices, and coach people through our educational paths. We support our work academically with our Addiction as Dissociation Model. If we are "treating" anything it is within the normal range of developmental trauma, normative dissociation, and universal addictions, which are not 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 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.

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 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 Therapy, 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, and our path is also spiritual. We are non-pathologizing but accept that pathology exists. We believe we 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?

Start the Orientation Class. It is free. It is time to workout your mental health.