Broken-ish

What happens when you spend years building trust, creating hope, and preparing to deliver something your community desperately needs... only to hit a roadblock you never saw coming? In this episode of Inside Ava Health , Roman Braly and Christopher Bennett pull back the curtain on one of the most challenging chapters in Ava Health's journey so far. After years of building relationships across Mesa...

In this episode of Brokenish, we sit down with a clinician who was helping people recover from addiction… while quietly struggling with his own. This is the reality most people never see. We talk about: What it actually feels like to be a “wounded healer” The pressure of helping others while falling apart internally Why some therapists shouldn’t be practicing The truth about masking, people-pleasi...

What if everything you’ve been told about marketing in behavioral health is wrong? In this episode of Inside Ava Health , we break down how we launched a treatment program in a community that didn’t trust providers… without relying on ads, big budgets, or traditional marketing strategies. No Google campaigns. No massive ad spend. No shortcuts. Instead, we focused on something most organizations ig...

“I went hard for a life that destroyed… now I go hard for a life that creates.” This episode of Broken-ish is raw, unfiltered, and real. Hectik shares his story of growing up surrounded by addiction, getting his first charge at just 8 years old, and spending 17 years behind bars. What started as something that looked “cool” quickly turned into a cycle of destruction, prison, and losing the people...

Most people aren’t fully honest. Not with their family. Not with their therapist. But put someone in a barber chair… and something changes. In this episode of Broken-ish, we sit down with a barber who believes he’s saving lives one haircut at a time and he might not be wrong. From everyday clients quietly carrying pain… to cutting hair for the unhoused and restoring dignity… to deep conversations...

What if the person you’d write off… became the person who saves others? In this episode of Broken-ish, we sit down with a woman who spent 13 years in prison for a crime she didn’t physically commit… after a life shaped by addiction, people-pleasing, and one decision that changed everything. She was: A high-performing athlete Using meth in high school Running with the wrong crowd Charged with murde...

What does it actually take to forgive someone who took everything from you? In this episode of Brokenish, we sit down for a raw and honest conversation about grief, anger, and the kind of forgiveness most people believe is impossible. After losing her sister in a tragic accident, today’s guest carried years of hatred toward the man responsible. The pain was overwhelming. The anger was real. And fo...

This episode is different. Nine days before opening our doors, the largest payer in our community paused providers. Everything we built for over two years… gone overnight. Most programs would panic. Some would blame. Others would quietly fail. We did something different. In this episode of Inside Ava Health, we take you behind the scenes of one of the hardest moments we’ve faced and how it forced...

9 days before we opened, we got denied a contract to serve the exact community we were built to serve. Everything in place. Every box checked. And it didn't matter. This episode is for the operators, clinicians, and executives who are tired of pretending the system rewards integrity. It doesn't. Not automatically. Not without a fight. Christopher Bennett (CEO) and David Purinton (CFO) of Ava Healt...

We’ve been open for 30 days, and the reality of healthcare leadership is a lot more like a chess game than we expected. From the "friction" of accountability to the hope of seeing "Patient One" finally walk through the door, this is the raw truth of building Ava Health. In this episode of Inside Ava Health, our leadership team goes behind the scenes of our first month post-opening. We’re moving pa...

What if everything you’ve been told about addiction treatment is wrong? The rehab industry is worth billions… yet nearly 90% of people relapse . So the real question is: Is treatment failing… or are we defining success completely wrong? In this episode of Brokenish , we unpack the uncomfortable truth about addiction, recovery, and why the system might be measuring the wrong things entirely. This i...

Everyone talks about chasing your dreams. Nobody talks about who pays the price. In this brutally honest episode of Broken-ish , we pull back the curtain on ambition, purpose, and the quiet casualties that come with building something that matters. The world sees the momentum. The business growth. The mission. The impact. But behind every dream is a harder truth: The people who love you the most o...

Behavioral health care in rural communities is messy, complicated, and often misunderstood. In this episode of Inside Ava Health , we pull back the curtain on the realities of community mental health. From fractured systems and stigma to funding challenges and the everyday work of rebuilding trust, this conversation explores what it actually takes to support people struggling with addiction, menta...

