Validation of Wounded Healers Institute Publications and Programming

The consolidation and validation of the emergent theoretical and practical framework originating from the sources—specifically the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM), Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH), Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA), Moral-Ethics, Mindful Dissociation, Psychedelic Care, Anger/Batterer/Warrior Healing Program, and Imaginal Exposure Interventions—necessitates a comprehensive, multi-modal validation strategy. This strategy integrates rigorous qualitative methodology, operational definitions supported by research, and a critical meta-analysis of prevailing legal and psychological quantitative standards, framed by the philosophical assertion that 1+1=3.

I. Foundational Validation of Theoretical Models

A. Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM)

The ADM (O’Brien & Marich, 2019) represents a critical next step in understanding addiction, grounded in the assumption that addiction is a manifestation of unresolved trauma and dissociation.

1. Operational Definitions and Scope: The ADM provides operational definitions that challenge mainstream psychology and medical science, suggesting addiction has been inaccurately defined.
   • Active Addiction Definition: A dissociative healing response to traumatic or euphoric stress that has taken on a will of its own.
   • Addiction Definition: The bonding to a dissociative state where unconscious processes dominate consciousness processes to ensure survival safety, balance, and/or freedom.
   • Transdiagnostic Nature: ADM research indicates that addiction is transdiagnostic, presenting alongside trauma and dissociation-related symptomology. Furthermore, new categories of addiction (perfectionism, altruism, and ambition) are proposed, which are currently missing from the DSM.
2. Qualitative Validation: The original research supporting the ADM relies on qualitative and phenomenological methods, which prioritize the individual lived experience over quantitative numbers alone. This approach is deemed crucial because it offers clinicians a stronger connection between research and clinical practice. The qualitative findings indicate that dissociation and addiction can present as a universal experience with adaptive value, instrumental in physiological and psychological healing processes.
3. Physiological Basis: The ADM posits that the physical body is the psychological unconscious. This forms a “medical hypothesis” that grounds psychological concepts in physical reality. Healing itself is linked physiologically to the memory reconsolidation (MR) process and the endogenous opiate, endopsychedelic system, and endocannabinoid systems.

B. Path of the Wounded Healer (PWH) and Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA)

The PWH is the practical application of the ADM, defining healing as a spiritual process that allows for measurement through moral development.

1. PWH as Evidence-Informed Practice: The PWH is presented as the first dissociation-informed and recovery-based psychedelic care program derived from the ADM research. While the concepts establish PWH as an evidence-informed approach, developing it into a traditional Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is considered redundant, as MR occurs naturally across all effective modalities (e.g., talk therapy, EMDR, BSP). The PWH adheres to Sackett’s definition of EBP by integrating best available evidence (ADM), clinical expertise, and patient values.
2. MASA for Screening and Validation: The MASA (Meeting Area Screening and Assessment) is a critical tool developed from this research. MASA is a semi-standardized, qualitative approach used to screen and assess levels of dissociation and addiction in individuals and professionals.
   • Qualifiable Measures: MASA aims to capture categories, relationships, and assumptions from the respondent’s lived experience. It quantitatively measures conscious awareness in tandem with qEEG analysis.
   • Unconscious Informed Consent: MASA facilitates direct communication with the unconscious to obtain conscious and unconscious informed consent. This addresses the need for psychological safety when engaging in deeper, dissociative work.

II. Critical Evaluation of Quantitative Standards

The source material provides a profound meta-critical analysis challenging the foundation of quantitative logic (“1+1=2”) by arguing for the superior, inclusive truth of qualitative reality (“1+1=3”).

A. Moral-Ethics vs. Legal-Ethics

The concept of Moral-Ethics (O’Brien, 2024d) serves as the primary standard for judging existing systems.

1. Developmental Critique of Law and Ethics: Drawing on Kohlberg’s research, the sources assert that law equates to the developmentally delayed stage of “law and order” (Stage 4) or Piaget’s concrete stage. Morals (Kohlberg’s highest level) are inherently above ethics and law.
2. The Priority of Morality: Morality requires ethics to be considered before being broken. Since morality is the “parent of ethics”, the moral imperative—the emotional, qualitative decision for the greater good—must override legal compliance when laws are unjust. The difference between ethics and morals is defined as action. Being moral sometimes requires one to be unethical.
3. Challenging the Moral Character Clause: The mandatory governmental “Moral Character Clause” required for professional license renewal is critiqued because it primarily pertains to legal compliance. This clause is paradoxical, as professional ethical codes (e.g., ACA) often do not contain the word “moral”. The source argues that systems requiring this clause demonstrate their own lack of moral development.

