From Medical Field to Mental Health: A Therapist’s Journey into Root-Cause Healing | Episode 1

Welcome to the very first episode of The Brain Dump.I wanted to start this podcast by telling you who I am, where I came from, and why this space exists—because context matters. I didn’t take a straight line into mental health. I took the scenic route, and that route shaped everything about how I work today.Before I was a counselor or a professor, I was an X-ray tech. I spent years in the medical field, then moved into clinical research, where I learned how the body, the brain, and human connection actually influence outcomes. I watched people get better—not just because of medication or protocols, but because someone paid attention, built trust, and treated them like a whole human.Eventually, I hit a point where I knew that if I was going to go back to school, I wanted to do what I actually cared about. That’s how I became a counselor. Today, I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor, a professor at Wake Forest University, and the founder of Sandy Boone Coaching & Consulting.What I care most about now is healing the healer.I work with therapists, helpers, and high-capacity people who know talk therapy alone isn’t always enough. The ones who are quietly burned out. The ones who are helping everyone else while wondering why they can’t seem to help themselves. The ones who are doing “all the right things” and still feel off.I believe strongly in body-based, root-cause work. I’m trained in functional medicine, I stay on top of the neuroscience research, and I’m deeply passionate about the nervous system, neuroplasticity, and approaches like neurofeedback that actually change how the brain functions—not just how we think.This podcast is a place for me to share what I know in a way that’s practical, honest, and usable. A lot of what I’ve learned, I assumed everyone else knew too—until I realized that wasn’t true. My goal here isn’t to create dependence on me. It’s to give you information that helps you make your own decisions and find what works for you.In this podcast I’ll talk about what I’m learning, what I’m seeing in my work, and the conversations we’re not having enough in the helping professions.If you’re someone who’s curious, tired, capable, and ready to look deeper—this podcast is for you.Thanks for being here.Take care of yourself.Be kind to those around you.And know—you’re not alone.CONNECT WITH MEFree Guide: 50 Things I Do to Calm My Freaking Nervous System: https://www.sandyboone.com/50-thingsFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesandyboone/Learn More About Neurofeedback: https://sandy-boone.mykajabi.com/opt-inThe Ethical Exit Course: https://www.sandyboone.com/the-ethical-exit Work with Sandy privately: https://www.sandyboone.com/storeRooted Calm Collective Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rootedcalmcollective