Paige Tuck is a Woman Who Means Business

For Paige Tuck, work has always centered around people—meeting them where they are, staying curious instead of judgmental and believing that healing happens through connection. As executive director of Synergy Recovery Center, Synergy Counseling Center and Synergy Executive, Tuck helps foster addiction recovery and mental health care in the Ozarks with a deeply holistic, human-first approach.

She and business partner Ann Koetting, who serves as the clinical director, have known each other since their youngest children were in kindergarten, nearly three decades ago. As their kids grew older, both women returned to the mental health field as therapists, eventually working together at a state-assisted facility, where Koetting was once Tuck’s supervisor. What they saw there stayed with them. “I saw the need that was lacking in our area and the state for other options besides a state assisted facility,” Tuck says. The pair envisioned something different: a private, compassionate model that allowed people to stay close to home, involve their families and build community before returning to everyday life.

That vision became Synergy Recovery Center in 2015, a women’s residential program in Rogersville. Synergy Counseling Center followed a year later in Springfield, offering outpatient care and general counseling. Synergy Executive, a private residential program for men, opened near Ozark in 2019. Each phase grew organically from the same belief: Recovery is not one-size-fits-all.

Central to Tuck’s philosophy is education, especially for families. “People typically have this stereotype of someone suffering from addiction or mental health,” she says. “I wish people understood it’s a complex disease with no bias. It looks like a choice and a decision, but there are changes that happen in the brain.” Once families understand that, she explains, healing is within reach.

“It doesn’t just affect one person, and it’s not just about substance use,” Tuck says. “It’s much deeper than that, so a holistic approach is critical.”

Success, for Tuck, is also holistic—not measured in milestones or timelines, but freedom. When clients make choices that serve and fulfill them, rebuild relationships and find joy, ultimately breaking those proverbial chains, she considers that success. “Really the bottom line, it’s about connection,” she emphasizes.

Recovery work requires simultaneously holding pain and hope—among a slew of other emotions—and Tuck is intentional about protecting her own mental health. She prioritizes movement, sleep, time outdoors and strong relationships, with favorite pastimes including walking, hiking, yoga, lake days, family trips and mahjong nights with friends. “You can’t be present unless you’re taking care of yourself first,” she says.

She’s equally protective of her team. “Your business is only as good as the people who work for you and with you,” Tuck says. “That’s probably my No. 1 thing in business. [...] You have to make sure they’re okay to give the client care.”

Tuck credits Koetting as an equal partner, noting she was hesitant to do this feature without her. “We did this together,” she says. And just like the work itself, that partnership—built on compassion and shared purpose—is foundational.