Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA)

The Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA) tool is not merely a clinical instrument but a methodological cornerstone of the Wounded Healer Paradigm (WHP), providing the essential qualitative mechanism for achieving genuine, embodied client assent within a dissociative-focused framework. Developed out of doctoral research on the intersectionality of trauma, dissociation, and addiction, MASA directly confronts the systemic limitations of industrialized psychiatry by offering a humanistic, comprehensive screening tool for phenomena the established diagnostic manuals (such as the DSM) fail to adequately define.

I. Definitional Rigor and Qualitative Assessment

MASA is a qualitative, hybrid screening tool. Its development stems from the foundational research that redefined addiction as dissociation and asserted that the physical body is the psychological unconscious.

  1. Scope and Purpose: MASA is a scripted approach for screening and assessing levels of dissociation and addiction in both clients and professionals. Its core assessment metrics go beyond mere symptom checking, evaluating the participant’s degrees of conscious awareness, levels of unconscious access, moral development, range of dissociation, and stage of universal addiction and recovery. The tool aims to increase self-awareness and reduce treatment resistance by providing real-time feedback on where psychological material resides.
  2. Hybrid Methodology: MASA is described as a hybrid of the Dissociative Table (a technique for ego-state work) and common coping skills such as Container and Calm Place. The methodology incorporates specific sequences like “Two Containers,” “Photo Album,” and “Bulk Blink”. It utilizes a “Light system” (Red, Yellow, Green) for pacing and guidance during sessions. The Healer’s expertise in navigating these states is required to apply the tool effectively, ensuring proficiency in working with therapeutic dissociation and altered states of consciousness.
  3. Unconscious Communication: MASA provides a way to directly communicate with the unconscious, helping the client recognize that internal experiences like “I don’t know where this is coming from” or “this just came to me” are, in fact, the unconscious speaking. This embodied wisdom provides a status report and helps the client become aware of the different “selves” or parts driving their decisions.

II. MASA as the Mechanism for Unconscious Informed Consent (UIC)

MASA’s most critical function within the WHP is its role in obtaining Unconscious Informed Consent (UIC). This mechanism elevates the standard of ethical care beyond cognitive, legalistic compliance.

  1. The Necessity of Embodied Agreement: UIC is conceptualized as a “deeper, more profound level of agreement that transcends mere legalities and cognitive assent,” aligning with the body and the subconscious mind. Because the body is the unconscious, genuine consent must involve the body’s “knowing,” not just the mind’s intellectual agreement.
  2. Moral Safeguard against Iatrogenic Harm: MASA is mandated for use before doing ANY treatments, providing any care, or taking any medicines (particularly psychedelics). The absence of UIC contributes directly to low treatment outcomes and treatment resistance. Systemic practices that bypass UIC—such as prescribing psychiatric drugs or Ketamine for at-home use without deep, relational engagement—are critiqued as infringing upon the fundamental right to self-determination and being inherently traumatizing.
  3. Psychedelic Care Integration: In the context of psychedelic care, MASA provides the structured approach for self-medication, psychedelic integration, and dissociative embodiment. By assessing the range of dissociation and addiction, MASA ensures the client’s deepest self is prepared and willing to engage with the profound material that may emerge, providing a moral and ethical safeguard in the use of these powerful catalysts.

III. MASA in the Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH) Model

MASA is structurally and philosophically indispensable to the Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH), defining the crucial Regulation phase and the onset of the healing relationship.

  1. Initial Phase of PWH: MASA is central to PWH 1: Regulation. The process provides the requisite qualitative review before any quantitative or clinical decisions are made, ensuring that the Healer addresses the underlying addictive and dissociative dynamics.
  2. Creating the Healing Relationship: MASA is the foundational step for creating the therapeutic relationship needed for anyone to heal. Clinical observations suggest that the absence of MASA, therapeutic bond, and trust is what predicts poor therapeutic outcomes. By utilizing MASA, the Healer promotes trust and relational attunement necessary for effective Memory Reconsolidation (MR).
  3. Professional Training: MASA training is a structured component offered by the Wounded Healers Institute (WHI), taught in a formal 1-day program. This training ensures that Healers are proficient in translating qualitative experience into practical guidance, upholding the standard of care for dissociation-informed practice.

