HoW IT BEGAN

Healing Powers Motivational Services is an idea.  A journey.  A project of love that began over 15 years ago and has followed Tara around the globe for the last 22 years.  It began when she was only 16 years old and attended her first national conference for youth in Canada from the foster care system.  After being raised in a world full of challenges, various types of abuse and obstacles, Tara became a permanent ward of the Child Welfare System at the age of 16.  Throughout her childhood, Tara met every challenge and obstacle with a passion to be MORE and continue to move forward.  Recognizing her passion to help others and have an impact, her Social Worker made it possible for Tara to attend the National Youth in Care Network (https://youthincare.ca/) Coast 2 Coast conference in Nova Scotia in 1998, which gathered youth between the ages of 14 to 24, from around Canada to come together, attend workshops and speak out about a variety of issues facing these youth.

In 2000, at the age of 18, Tara began working for the NYICN during her first summer of college, traveling around Canada, speaking out at a variety of conferences, including; provincial foster care associations, pediatrics symposiums, child welfare agencies and local networks on diverse issues facing this group of young people.  In addition to this, Tara began, as the National Coordinator, to coordinate the next national conference, "Wide Open 2001" which took place in Saskatchewan and had the great privilege to, once again gather over 100 youth in the Child Welfare and Young Offender systems to come together for a week of workshops and connections.

After completing her work with the NYICN and her diploma in Social Services, Tara returned to Nova Scotia to attend University and work with a variety of organizations, which included; The YMCA of Great Halifax-Dartmouth, the Halifax Regional School Board, The Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia and the Avalon Sexual Assault Crisis Centre.  Tara also coordinated a variety of fundraisers independently and worked to support other charities and organizations.

In 2006, Tara moved overseas to South Korea where she followed her journey of working with others and having an impact on the world around her by teaching overseas.  Tara spent the next 5 years teaching Kindergarten English with a 6 month backpacking trip across SE Asia (Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand) and Australia.  Tara also had the opportunity to participate in her 2nd experience of V-Day's "The Vagina Monologues" International fundraiser, collaborating with a group of expat and Korean women to raise awareness on global gender and violence issues.

The next part of her journey brought Tara to Moscow, Russia where she spent the next 3 years working for the Moscow Playschool and implementing V-Day Moscow into the post-soviet society.  The work through this project involved working with one of the few Crisis Centres for women in the country, http://crisiscenter.ru/ in St. Petersburg, to connect a group of 15 women, ex-pat and Russian, to produce the 2013 volunteer fundraiser of The Vagina Monologues in Moscow.  This event ran for 3 evenings total and was able to raise $5000.00 for women's centres in St. Petersburg and Moscow.  The project continued the following year, where the message was brought to St. Petersburg to hold a Russian production of the play and a different play, "A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer" ran in Moscow, which featured 2 supportive male monologues in addition to the women's.

Throughout all of these journeys, Healing Powers, and Tara's travels to different countries continued where she had the unique opportunity to visit and meet others in many different countries, sharing love, friendship and hope with all those she met.  While Healing Powers continued to follow her, it was still an idea that had yet to be brought fully to fruition.

The next part of Tara's adventure would be one of the hardest yet.  One which brought her to her current city of Al Ain in the UAE.  In 2015, Tara relocated once again to living in Doha where she spent the next year working as the KG1 Coordinator for Edison International.  In 2016, Tara's love for Africa came to a reality where she moved to Cairo to live for 6 months, teaching grade 1 and finally to Al Ain, where she has spent the past 3 years working for her school as a KG2 teacher.  Tara was asked to assist in supporting the Fit Show in Abu Dhabi in 2018, speaking out as an Inspiration Speaker about her own journey with her wellness journey.  During Tara's time in the Middle East, she has come face to face with many shadows from her past, in her own journey, that she has had to overcome and work through.  Tara has gone through a deep battle of depression which lasted for almost 2 years, battles with substance abuse and Healing Powers was constantly there, in the back of her mind, calling to her as a long, lost friend.  Now, through her own healing process, Tara has gathered her last 18 years of experience working with children and family organizations and schools, her international travels and shadow work to bring Healing Powers Motivational Services to others to offer support, motivation and a bit of light to others on their own paths.

Healing Powers Motivational Services today offers a variety of services including; travel blogs and support to a variety of countries globally, weekly meditations and motivational speeches in addition to public presentations on her journey and a variety of topics, Nurture in the Now (baby yoga and massage), Groovy Kids yoga and other kids programs, connections to other grass roots projects and programs globally.

Through all of her experiences Tara has persisted and refused to give up on the bigger picture, connecting to others, writing as a forms to reach out