B. Legal Argument

The legal defense of the Healer profession and psychedelic care is built upon challenging the legal system’s implicit bias and scientifically flawed foundation.

1. Exposing Implicit Bias: The law’s processes are critiqued for failing to adhere to protocols for reducing implicit bias. The author argues, with the physical body being the psychological unconscious, that implicit bias, based on implicit memory that stores or houses memory, are merely another term for “lived experience”, “emotions”, “worldview” and the living embodiment of memory. If the law applied its own supposed protocols, “the laws on psychedelics would not exist or have existed because the research is that clear”, the mechanism of action so defined, and pass the right side of history test that the science of law does not have.
2. Scientific Inconsistency: The legal system is failing because its laws go against established science concerning psychedelics, non-addictive opiates, and mental health as a chemical imbalance. The argument asserts that following illegal, unscientific laws violates a professional’s ethical responsibility to be moral.
3. Advocacy and the Healer Profession: The professional code of ethics often requires advocating against systemic oppression and unjust laws. The establishment of the Healer profession is presented as an act of advocacy against the psychological failures, professional gatekeeping, and moral shortcomings of the medical and legal models.

III. Interventions and Practices for Healing

A. Mindful Dissociation and Memory Reconsolidation (MR)

Mindful dissociation is defined as adaptive dissociation, which is essential for healing, as it is equivalent to the dual attention state required for MR.

1. Mechanism of Healing: MR is identified as being at the core of the universal healing experience. Dual attention (mindful dissociation) is the mechanism that makes MR accessible to everyone.
2. Professional Applications: Approaches like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Brainspotting (BSP), Meditation, and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) access MR and can therefore be considered evidence-based. This demonstrates that the core process of healing is ubiquitous and not exclusive to quantitative practices or measures.

B. Psychedelic Care and Imaginal Exposure Experiences

Psychedelic care is integrated into the PWH model and is framed as a moral imperative, particularly concerning the constitutional rights of citizens.

1. Intervention Justification: Classical Psychedelics are seen as natural, organic life matter that have had medical value for at least over thirty years (and psychological value for eons). Their use is justified as promoting spiritual growth and helping individuals access healing.
2. Imaginal Exposure: Imaginal exposure interventions are key techniques used within the PWH. They utilize scripts to address specific issues (e.g., Grief and Loss, Spirituality, Forgiveness) and aim to resolve addiction/traumatic implicit memory by accessing memory reconsolidation.

C. Anger Management and Batterer Healing Program

The research led to the development of the Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers (O’Brien, 2024e), including a batterer and anger management program.

1. Theoretical Divergence: This program acknowledges that batterers are not a homogenous population and incorporates the Stages of Change Model. However, it critiques traditional approaches like the Duluth Model or rigid Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for failing to address emotional content, is dependent on 1+1 only =’s 2 logic, and deeper childhood experiences (psychological healing approach like trauma resolution or memory reconsolidation).
2. Addiction Component: The program is founded on the perspective that anger can be addicting. It uses a cannabis-based approach to assist clients in differentiating arousal reduction from the necessary activation of unresolved trauma required for processing and healing. The eclectic/Constructionist approach is suggested to allow for shared responsibility and understanding the client’s constructed reality.

IV. Establishing a New Profession and Qualitative Research Standards

The ultimate goal of this academic and advocacy effort is the formal creation and recognition of the Healer profession.