In this training you will explore our Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM), Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH), and Meeting Area Assessment and Screening (MASA). As a part of our programming, we developed our MASA script and qualitative setup for assessing and screening for dissociation and addictions. We have found the “Meeting Area” to be the best way to understand what is unconsciously occurring, to provide real-time feedback for the client to increase self-awareness, and to help lower treatment resistance. This 1-day training provides an overview and foundational information. For willing and knowledgeable participants, it offers the seeds to provide transformational experiences for yourself and the people you serve. This training is intended for anyone working in education, humanities, human resources, human services, healthcare, and all fields of medicine, psychology, and healing. Recovery and Self-Help communities are particularly welcome to attend.

In our doctoral research, we explored the intersectionality of trauma, dissociation, and addiction. Out of this, we believe we have provided a more accurate definition of what the unconscious, trauma, dissociation, and addiction are and we are now offering the MASA for all providers and the recovery community to consider. MASA is a hybrid of the Dissociative Table and common coping skills (Container and Calm Place) found in many different approaches and therapies. We also give guidance on our Two Containers, Photo Album, and Bulk Blink. These skills are performed in a particular order to help screen and assess for current dissociative and addictive dynamics. We feel that MASA is the best humanistic and qualitative screening and assessment tool for dissociative and addictive presentations; it provides everyone involved with an opportunity to become more self-aware of where psychological material resides and how to navigate it.

The combination of ADM and MASA help provide a clear line between what is normal and what is pathological. Our PWH phase model of care gives guidance on how and when trauma resolution methods should be done. MASA is how we obtain unconscious informed consent before doing ANY treatments, providing any care, or taking any medicines (particularly psychedelics). We teach participants how to find the line between normative and pathological presentations with our MASA script. We suggest that true pathology is really sustained dysregulation (dissociative/addictive) and that the absence of unconscious informed consent is what contributes to low treatment outcomes and care resistance. We teach participants how to find the line between normative and pathological presentations and allow your healer’s path to unfold in front of you.

*DISCLAIMER: In this offering, we invite participants to explore their dissociative profiles to better understand dissociation, addiction, and healing. Wounded Healers Institute (WHI) provides state-dependent learning to help providers become knowledgeable in learning from and working with therapeutic dissociation, altered states of consciousness, normative to clinical dissociation, and universal addictions. As we define in our foundational literature (ADM), these states of consciousness are readily accessible for clinicians to support and develop their use of therapeutic dissociation. Our research points toward dissociation making us more grounded, inducing endogenous states of healing, and creating the foundation for supporting our ongoing physical and mental health. Our trainings invite participants to have the option of taking cannabis products as a part of their learning process with WHI. 4 hours of group consultation are needed to successfully complete this training. If this information or these topics are not familiar to you, we require that clinicians continue with consultation before using MASA themselves with people/clients/patients. If required, additional consultations at the participant’s expense may be required before successful completion. Our interest is in protecting future clients by educating providers on how to properly use MASA to obtain unconscious informed consent before doing ANY treatments, care, or taking medicines.

 

Educational Goals

·      Participants will learn about the historical context of dissociative-informed care, psychology, and social justice.

·      Participants will increase their knowledge of the clinical framework and assessment and screening of dissociation and addiction.

·      Participants will explore current trends in addiction-informed care.

·      Participants will learn about the ADM, PWH and MASA.

·      Participants will increase their understanding of our dissociation model to help clients coping with dissociation in addiction care.

Educational Objectives

·      Upon completion, participants will be able to apply MASA to their personal and professional life.

·      Participants will be able to conceptualize ADM in their personal and professional life.

·      Participants will be able to name at least 3 considerations of dissociation and addiction-informed care.

