History: The Centre

1980 to 1994

The Wellbeing Centre was officially opened by Sir George Trevelyan on Michaelmas Day in 1980 in two old schools and an adjoining schoolhouse bought a year earlier with loans and donations of £20,000. The loans were repaid thanks to the sale of the second school to a local developer who made them in to six homes.

Workshops were held regularly on reflexology, acupressure, dreams, personal growth, massage, whole-food cookery, Circle Dance, herbalism, meditation, to name but a few. During the first 13 years, there were well-attended weekly classes in yoga, a healing and meditation group, Circle Dancing and a Cancer Support group. For over 10 years a monthly wholefood lunch was prepared for local folk.

The Wellbeing Centre combined self-help ideas with the availability of practitioners of complementary therapies when further advice and help was needed. Regular clinics were held in homoeopathy, nutritional therapy / kinesiology, massage and natural healing. The Centre's interest was in prevention, keeping lives balanced (body, mind, feelings and spirit) seeking release and positive use of energy.

Classes were always open to the public, with evening events and day workshops at affordable prices, with concessionary rates or simply a donation to the Trust.

The Management Committee of the Self Heal Trust met monthly to plan fund-raising and oversee the running of the Centre. By 1994, membership and supporters topped 300 in Cornwall alone with many more supporters scattered around the country!

The newsletter/ programme was produced monthly and sometimes it ‘grew' into a mini magazine called SOWENA, Cornish for wellbeing. Further publicity was gained through the local Free Gazette and Radio Cornwall.

In the early years, the Wellbeing Centre tried to blend some aspects of a Community Centre, which the village of Illogan lacked, with those of a Natural Health Centre, providing classes and workshops not then available in the area. To help bridge the gap between Community and Natural Health, the Wellbeing Centre held successful Open Days every year with admission by raffle ticket, with demonstrations of activities held at the Centre for people to join in, and stalls from other charities and crafts. The Centre was also used for children's parties and christenings by local people and Plymouth University rented the whole space monthly for counselling skills courses.

Subscriptions, donations and classes paid for heating, lighting, rates, postage and telephone.

Since opening the Wellbeing Centre, there have been many exciting new approaches to holistic health and many folk actively seek ways to discover within themselves, via whole-foods, self-help therapies, yoga, meditation and personal growth, that source of wellbeing.