Andrew Woods.

For a long time I was the high-achieving, self-reliant person who drove hard toward every goal: scholarships, advanced degrees, the most demanding clinical environments I could find. Addiction treatment, crisis care, group homes for at-risk youth. I wanted results. I needed to fix the pain, in others and, honestly, in myself.

I burned out completely. All the learning, helping, and achievement couldn’t protect me from it. They brought me to it. It was humiliating and terrifying. That’s how truly being stuck with what matters most can sound from the outside, dramatic, even. You don’t need to experience that intensity for us to work together. But it’s important for you to know I’ve traversed it, many times. I recognize the terrain.

It was there I met the mentor who changed everything. He saw me and my situation in ways I was blind to, helped me find a way forward that was uniquely mine, and showed me the distinction that would define my work. The real work was never the crisis. It was always the person inside it.

I launched my first private practice in Asheville while starting a family and working side jobs on my mentor’s mountain ranch. Later, I pursued a larger entrepreneurial venture: a winery, vineyard, and retreat center with partners. I poured everything in, then ultimately found the awareness and courage to walk away when the partnership collapsed. I came out the other side more integrated than I went in. I rebuilt. Started leading retreats. Evolved the work. Sold our house and traveled the country for nearly two years with my wife and two sons, living from an RV.