A black and white photograph hangs on the wall facing New Perspectives Behavioral Health Systems Director John Woods’ desk in his office.The caption places the photo in 1940s Chicago, where Woods spent his childhood. “That’s the neighborhood I grew up in.That’s where I was strung out, on the south side of Chicago,” says Woods. In his early Chicago days, Woods dropped out of school and was exposed to drugs. He started drinking wine and smoking marijuana, and he began selling drugs, dealing marijuana and cocaine. He abused codine, opiates and heroin, and he fell in love with the last two. “I didn’t think there was anything out here better than that. I felt like the scum of the earth. I was that kind of addict. My drug came before anything,” says Woods. “There was a time my mother wouldn’t call me to look at the side of her house. I was that bad.” Road to recovery Woods emphasizes his own addiction
“One of my main goals is to prepare the client to reintegrate into society.” -John Woods, New Perspectives Behavioral Systems director
struggles because he believes that his past will always keep New Perspectives judgment-free. He knows how bad addiction can be, but he also knows that there will always be hope. After 25 years of his drug-induced lifestyle, Woods went on methadone, a pain reliever used to treat narcotic drug addiction, for about two years. He then went through what he calls a series of setbacks before finally deciding to go to treatment. “I went to treatment only once. I never looked back. I graduated from treatment in 1973,” says Woods. In 1978, Woods got into the recovery field, working in a methadone clinic in Chicago. He then moved to Minnesota in 1993 and worked for a chemical dependency inpatient treatment center. “I kept seeing clients go repeatedly in-and- out of treatment,” says Woods. “One day during my prayers, it came to me that, with my expertise, I needed to open my own program.” Woods opened the doors to New Perspectives in 2008. Since then, the culturally specific treatment center has been a safe and welcome place for people of any race, religion, gender or sexual orientation to seek recovery.
Recovery to reintegration “One of my main goals is to prepare the client to reintegrate into society,” says Woods, who aims to strengthen a client’s entire lifestyle with healthy, positive choices not only as a way to recover from addiction, but also to become a better person. “There was a point in my life where I just wanted to be a heroin addict,” says Woods, who knows firsthand how much addiction can mess with every aspect of a client’s life. Taking care of yourself is important to your recovery. It is also vital to associate with other sober people. “We teach these things here,” says Woods.
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