What if grief isn’t just about death? What if it’s about identity, addiction, relationships… and the parts of ourselves we have to let go? In this episode of Brokenish , we dive into one of the heaviest and most avoided subjects in life: grief. After experiencing a recent loss, we sit down for an honest, raw conversation about death, fear, avoidance, and what it really means to move through pain i...

Homelessness is one of the most talked-about issues in America. But how much do we actually understand about it? In this episode of Inside Ava Health , we sit down with leaders working directly on the front lines in Grand Junction, Colorado to unpack what’s really happening behind the scenes. No politics. No headlines. Just real conversations. Here’s what we explore: • Why 75 to 90 percent of peop...

Most people only show the highlight reel. This episode is about everything they hide. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, Chris sits down with David Purinton, CFO, partner, and one of the most quietly resilient humans he knows, to talk about what success actually looks like when you zoom out. Not the wins. The failures. The shame. The jobs you never put on your resume. The moments where you’re c...

What if the biggest problem in behavioral health isn’t lack of care, but monetized chaos ? In this episode of Inside Ava Health , we have an unfiltered conversation about how confusion, vague timelines, hidden rules, and “clinical complexity” are often built into the structure of treatment systems and how that chaos dysregulates families before care even begins. We explore why transparency is not...

In this episode of Brokenish , we ask a question a lot of men quietly feel but rarely say out loud. What if communication isn’t the problem… but expectations are? We dig into why so many men struggle with communication, especially in relationships, and why “just talk more” completely misses the point. From avoiding emotional conversations, to assuming our partners don’t care, to believing we’re su...

What does recovery really look like when it’s rooted in connection, service, and meeting people exactly where they are? In this episode of Broken-ish , we sit down with Angie , Executive Director of Peer 180 , the largest recovery community organization on Colorado’s Western Slope, to talk about the long road from survival to service. Angie’s story starts far from where she is today. At 19 years o...

In this episode of Broken-ish , we move out of the heaviness and into the hope. Not the fake, motivational quote kind. The real kind that comes from doing hard things, telling the truth, and staying in the work long enough to see something take shape. Using Tupac’s The Rose That Grew from Concrete as a backdrop, we get into what happens when passion and purpose finally line up , and why most peopl...

What happens when an idea turns into something real? When comfort disappears and growth takes its place? In this end-of-year episode of Broken-ish, we sit down to reflect on everything 2025 brought, both personally and professionally. We start light with a surprisingly passionate debate about The Nightmare Before Christmas, then move into deeper conversations about fantasy vs realism, creativity,...

What happens when the spotlight fades—and purpose shows up? In this unforgettable episode of Broken-ish , we sit down with a man whose life reads like a movie script: from touring as a rapper inspired by 8 Mile , to jail, to rebuilding his life—and now leading frontline outreach for the unhoused. This isn’t a “feel-good” story. It’s a real one. You’ll hear what the music industry doesn’t prepare y...

In this powerful and brutally honest episode of Broken-ish, we dive into the silent crisis shaping an entire generation of men. From abandonment to emotional abuse, from addiction to incarceration, from chasing approval to losing ourselves completely, we speak the truth that so many men live but never talk about. 🎙 In this episode: • What really happens to boys who grow up without strong male role...

Families don’t come to treatment looking for education — they come looking for answers. But what if the most ethical thing we can say is: there is no single answer ? In this episode of Inside Ava Health , a panel of experienced therapeutic consultants challenges long-held assumptions about treatment, cost, outcomes, and control. From private-pay vs. community care to data transparency and long-ter...

The holidays are supposed to be about gratitude, family, and togetherness — but for a lot of people, they’re the hardest time of the year. In this episode of Broken-ish , we strip away the Hallmark version of Thanksgiving and talk about the reality no one wants to post about: loneliness, addiction, incarceration, homelessness, and the quiet pain that spikes when the days get shorter and the world...