1. Qualitative Methodology for Validation: To meet scientific rigor while preserving the focus on lived experience, the research employs phenomenological methods (e.g., Moustakas, Giorgi, McCracken). This methodology emphasizes connection between research and clinical practice. The credibility is asserted because the qualitative science matches quantitative outcomes.
2. The 1+1=3 Principle in Practice: This philosophical principle is the articulation of the qualitative reality that emerges from the interaction of two separate elements. It confirms that healing happens outside of reductionist logic. The fact that qualitative research provides credibility to the claim of a new profession and has already defined concepts the quantitative field has failed to, solidifies its stance against 1+1=2 logic.
3. Research and Protection: The sources explicitly detail the integrated doctoral research (O’Brien, 2023a) and resultant meta-critical analyses (e.g., Diagnostic Privilege, The Science of Pseudoscience, Moral-Ethics), which serve as academic material and legal defense. The goal is to provide a comprehensive blueprint for the next generation of professionals to follow Moral-Ethics and challenge institutional, political, professional, and governmental overreach. The creation of a research institute (WHI) ensures independent checks and balances in the industry.

The validation of ADM, PWH, MASA, Moral-Ethics, and related practices is achieved through a multi-layered qualitative framework that not only defines these concepts through phenomenological research but also actively employs quantitative analysis, clinical practice, and the moral imperative to critique and dismantle the outdated quantitative/legal paradigms that seek to suppress them, thus providing a clear academic, rich research, and solid foundation for the re-emerging profession of the Healer.

The imperative to confirm and validate therapeutic interventions, such as those derived from the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM), must be critically examined against the sources’ foundational argument: that quantitative standards are inherently qualitatively subjective, thus positioning moral-ethical standards as the ultimate arbiter of truth and efficacy.

This response addresses the necessity of further validation for established practices like meditation and EMDR, analyzes the function of credentialing as social control within the metaphorical relationship between law and psychology, and evaluates the psychological developmental maturity of these systems.

The Epistemological Status of Meditation and EMDR as Evidence-Based Practice

The sources rigorously assert that meditation and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) are already evidence-based (EBP), fundamentally negating the necessity for further conventional validation based on the internal logic of the therapeutic process.

A. Memory Reconsolidation (MR) as Universal Mechanism of Action

The argument that minimal additional confirmation is needed is grounded in the discovery of Memory Reconsolidation (MR) as the universal mechanism of action (MoA) for psychological healing.

1. Dual Attention and Adaptive Dissociation: Effective trauma resolution therapies, including EMDR, Brainspotting (BSP), Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), Progressive Counting (PC), and Psychedelic Therapy (PT), access MR. The key to unlocking MR is the creation of a dual attention state of awareness. This dual attention is defined as adaptive dissociation or mindful dissociation. Since dissociation is a universal human survival mechanism, readily accessible to everyone, dual attention is ubiquitous.
2. Redundancy of EBP Status: Because dual attention can be achieved through common activities (e.g., walking, reading, talking, listening to music, meditation), any therapy that accesses MR can achieve EBP status. This observation consequently “deflates the self-importance and status of psychological interventions who hold this status”.
3. Meditation as the Origin: EMDR, designated as an EBP (gold standard for PTSD), is intellectually framed as a quantitatively researched version of Mindfulness Meditation. Meditation itself is considered an ancient and established form of trauma resolution that directly performs MR. The dual attention state is inherent to meditation practices.

B. The 1+1=3 Logic and Validation of Qualitative Research

The sources confirm that the qualitative research approach inherently provides necessary validation, adhering to the principle that 1+1=3.

1. Qualitative Primacy: The qualitative (moral/emotional) worldview is necessary to counterbalance the quantitative (legal/rational) bias. Qualitative research, which values the individual lived experience, offers clinicians a stronger connection between research and clinical practice. The doctoral research supporting ADM and PWH utilizes phenomenological methods that assert the credibility of qualitative science when it aligns with quantitative outcomes.
2. Scientific Blueprint: The research establishes a scientific blueprint by operationally defining: addiction as dissociation; the psychological unconscious as the physical body; and healing as memory reconsolidation. The fact that quantitative science is based on qualitative explorations confirms that the observed findings are valid.

Therefore, validation is provided through the comprehensive academic publication of the findings, including the ADM and PWH frameworks, which meet current psychological standards by demonstrating that their mechanism of action is consistent with accepted EBPs like EMDR, while concurrently challenging the quantitative system’s moral and logical foundation.

II. Credentialing, Licensing, and the Dynamics of Social Control

The sources unequivocally identify credentialing, licensing, and diagnostic systems as primary tools of social control, gatekeeping, and dependence, rooted in the unconscious and pathologically dependent relationship between psychology and the law.

