Your Recovery Reading List: TJ Woodward’s Take on Spirituality
by Wendy Lee Nentwig
As a spiritual care coordinator at an outpatient treatment center, TJ Woodward knows a few things about coaching people through a new — or renewed — spiritual journey. His experience on the topic led him to publish a new book called Conscious BEING: Awakening to Your True Nature. This compelling resource for those seeking self-realization is an outgrowth of his passion to see everyone experience awakened living.
TJ’s own journey of awakening happened a decade ago, following a very dark period in which he felt he had lost his way. He was focusing on all the wrong things when he suddenly heard a calling to move from an egocentric life to one directly connected with the spirit. At that point, everything built on his shaky materialistic foundation collapsed.
Despite his experience as an inspirational speaker, awakening coach and addiction counselor, TJ never thought of himself as a writer. But he knew he had a story to tell; he just wasn’t sure how to go about it. The idea remained until he became inspired to use 12 of his popular talks as a jumping-off point. He worked with a developmental editor to expand on the wealth of information he already had and turned his spiritual truths into a completed manuscript.
The truths in TJ’s book overlap in many ways with his work in the treatment and recovery community. His specialty of looking at addiction through a spiritual lens allows him to offer a spiritual approach to the recovery process.
“We grow up learning all these ideas about the world — true or not — and to me, addiction stems from a broken or fragmented self reaching out to bring in something from the outside to create connection,” TJ explains. “My job is to help dismantle the false beliefs, so people can live from the inside out and not have to grab a substance to feel better or to not feel bad.”
That sort of self-examination and rediscovery is a lifelong process, as this author was reminded during the writing process. While writing the book, TJ found himself uncovering fresh insights about his own journey. “It was far more transformative than I realized,” he says, adding that putting his story down on paper crystallized his experience for him.
TJ’s new role as author has led to opportunities to share his insights and experience on a variety of radio programs, doing dozens of interviews in the span of just a few months. TJ also hosts his own weekly radio shows. That hasn’t kept him from his work with Foundations San Francisco, an integrated outpatient treatment center in the heart of the Embarcadero district. He continues to facilitate groups on authenticity and spirituality and provide spiritual direction and encouragement in one-on-one sessions. He has also been instrumental in developing and running the LGBTQ track at Foundations San Francisco.
For more information about the book, visit ConsciousBEINGbook.com or tjwoodward.com.
More about Foundations San Francisco:
Located in the heart of the Embarcadero district, Foundations San Francisco offers evidence-based integrated outpatient treatment for addiction and mental health conditions. We focus on meeting the needs of each patient through Motivational Interviewing, comprehensive care, individualized plans and flexible morning and evening programming. We offer somatic experiencing, a spirituality program, holistic services such as yoga, meditation, massage and acupuncture, as well as educational groups on DBT skills, relapse prevention and stress management. Visit us online at FoundationsSanFrancisco.com.
More about TJ Woodward:
In addition to being the spiritual care coordinator at Foundations San Francisco, TJ Woodward is the founding spiritual director of Awakened Living in San Francisco and the host of Awakened Living TV and Awakened Living Radio.
TJ is a graduate of both the spiritual development and leadership development programs at Unity Institute and served as the ministerial associate of Unity San Francisco for three years. He is also ordained as an interfaith minister.
A champion of awakened living, TJ uses his gifts and abilities in his role as spiritual care coordinator at Foundations San Francisco. He conducts spiritual assessments, meeting with patients one-on-one to help them create a space where they can pursue their own inner journeys. He also facilitates groups that are based on having people connect with their inner voices and confront harmful feelings of shame and erroneous beliefs that they have about themselves.
TJ’s goal is never to imprint his beliefs onto someone else, but instead to help each patient create a post-treatment plan based on his or her own personal spirituality, providing tools to help that person access what he or she believes and express it fully.
