The Andrew Mychal Podcast

Sometimes the greatest transformation begins with a single conversation.

Although Dean and I had sung together in the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida for nearly two years, we barely knew each other. Everything changed when he reached out, ready to share the parts of his story he had carried alone for decades. What followed became a powerful reminder that healing often begins the moment we realize we’re no longer alone.

In this conversation, Dean shares his journey of growing up in a household shaped by fear, learning to hide both his emotions and his sexuality, and carrying those survival strategies well into adulthood. We explore how childhood trauma influences the way we see ourselves, why shame loses its power when it’s shared, and how practices like reflection, gratitude, and self-awareness can begin creating hope—even after a lifetime of simply surviving. My hope is that this conversation reminds you that it’s never too late to choose healing.

Key Insights

• Why awareness is often the first step toward healing from childhood trauma.
• How survival strategies that once protected us can quietly shape our adult lives.
• The freedom that comes from sharing the stories we’ve carried in silence.
• Why gratitude is more than positive thinking—it’s a daily practice that changes how we experience life.
• How hope can begin to grow at any stage of life when we learn to care for our Inner Child.
  
  

About Dean

Dean is a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida whose willingness to share his story offers hope to anyone who has spent years believing they simply had to survive. In this conversation, he reflects on growing up in a home marked by fear, navigating the challenges of accepting his sexuality, and discovering—later in life—that healing is still possible. His openness is a beautiful reminder that our past may shape us, but it doesn’t have to define our future.

Guest Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dean.hitsos/

Continue the Journey

If you’d like to continue your own healing journey, you’ll find my book, guided meditations, gratitude journal, retreats, and other resources at AndrewMychal.com.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d be grateful if you followed the podcast, left a review, or shared it with someone who might need to hear it.

Resources

https://andrewmychal.com/

https://andrewmychal.com/books/

Not everyone who changes your life appears while you’re writing your story. Sometimes they arrive after you think the chapter is finished. I met Jeff shortly after joining the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida, where he was assigned as my singing buddy. What began as rehearsing music quickly became conversations about childhood, identity, perfectionism, and the masks we learn to wear in order to feel accepted.

In this conversation, Jeff shares his journey of growing up gay in Southeast Texas, learning to become whoever he thought other people needed him to be, and how those early adaptations continued shaping his life well into adulthood. Together, we explore the Inner Child, the Adaptive Child, and what it means to slowly return to the person we were before fear taught us to hide. My hope is that this conversation reminds you that authenticity isn’t something we find—it’s something we uncover beneath the layers we’ve spent a lifetime building.

Key Insights

• How childhood adaptations can quietly shape the way we move through adulthood.
• Why people-pleasing often begins as a strategy for feeling safe and accepted.
• The difference between striving for excellence and chasing perfection.
• How creating emotionally safe friendships allows us to tell the stories we’ve carried for years.
• Why healing isn’t about becoming someone different—it’s about remembering the one person who has always been there.

Jeff Goodwin

Jeff is a lifelong musician, entrepreneur, and member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida. After spending nearly three decades building a successful business, he found himself asking a question many of us eventually face: Who am I when the roles I’ve built my identity around are gone? In this conversation, Jeff shares how childhood experiences, music, friendship, and personal growth have helped him reconnect with his authentic self.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seenbyjeff/

Continue the Journey

If you’d like to continue your own healing journey, you’ll find my book, guided meditations, gratitude journal, retreats, and other resources at AndrewMychal.com.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d be grateful if you followed the podcast, left a review, or shared it with someone who might need to hear it.

Resources

https://andrewmychal.com/

https://andrewmychal.com/books/

When I wished for love on my birthday in 2020, I imagined meeting the person I’d spend the rest of my life with. Instead, I met someone who became one of my greatest teachers. Brian and I shared a relationship that challenged us, changed us, and ultimately helped us become more honest with ourselves. Although our relationship came to an end, the lessons we gave each other never did.

In this conversation, Brian and I look back on our journey together with honesty, compassion, and gratitude. We talk about childhood experiences, body dysmorphia, learning to communicate, navigating conflict, coming out, and what happens when two people who are both carrying old wounds try to build a life together. More importantly, we explore how relationships can continue to shape us long after they’ve ended, and why healing isn’t about finding the perfect partner—it’s about becoming the Wise Adult our Inner Child has always needed.

Key Insights

• Why some of the people who change our lives aren’t meant to stay forever.
• How childhood experiences quietly shape the way we communicate, receive love, and handle conflict.
• Brian’s journey through body dysmorphia and how self-acceptance began after the relationship ended.
• Why emotional safety often looks much quieter than we expect.
• How gratitude can exist alongside heartbreak, allowing us to honour a relationship without wishing it had ended differently.

Brian

Brian is one of the most important people in my personal story and someone whose kindness, steadiness, and compassion helped shape my own healing journey. In this conversation, he shares his experiences growing up in a military family, living with body dysmorphia, learning to navigate vulnerability, and the lessons he has carried forward from our relationship.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianpez/

Continue the Journey

If you’d like to continue your own healing journey, you’ll find my book, guided meditations, gratitude journal, retreats, and other resources at AndrewMychal.com.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d be grateful if you followed the podcast, left a review, or shared it with someone who might need to hear it.

Resources

https://andrewmychal.com/

https://andrewmychal.com/books/

Hi, I'm Andrew.

This episode is an introduction to the journey behind this podcast, and to the people and experiences that helped me see myself differently.

For most of my life, I thought the parts of myself I wanted to hide were the parts I needed to change.

My voice was one of them.

Growing up, I was deeply self-conscious about how I sounded. I worried that it wasn’t masculine enough, and for years I tried to distance myself from the very thing I now use to connect with people.

That irony isn’t lost on me.

For a long time, I looked successful on the outside. By 40, I had the house, the money, the freedom I had worked toward for years. But underneath all of that was anger, rage, and a part of me that had spent a lifetime hiding.

Eventually, I had to ask where that anger came from.

What I began to understand was that anger had often been easier for me to express than sadness. I had learned how to push feelings down, keep moving, and protect myself rather than allowing myself to feel what was really there.

That realization began a much longer journey of learning to be honest with myself, giving myself more grace, and listening to the parts of me I had spent years trying to silence.

It also led me here.

I never wanted to start a podcast. A friend first suggested it years ago, and I immediately said no. But sometimes other people can see something in us before we are ready to see it ourselves.

This show is my opportunity to sit across from the people who have shaped my life, listen to their stories, and explore what they have helped me understand about my own.

Some of them appear in my book. Some have known me nearly my entire life. Others came into my world much later.

Every one of them has been a mirror in some way, and many of them changed my life. Now I get to share their stories with you. And maybe that helps you on your journey. That's the magic of deep conversations.

From my inner child to yours; this is the Andrew Mychal Podcast.

Continue the Journey

If you’d like to continue your own healing journey, you’ll find my book, guided meditations, gratitude journal, retreats, and other resources at AndrewMychal.com.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d be grateful if you followed the podcast, left a review, or shared it with someone who might need to hear it.

Resources

https://andrewmychal.com/

https://andrewmychal.com/books/