We recently connected with Tara Van Dam and have shared our conversation below.

Tara , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

As a Wellness Coach, I enter into the space where humans’ vulnerability lives. I am asking my clients to trust me, to open up to me, and to show me the real and raw of themselves. This is a privileged space to be with someone in and it needs to be treated carefully and respectfully.

In my many years as a yoga teacher, I have interacted with 1000s of different humans. Yoga, on its surface, can look like a superficial practice. Stretchy pants, fancy poses, lean, muscular bodies. However, what is so overlooked is that most of us come to yoga because of a need we haven’t figured out how to fulfill, despite all of our trying. There is a suffering underneath that draws us into this space. That is what brought me to yoga.

Over the years, I have become comfortable being vulnerable with my students. I share openly about what I have been through and what I am currently experiencing in my life. As a result, the barrier between myself and those I share with, gets chipped away; sometimes broken entirely. The sharing of myself makes it safe for others to share with me. This is the lesson I have learnt and that I take with me.

My life’s purpose is to communicate light. Through my words and my presence, I want to play my part in uplifting the humans I come into contact with. I have learnt that there is enormous power in my voice and that the position I hold carries more influence than I gave myself credit for.

As I make space for my own being to be real with people, so they feel safe to be real with me.

Even today, I get regularly moved by the responses and honesty I receive from my students and my clients. I am exceedingly grateful to be where I am and to be able to provide this service to others.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into this wellness space because I wanted to help others find the joy and peace in their lives. I struggled with it so much in my own life and, through my struggles, I grounded myself in practices and rituals where the benefits far outweigh the effort of the practice itself. As I found yoga, meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness, I just knew that I had the ability and therefore the responsibility to share this with as many people as I could.

That is how Wholistic Joy Wellness was born.

I am an Expert Registered Yoga Teacher, Mindfulness Meditation Instructor, Doula, and Life Coach. With this combination of training and expertise, I am able to design wellness practices that meet each individual client’s needs, desires, and preferences. I have clients who only do meditations with me. I have clients who only do yoga with me. I have clients who combine coaching and meditation/yoga. I love the individual nature of what I do and the fact that we can pivot and adapt according to each person’s changing world.

I added doula services into my business a couple years ago because I realized that all the practices that I share with my clients can be beautifully incorporated into the birth experience. Meditation, breath, mindfulness, and of course prenatal yoga, can greatly improve a birthing person’s experience and memory of their birth.

I put no limits on what “problems” I am willing to offer my service to help with. This may seem like a marketing mistake; not to narrow down to a niche, but there is a reason why that, in my opinion, takes priority. I don’t want to turn anyone away. My goal is to provide light where there is darkness in someone’s life. I have many tools, skills, and abilities that can be of service and I want to offer them wherever I can. Sometimes I partner up with another professional where needed, such as psychotherapy, but if someone asks, I want to say, yes, let’s try together.

I am most proud of the fact that I am committed to staying true to who I am and what my purpose on this earth is. It is easy to get pulled by societal expectations, and believe me, I have. However, when I have, it just doesn’t feel authentic and I always come back to the core reason why I am doing what I am doing. This makes me smile.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This is something I am still working on, but it is definitely one of the biggest. I need to unlearn the message that I received growing up that I am not worthy; that I have nothing to offer. My interactions with students and clients provide me much evidence to the contrary, but those impressions, habitual patterns, samskaras, run deep. I am learning to trust myself, lean into the skills I have, and believe that what I offer is significant.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Authenticity for sure. I offer no BS. In this business, to do that would be highly unethical in my opinion.

Contact Info:

• Website: wholisticjoywellness.com
• Instagram: @wholisticjoywellness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wholisticjoywellness