People often ask why I started the Tara Centre.

The answer goes back much further than 2012 when we opened our doors for the first time.

Truthfully, having experienced the pain of forced migration, separation and loss as a child, much of my own life had been shaped by a search for safety, connection and belonging. From a very young age my quest was to understand the root cause of pain and suffering, and what helps people and communities flourish; what could help me heal and flourish.

I studied Law, Psychology and Criminology, volunteered in women’s refuges and recovery houses for women and children. I worked as a researcher in health research and a tutor in a Medical School. I worked in communities experiencing deep poverty, marginalisation and social exclusion, trying to understand the impact of inequalities and how we could create lasting change in our communities through grassroots action. My PhD research was dedicated to this quest.

At the same time, my understanding of trauma was growing as I dedicated many years to researching and putting into practice what I was learning. I eventually trained in the modalities that had helped me – and a deep sense of social justice to increase access to therapeutic support was my original motivation for the Tara Centre.

Over the years I came to realise that what happens to people living with the effects of trauma, poverty, discrimination, displacement and loss is a deep sense of disconnection from self, from one another and from life itself. It creates a disruption, a rupture, which you can’t find your way back from without the love and support of other people. We are wired for connection and the isolation and loneliness we experience through trauma only serves to keep us locked in.

So the Tara Centre began as a small experiment: offering low-cost therapies whilst creating a space where people could come together, make connections, explore their creativity and feel part of something larger than themselves. A place of refuge. A place of friendship. A place of love and community. Perhaps, in some ways, the kind of place I needed myself when I was younger.

2012–2014: The Beginning

We opened our doors in the autumn of 2012 with a simple vision: to create a place where people felt welcomed rather than judged, where they could reconnect with themselves and with others, and where nobody was excluded because of their financial circumstances. We were inspired by the love we held for our close friend Tara Radcliffe who died at the age of 36 following a long cancer journey. Tara was an environmental activist and passionate advocate for social justice who was studying with the hope of training as a nutritionist to support young mums like herself. 

We offered two low-cost therapy clinics, support groups for people with anxiety, yoga, drumming, sound healing, creative arts, meditation classes and retreats.

Alongside these activities, a small community began to form around the Centre. People came not only for therapeutic support, but also for friendship, connection, creativity and a sense of belonging.

Whilst we began the project as an experiment in 2012, by November 2014 we had seen enough to know something important was happening. Jitei White and Kay Johnson joined the Tara Centre as Directors as we established the organisation as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC).

2014–2016: A Time of Uncertainty

In August 2014, shortly after publicly launching the Centre, I was involved in a serious car accident.

Although the Centre continued to operate for some time afterwards, I was no longer able to play the role I had previously. As the months passed, it became increasingly difficult to sustain the project and, in autumn 2015, we gave up our lease.

More difficult than losing the building was not knowing whether I would be able to work again. For a long time, the future of the Tara Centre was uncertain.

After a long period of recovery and rehabilitation, I was able to return to work in May 2016 as we moved into new premises at the Storey and began the process of rebuilding.

2016–2020: Emergence of a Collective

When the Centre reopened in 2016, many of the therapists and practitioners who had been helping me with my recovery offered to volunteer with us – they too had a shared passion for social justice and increasing access to support. Robin agreed to become one of the Directors, more and more people came to join us and what began as one person’s attempt to create a place of refuge and belonging became a bit of a movement.

Over the next four years, almost 100 people came to volunteer their time, either as professional therapists, community listeners or session hosts.  When we closed our doors at the start of the pandemic, the Tara Centre had grown to include 53 volunteers, 37 of whom were therapists and practitioners.

2020–2022: The Pandemic Years

When the pandemic arrived, we had to pivot very quickly. Within 24 hours we were offering free online meditation classes on Facebook and finding new ways to stay connected at a time when many people were feeling frightened, isolated and alone.

With the support of volunteers, sessional staff and emergency funding, we supported around 2,500 people through walk-and-talk sessions, forest garden projects, outreach therapies, community listeners, support groups, online socials, meditation, qigong, breathwork, an online timebank and professional training programmes.

What I remember most from that period is not the number of projects or the number of people we were able to support. It is the extraordinary kindness, generosity and solidarity that emerged in our community during one of the most challenging periods we could’ve had. 

2022–Present

During the pandemic the increase in funding enabled us to significantly increase our capacity but as all the emergency funding came to an end, the scale of our work inevitably changed.

Along with others in the community sector, we saw a massive increase in demand for what we were offering whilst fewer people were able to volunteer and the funding landscape got more challenging.

We’ve had to adapt to what’s possible – instead of weekly sessions for some of our projects we now only have capacity for monthly sessions. We’ve had to identify sources of income generation in order to make our organisation more sustainable. We are a smaller organisation than we were during the pandemic years (and still feeling the loss), but the heart of our work remains the same.

In many ways, the world feels more divided now than it did when Tara began. We are seeing rising poverty and inequality, the rise of fascism, growing racism, attacks on refugees and asylum seekers, hostility towards trans communities, and increasing social isolation and loneliness.

For us this only strengthens the case for what Tara has always stood for.

We continue to believe in the healing power of love, kindness and community.

We continue to believe that we are relational beings who need one another to survive and thrive.

And we remain as committed today as we were in 2012 to creating spaces of refuge, friendship and mutual support. As a group of people here with a shared vision and passion, we are fiercely devoted to continuing to offer spaces that strengthen the bonds between us.