 

Schedule (EST):

830am – 10am – ADM/PWH Orientation

10 -11am – Dissociation-Informed Care and Addiction-Informed Care

11-11:15am – BREAK

11:15-12:30 – MASA (Demonstration)

12:30-1pm – BREAK

1-2pm – Debriefing

2-3pm – MASA Script

3-3:15 – BREAK

3:15-4pm – MASA Context

            4-5pm – MASA Review and Closure

Dates: Every Second Wednesday

Cost: $300.00 (Early bird) $400.00 (1-month before training date.)

RSVP HERE (Minimum of 5 people needed for a live training to run, otherwise online version is available.)

IV. MASA as a Corrective Measure Against Industrialized Psychiatry

MASA embodies the WHP’s qualitative worldview, serving as a direct systemic corrective against the shortcomings of industrialized psychiatry and its quantitative bias.

  1. Addressing Systemic Blind Spots: MASA is necessary because the system’s reliance on the DSM—which is missing key operational definitions of the unconscious, trauma, addiction, and dissociation—leads to widespread diagnostic inaccuracy. MASA offers a solution to prevent clients from going undiagnosed or inaccurately diagnosed.
  2. Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative Science: MASA is designed to be combined with Quantitative EEG (qEEG) analysis. This integration of qualitative screening with objective brain mapping is intended to provide a comprehensive understanding of the client’s state and validate the Healer’s observations within current medical and psychological care models, providing a check on the system’s “quantitative addiction”.
  3. Moral Advantage: By actively addressing the line between normalcy and pathology and confirming assent via UIC, MASA affords those who practice recovery and healing a moral-ethical advantage over professions of psychology, legalities, and medical “science”. MASA is thus an essential element in establishing the Healer Profession as an independent, morally accountable entity.

References:

Marich, J. (2014). Trauma made simple: Competencies in assessment, treatment, and working with survivors. Eau Claire, WI: PESI Publishing.

Marich, J. (2023). Dissociation made simple: A stigma-free guide to embracing your dissociative mind and navigating daily life. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

Marich, J. & O’Brien, A. (2018). Demystifying dissociation: A clinician’s guide. Addiction Professional. 16(4). Retrieved from https://www.addictionpro.com/article/mindfulness-and-psychotherapies/demystifying-dissociation-clinicians-guide

Marich, J. (2020). Trauma and the twelve steps: An inclusive guide to enhancing recovery, 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

O’Brien, A. (2023). Addiction as trauma-related dissociation: A Phenomenological investigation of the addictive state [Doctoral Dissertation, International University For Graduate Studies].

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/

O’Brien, A. (2024b). Diagnostic Privilege: Meta-Critical Analysis. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 2. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2024c).  Meta-Critical Analysis: The “Science” of Pseudoscience. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 3. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2024d). Moral-Ethics. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Chapter 14. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

 

 

ADM was and is being developed by Adam O’Brien PhD and Jamie Marich PhD. ADM is a unifying theory of addiction that shows how the inner-play between trauma and dissociation challenges the narrative of modern psychology and the current medical model. Dr. Adam is an emerging expert in trauma, dissociation, and addiction. He also specializes in psychedelic healing, wellness, recovery, healing states of consciousness, spiritual and integrative health, meditation, and posttraumatic growth. Adam began his teaching career as an EMDR Approved Consultant and Trainer in 2019. He has since developed and expanded ADM teachings into the Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH) based on his doctoral research. PWH offers ways for individuals and emerging medical and psychological professionals to learn about dissociated states of healing and to solidify their right to be called healers. This presentation is also for parents, sponsors, support staff, and curious communities. Adam maintains a private practice and is an Approved Consultant for EMDR and Brainspotting. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of WHI.

*Wounded Healers Institute is an independent academic and research organization that enhances personal and professional learning through experiential means. We specialize in healing developmental trauma, normative dissociation, and universal addictions, which are not diagnoses. We are also a mental health gym and spa for those who feel ready to learn the Path of the Wounded Healer and are ready to workout with us! As a part of our training and programming, we invite participants to explore dissociative worlds through meditation, breath, and the use of spiritual medicines like psychedelics (particularly cannabis products where appropriate). Through our harm-reduction and dissociative-informed approach, we support a healthy understanding of altered states of consciousness, therapeutic dissociation, and mindful dissociation.