In this episode, Dr. Dewayne Book, MD, Chief Medical Officer, and Tripp Johnson, founder and CEO of Advaita Health, discuss something that has quietly become the core of how we operate: relational healthcare.

This is not just a style of psychiatry. It is the underlying philosophy that shapes how we care for patients, how we support clinicians, how we supervise, how we hire, and even how we design our business model. In a world that keeps moving toward speed, scale, and 10-minute encounters, we are intentionally moving in the opposite direction. Longer visits, weekly supervision, salaried compensation, low turnover, in-person collaboration, and the belief that real relationships are not only clinically superior, but operationally sustainable.

We talk openly about what a relational organization looks like in practice, why relational care is harder in the short term but better in the long term, and the guardrails required to protect it as you grow. We also contrast it with transactional models, RVU-driven practices, and the pressures that push most healthcare organizations toward volume over connection.

If you’re a clinician who’s tired of feeling like a productivity unit, a leader wrestling with how to scale without losing your soul, or a patient wondering why your appointments keep getting shorter, this conversation offers a different way forward.

Listen in and see what relational healthcare looks like when you build an entire organization around it.

About Flourish by Advaita Health

Flourish by Advaita Health explores how people, providers, and communities move from suffering to flourishing. Each episode weaves together perspectives from healthcare, wellness, and human experience — from the science of mental and physical health to the art of living well.

Advaita Health is a North Carolina–based behavioral health organization dedicated to supporting whole-person flourishing. Learn more about our work and clinical services below.

• 🌿 Advaita Health: advaitahealth.com
• 🩺 Advaita Integrated Medicine: aimwellbeing.com
• 🎙️ Podcast: Flourish by Advaita Health
• 📸 Instagram: @advaitahealth
• 💼 LinkedIn: Advaita Health
• 📩 Subscribe for new episodes and updates

We often turn to discipline for healing. The structure gives us safety, rhythm, something to hold onto when life feels uncertain. But at some point, that same structure has to give us back to ourselves.

In this episode, Tripp talks with Zoë Ward, a longtime Ashtanga practitioner and author of The Unruly Ascetic, about what happens when devotion meets discernment. Together they explore how methods that begin as lifelines can become cages if we never learn to listen to our own bodies and intuition.

Zoë spent a decade studying with Sharath Jois in Mysore, India, before stepping back from teaching to reimagine what practice can be. She shares how she’s returning now with a renewed commitment to love-based discipline, consent, and self-trust — and how the journey from seeker to finder often begins with letting go.

Check out Zoëy's Instagram for more on Ashtanga Yoga and to see her amazing art! - unrulyascetic

About Flourish by Advaita Health

Flourish by Advaita Health explores how people, providers, and communities move from suffering to flourishing. Each episode weaves together perspectives from healthcare, wellness, and human experience — from the science of mental and physical health to the art of living well.

Advaita Health is a North Carolina–based behavioral health organization dedicated to supporting whole-person flourishing. Learn more about our work and clinical services below.

• 🌿 Advaita Health: advaitahealth.com
• 🩺 Advaita Integrated Medicine: aimwellbeing.com
• 🎙️ Podcast: Flourish by Advaita Health
• 📸 Instagram: @advaitahealth
• 💼 LinkedIn: Advaita Health
• 📩 Subscribe for new episodes and updates

Psychiatrist and executive coach Dr. Hector Rodriguez joins Tripp to explore the intersection of brain health, trauma, and meaning. With a background in both medicine and divinity, Dr. Hector bridges neuroscience with spirituality, showing how trauma patterns appear in brain imaging and how lifestyle, nutrition, and connection help us rewire for healing.

The conversation ranges from the science of SPECT scans and metabolic psychiatry to the art of living well. Dr. Hector shares why small, sustainable habits matter more than quick fixes, how movement and nutrition support mental health, and why connection and touch are biological necessities. Together they unpack the tension between modern overstimulation, social media self-diagnosis, and the timeless need for rest and ritual.

This episode invites listeners to think differently about mental health—less as fixing what’s broken and more as tending to the soul. In Dr. Hector’s words, psychiatry is the medical treatment of the soul, and flourishing begins when we remember what it means to be fully human.

In This Episode

• Trauma, brain imaging, and the “diamond” activation pattern
• Metabolic psychiatry and using lifestyle as medicine
• Sustainable change: how to rebuild motivation step by step
• Overstimulation, ADHD, and reclaiming attention in a noisy world
• The social media effect on self-diagnosis and stigma
• Hugging, oxytocin, and why connection heals the nervous system
• Supplements, peptides, and the essentials before optimization
• Psychiatry as care for the soul—bridging science and spirituality

Hector Rodriguez, M.D., M.Div. is a bilingual psychiatrist, executive coach, and speaker specializing in trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and sexual wellness. Known as Dr. Hector, he combines advanced brain imaging (SPECT), psychopharmacology, and trauma-informed psychotherapy with nutrition, movement, and lifestyle design to create whole-person healing. With both a medical degree and a Master of Divinity, he bridges neuroscience with meaning and purpose, helping people move from survival to flourishing.

More from Dr. Hector

• 🌐 https://whitebutterflyclinic.com/
• 🌐 https://doctorhector.com/
• 📱 https://www.instagram.com/doctor_hector/
• 📱 https://www.instagram.com/whitebutterflyclinic/

About Flourish by Advaita Health

Flourish by Advaita Health explores how people, providers, and communities move from suffering to flourishing. Each episode weaves together perspectives from healthcare, wellness, and human experience — from the science of mental and physical health to the art of living well.

Advaita Health is a North Carolina–based behavioral health organization dedicated to supporting whole-person flourishing. Learn more about our work and clinical services below.

• 🌿 Advaita Health: advaitahealth.com
• 🩺 Advaita Integrated Medicine: aimwellbeing.com
• 🎙️ Podcast: Flourish by Advaita Health
• 📸 Instagram: @advaitahealth
• 💼 LinkedIn: Advaita Health
• 📩 Subscribe for new episodes and updates