An Agent of Recovery: Wendell WoodAn Agent of Recovery: Wendell Wood
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Coach Blu Robinson speaks with Wendell Wood about his journey through sexual addiction, trauma and relapse into deeper healing and community-based recovery. The conversation highlights sport, service, faith and Internal Family Systems as tools that are said to help men move from shame into connection and purpose.
59:36•17 Mar 2026
From Shame to Team Spirit: Wendell Wood on Community, Trauma and Real Recovery
Episode Overview
- Addiction is said to thrive in isolation, while meaningful healing is described as happening through community and shared experience.
- Sport, service and showing up for team events are presented as powerful ways to rebuild identity and self-belief in recovery.
- Going beyond behaviour management to address childhood trauma and the “inner child” is highlighted as crucial for lasting change.
- Internal Family Systems is mentioned as a way to see yourself as more than an addict, holding many parts rather than a single label.
- Being challenged by trusted people to “go deeper” and seek new tools, such as structured programmes and groups, is portrayed as a turning point.
“Our addictions thrive in isolation, but we heal in community.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between Coach Blu Robinson and guest Wendell Wood offers a raw, honest look at what that strength can actually look like in real life.
You’ll hear how Wendell first connected with Blu through the Agents of Recovery podcast while he was in deep personal struggle, and how a simple email asking for help led to therapy sessions, joining Addict II Athlete, and eventually becoming a key voice on a men’s recovery podcast. He talks openly about lifelong battles with pornography and sexual addiction following childhood sexual abuse, and how shame, secrecy and religious pressure kept him stuck for years.
A big focus here is community. Wendell describes turning up to a late-night relay with people he’d never met, then ending up with “two of my best friends” as teammates. From hauling supplies up brutal mountain trails to running an overnight ultra, he explains how service, sport and friendship slowly rebuilt his sense of identity: from “I’m not a runner” to completing 52 miles in 24 hours. The episode also gets into deeper healing work.
Wendell shares how his fiancée Janice challenged him to “go deeper” than surface-level recovery and how joining the Husband Material programme and learning about Internal Family Systems helped him start healing the scared “seven, eight-year-old” inside rather than just trying to stop behaviours.
This one is especially suited to men dealing with behavioural addictions, partners trying to understand them, and anyone who’s ever thought, “I should be further along than this.” It’s practical, story-driven and very human, with enough humour to keep heavy topics from feeling overwhelming. If you’ve been trying to do it all on your own, could this be the nudge that reminds you that, as Wendell says, you “heal in community”?
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