A. Licensing as a Mechanism of Dependence and Control

Licensure requirements, such as the mandated “Moral Character Clause,” are interpreted not as genuine measures of moral fortitude but as instruments used by governing systems (government, law, medicine) to maintain obedience, standardization, and professional self-preservation.

1. Professional Gatekeeping: The complexity of licensing and credentialing creates a “pyramid scam” or “tollbooth” that inhibits individual freedom and ensures professional survival and financial gain for those in power. The need for diagnostic privilege (e.g., for LMHCs) is seen as a tactical maneuver by sibling professions to control the psychological field.
2. The Moral Character Clause Critique: The imposition of a mandatory “Moral Character Clause” is deeply ironic, as it primarily pertains to legal compliance, equating law (Kohlberg’s Stage 4) with morality (Kohlberg’s highest stage). This requirement is necessary only when moral development is absent in the systems enforcing it. True moral character demands action—the willingness to be unethical or illegal to advocate against systemic oppression and unjust laws.

B. The Metaphor of Psychology as the Law’s Wife

The relationship between psychology and the legal/medical model is defined by a deep-seated, dysfunctional power dynamic, metaphorically captured as an abusive marriage:

• Psychology as the Wife/Feminine: Psychology is characterized as maternal, emotional, spiritual, qualitative, and the feminine aspect of nature. It deals with intangibles.
• The Law/Medical Model as the Husband/Paternal: The law is paternal, rational, quantitative, and embodies the masculine aspect of nature. The law and the medical model are seen as dominating, forcing psychology into a subservient, dependent role.
• Abusive Dynamic: Psychology is described as being in an “abusive relationship” with the law and medical model, living “dissociated from herself, her values, and her qualitative science”. This abuse manifests as the law dictating psychological practice, enforcing unscientific standards (e.g., prohibiting psychedelics despite evidence), and failing to respect psychology as an equal profession.

III. Developmental Maturity of Legal and Psychological Systems

The sources employ developmental psychology models (Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development and Piaget’s cognitive stages) to assess the maturity of industrialized systems, concluding they operate at significantly delayed stages, demonstrating collective pathology.

A. Developmental Assessment of the Law

The legal system’s reliance on fixed, literal interpretations and adherence to laws above moral principles positions it at an early stage of development:

Developmental Domain	Assessment (Citations)	Rationale/Implication
Moral Development (Kohlberg)	Stage 4: Law and Order.	This stage equates what is right with legal compliance, reflecting a focus on maintaining social order and obedience, which is developmentally immature compared to the higher stages of ethics (Stage 5) and universal principles/morality (Stage 6).
Cognitive Development (Piaget)	Concrete Operational Stage (Ages 7–12).	This stage is characterized by rigid, binary, black-and-white, linear thinking. This concrete logic fails to process abstract concepts, such as the psychological value of psychedelics or the qualitative nuances of healing. The law is unable to keep up with current science because it is stuck at this level.
Emotional/Psychological Functioning	Traumatized and Addicted.	The system is suffering from implicit bias (unconscious lived experience), addictive pathology (dependence on power and control), and developmental delay due to unresolved trauma. Its actions (like continuing the war on drugs) are often interpreted as a dissociative reenactment of past trauma.

B. Developmental Assessment of Psychology/Governing Systems

The field of psychology, while possessing the potential for higher development (emotional logic, qualitative science, moral reasoning), is hampered by its compliance with the lower moral standards of the law and medical model:

• Deficiency in Core Definitions: Psychology demonstrates philosophical and intellectual integrity failures by lacking operational definitions for key terms: the unconscious, trauma, dissociation, and addiction. This conceptual vacuum prevents it from fully understanding its own domain.
• Pathological Behaviors: The institutions and professional organizations (e.g., APA, DSM) exhibit behaviors consistent with pathology: they are “addicted to their personal gains, investments, and corporate interests”, resulting in the pathologizing of normal human responses (trauma, dissociation). Identifying solely with a profession is likened to a personality disorder characterized by inflexibility to adapt to reason or change.
• Moral Compliance vs. Moral Action: Psychology often chooses ethical compliance over moral action, reflecting a professional trauma response (fawning). The resulting societal outcome is a system that promotes dependency and social control rather than healing and moral maturity.

