“We learn about who we are from being in community,” she says. “Everybody has gifts to bring to each other. We don’t join around our wounds, but around our strengths, integrating. I try to make sure there’s always balance. I haven’t decided anything for the others; everything is defined by the people who are here, and I only help enforce it.”

The core Adawehi group has huge commitment, and they also receive huge support from one another, she says. She gets support from them and from her husband, community member Rodney Boothe. Although she embraces her identity as a spiritual teacher, she emphasizes that the entire community comprises healers, working together.

“I love them,” she said. “I am able to see what’s good in each person, and I don’t judge others for any weakness. When they lack, I make sure they have that support from somebody who has that strength.”

Anyone may attend the Adawehi events at any time. The therapies and the natural health food store are open to anyone, while a list of events can be found at www.adawehi.com.

“Everybody’s welcome to everything, and to participate at any point. Some people are committed to one aspect or another, but not the whole package, and we welcome everyone,” Woods says.

Woods herself has spent her adult life coming into balance and being a catalyst in the healing work of others. She’s the sole proprietor of Adawehi. When she began, she considered forming a nonprofit organization, but that status would have given the power to a Board of Directors, and the mission and meaning might have shifted or been diffused as the group grew.

“One of my friends from college said I was like the mother of this group,” she said. “I feel that I balance the energies. I ask each one, what does the spirit within you do, and how can that best be brought into expression in the world?”

Woods herself has a panopoly of mystical experiences that have enlightened her, but she’s quick to say that no person has any superiority over any other person. Her students come from a variety of religious backgrounds, united by a desire for health in mind, body, spirit and emotions.

“Everything I write expresses spirit. Everything I do expresses spirit,” she says, “and, hopefully, everything I say expresses spirit, too.”