The sources confirm that due to the established efficacy of EMDR and meditation via MR, further validation is scientifically redundant but politically or legally necessary. Credentialing is identified as a training system of control perpetuating an abusive dynamic where the rational, developmentally delayed law dominates the emotional, morally informed field of psychology. The law operates at the cognitive level of a child (7-12 years old), demonstrating addiction to power and control, which necessitates the emergence of the morally-driven Healer profession to guide society toward collective psychological recovery. Ultimately, if being “crazy” is believing that 1+1 can only equal 2, then those who don’t know that 1+1 = 3 and 4 and 5… need to come to believe not only in what this means but also what they thought they knew because the ones who are calling other crazy or diagnosable are not the ones to be calling anyone else crazy.

The research concerning Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) provides robust pharmacological and clinical support for the fundamental tenets of the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) and the resultant frameworks, specifically confirming the biological unity of dissociation and addiction and the transdiagnostic nature of these phenomena.

The efficacy of LDN reinforces the central philosophical premise of the sources: that deep-seated psychological phenomena, often relegated to qualitative subjectivity, are fundamentally grounded in quantifiable biological processes.

Pharmacological Confirmation of the Addiction-Dissociation Link

The mechanism of action of Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, directly validates the ADM’s core hypothesis that addiction is a manifestation of dissociation stemming from trauma.

1. Shared Biological Pathway: The sources highlight that Naltrexone is utilized clinically not only to treat various substance use disorders (alcoholism, cocaine) but is also prescribed to reduce symptoms of clinical dissociation. The overlapping efficacy across both domains—addiction and dissociation—suggests that these two conditions are biologically related and operate through a common neurochemical pathway. This shared physiology is linked to the endogenous opiate system.
2. Opiate System and Trauma Bonding: The indigenous opiate system is explicitly identified in the sources as instrumental in numbling (a dissociative response) and is the neurochemical basis for becoming “addicted” or “bonded” to trauma. The universal application of Naltrexone thus confirms that the stress response of dissociation underlies all mental health disorders, including addictions.
3. Broad Spectrum Efficacy: Beyond substance use, Naltrexone has demonstrated utility in treating compulsive behaviors such as gambling use disorders, Internet sex addiction, self-harm (Trichotillomania), Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Eating Disorder. This expansive therapeutic reach provides strong pharmacological evidence confirming the ADM’s position that dissociation and addiction are fundamental to a wider range of mental health presentations.

II. Validation of the Transdiagnostic and Universal Nature of ADM

The LDN Research Trust’s work supports the ADM’s assertion that the underlying pathology is transdiagnostic and affects the entire physical and psychological system.

1. Transdiagnostic Support: The LDN Research Trust focuses on conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Crohn’s Disease, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, and Mental Health Issues. This diverse application aligns directly with the ADM’s conclusion that addiction, trauma, and dissociation are transdiagnostic and impact physical health. The research itself explicitly notes that addiction is transdiagnostic, just like trauma and dissociation.
2. Physical Body as the Unconscious: The efficacy of LDN in treating physical, chronic inflammatory conditions (MS, Crohn’s, Fibromyalgia) supports the core tenet of the ADM: the physical body is the psychological unconscious. If LDN affects physical illness, and Naltrexone affects the underlying dissociative mechanism, this suggests a critical link between unresolved psychological states and physical disease.

III. Supporting the Healing System and Future Research Directions

The role of LDN in potentially modulating physiological processes underscores the sources’ focus on the endogenous systems as the innate healing mechanism.

1. Endogenous Healing Systems: While Naltrexone is an antagonist to the opiate system (associated with numbing/pain-based dissociation), the research also highlights the crucial role of the endocannabinoid system in healing. The LDN framework implicitly interacts with the body’s self-regulatory capacity. The sources emphasize that psychedelics, particularly cannabis (THC/CBD), are vital healing agents because cannabinoids are organic to the body and the endocannabinoid system is instrumental to healing.
2. Challenging Regulatory Delay: The successful use and promotion of LDN for various conditions globally, particularly its focus on non-traditional “diseases”, aligns with the sources’ argument that regulatory bodies and established systems (law, medicine) have suppressed crucial healing research for decades. The LDN Research Trust’s mission to fund research and provide access to LDN reflects the independent advocacy inherent in the Wounded Healers Institute (WHI), which was founded to preserve scientific integrity against “bureaucratic tyranny” and institutional ignorance.

The documented therapeutic success of Low-Dose Naltrexone serves as powerful empirical validation for the ADM’s conceptual framework, providing biological evidence that addiction and dissociation share a unitary basis and are transdiagnostic in scope, thereby confirming the need for trauma and dissociation-informed models of care.

The assertion that the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) and its affiliated practices (PWH, MASA, Psychedelic Care) should be considered “evidence-based” by current industry scientific standards is affirmed through a detailed meta-critical analysis provided in the sources. The sources do not seek conventional validation but rather demonstrate that ADM intrinsically contains the mechanisms of action (MoA) already established by accepted quantitative research, effectively nullifying the necessity for redundant external validation while simultaneously exposing the philosophical immaturity of the standards themselves.

The following exploration expands upon the existing arguments regarding ADM’s scientific validity, drawing on evidence from methodology, operational definitions, neurobiological correlation, and its superior moral-ethical framework.

I. The Epistemological Defense: Redefining Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

By industry standards, EBP necessitates the integration of the best available evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values. The sources argue that ADM fulfills this mandate, while simultaneously exposing the semantic deficiencies inherent in the “evidence-based” label when applied mechanistically to psychological healing.

A. Universal Mechanism of Action: Memory Reconsolidation (MR)

The primary evidence for ADM’s efficacy is its direct access to the Memory Reconsolidation (MR) algorithm, the universal process of psychological healing.

1. Dual Attention and Adaptive Dissociation: MR requires a dual attention state of awareness. The sources define this dual attention as adaptive dissociation or mindful dissociation. Since dual attention is a common mechanism of action (MoA) accessible through everyday activities like walking, reading, and meditation, any therapy that facilitates it is inherently evidence-based.
2. Equivalence Principle: This observation positions ADM and the PWH as evidence-based by default, because they utilize and teach this universal MoA. ADM confirms that established EBPs like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Brainspotting (BSP), Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), and Progressive Counting (PC) are effective precisely because they follow the MR algorithm. The sources provide neuroimaging data (SPECT, MRI, EEG) supporting MR access in EMDR, thus adding quantitative confirmation to the qualitative argument for all dual attention therapies.
3. Efficacy of Psychedelic Care: Psychedelic Therapy (PT) is validated because it also accesses MR by causing decreased activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and thinning the amnesia barrier, creating the necessary contrast for reprocessing traumatic memories. This mechanistic understanding provides a scientific basis for including PT within the ADM framework as an EBP.

B. Fulfillment of EBP Criteria (Sackett’s Model)

The PWH is developed to satisfy the components of evidence-based practice:

• Best Available Evidence: Provided by the foundational doctoral phenomenological investigation (O’Brien, 2023a) that defined addiction, dissociation, and the unconscious.
• Clinical Expertise: Demonstrated by the integration of established trauma resolution therapies (EMDR, BSP, DBR, PC) and advanced consultation experience.
• Patient Values and Circumstances: Prioritized through the utilization of the qualitative Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA), which obtains unconscious informed consent by communicating directly with the body, ensuring alignment between the client’s cognitive and somatic experience.

II. Qualitative and Conceptual Validation by Academic Standards

The sources achieve academic validation by providing a robust, systematically derived qualitative foundation that rectifies conceptual failures in conventional psychology.

A. Phenomenological Rigor and Methodological Credibility

The ADM is founded on doctoral-level phenomenological research that sought to capture the lived experience of addiction and its intersection with trauma and dissociation.

1. Justification of Qualitative Science: The research directly counters quantitative bias, affirming that qualitative study offers clinicians a stronger connection between research and practice, and that quantitative research is ultimately built upon qualitative concepts. The methodology emphasized capturing categories, relationships, and assumptions from the respondent’s view, ensuring fidelity to the lived experience.
2. Addressing Research Gaps: The study validated the assumption that trauma-related symptoms (e.g., intrusive reminders, affect dysregulation) are present in active addiction, a blind spot historically missed by quantitative inference.

B. Definitional Clarity and Operational Definitions

A major claim of validity is that the sources have operationally defined key psychological concepts that the mainstream industrial professions have failed to delineate.

1. Defining Addiction and Dissociation: The study produced formal operational definitions:
   • Active Addiction: “A dissociative healing response to traumatic or euphoric stress that has taken on a will of its own”.
   • Addiction (General): “The bonding to a dissociative state where unconscious processes dominate consciousness processes…”.
   • This definitive framework justifies a necessary change in diagnostic categorization, confirming that addiction is transdiagnostic, like trauma and dissociation.
2. Defining the Unconscious: The most crucial “medical hypothesis” presented for scientific validation is that the physical body is the psychological unconscious. This definition resolves philosophical and psychological shortcomings, grounding psychological concepts in tangible, biological reality.

III. Corroborating Evidence: Expanding the Transdiagnostic Scope

The validity of ADM is confirmed by its ability to integrate and explain behaviors and conditions that the current diagnostic manual (DSM) fails to categorize, demonstrating the model’s superior predictive power.

A. Identifying New Addiction Categories

The research identifies specific missing addiction diagnoses—perfectionism, altruism, and ambition—which are quantifiable because they are qualitatively observed to follow the addictive-dissociative cycle.

1. Systemic Pathology: These addictions are critical because they explain the systemic dysfunction and denial of professional organizations (like the APA) and governmental bodies. Their need for rigid standardization (perfectionism), control (ambition), and belief in moral superiority (altruism) are manifestations of these untreated addictions. This provides a basis for creating tests and measures that confirm the existence of these addictions across various populations, including professionals.
2. Universal Addiction: The underlying principle is that one can become addicted to anything, including trauma/drama, which is supported by early research on the endogenous opiate system (Van der Kolk et al., 1985).

B. Neurobiological and Physiological Support

The model’s validity is strengthened by linking its concepts to biological systems, confirming that ADM is a “hard science” rooted in biology.

1. Endogenous Healing Systems: Healing, as defined in the ADM, is intrinsically linked to the function of the endogenous opiate and endocannabinoid systems. These systems govern the body’s immune response and its innate psychological healing process. The awareness of these systems directly supports the somatic processing principles used in the PWH.
2. Somatic Memory Confirmation: The argument that memories physically become a part of us (Mohammad, 2016) and are stored in the body (the unconscious) is confirmed by the efficacy of somatic healing approaches like BSP and the observation that repressed memories (traumas) can trigger physical illnesses like autoimmune conditions. Measuring physiological stress levels is proposed as a more accurate way to measure PTSD, dissociation, and addiction.

IV. Moral-Ethical and Legal Confirmation

The final layer of validation rests on the moral-ethical superiority of ADM, which is positioned to legally and professionally defend itself against systems operating under intellectually and morally delayed standards.

1. Moral Certification: Recovery itself is defined as spiritual and affords those practicing it a moral-ethical advantage over licensed professions and legalities. The research provides the academic justification for creating the Healer profession, which operates on Moral-Ethics (a commitment to action for the greater good) rather than conforming to the limited ethical compliance required by the law (Kohlberg’s Stage 4 mentality).
2. Legal and Professional Challenge: The work is explicitly created as academic material and legal argument to challenge the established systems’ denial and implicit bias. The definition of addiction as dissociation provides the authority to critique systems that fail to define key terms, thus justifying the establishment of the Healer profession as an act of advocacy and moral imperative.

In conclusion, the ADM is validated not only by its successful alignment with established EBP mechanisms (MR/Dual Attention) but also by its PhD-level phenomenological research, which provides the precise operational definitions and transdiagnostic framework that quantitative science lacks. By asserting that the body is the psychological unconscious, the model establishes a firm scientific foundation that allows its qualitative findings to be measured and confirmed through quantitative means (qEEG, NFB, physiological observation). This dual validation strategy demonstrates that 1+1=3 is the necessary logic required to advance the healing professions. This all suggests abstract thinking is not accessible to those who still do not understand.

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References

O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In 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/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

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/

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/

O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

*This is for informational and educational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.