I am a clinician fortunate to have worked at the Centre for Integrative Care for over twenty years, as have quite a few of us. The Friends have been around for over 25 years to support our work. The ultimate aim of the Centre is to enhance people’s capacity for self-care and to help them to manage their life and the stresses that contribute to imbalance and disease and ill-health. Through exploring links between the mind and body, and the possible stressors within their life and offering different therapeutic approaches, individuals are helped to become better at self-regulation and self-care – thus improving and sustaining overall health and wellbeing, and quality of life.

Our work is about meeting people where they are, sharing their journeys and helping them to explore and create better health within their own situation and to re-build connections – with themselves, with their families and with their communities. We recognise it is not easy for people to engage in improving their health when they have complex problems and long-term conditions. The Centre is there to help support people with self-management and encourage self-care and regain confidence and a sense of empowerment, and to give a renewal of hope and recognition of true potential for living.

The Friends are pivotal – they help keep the service grounded and ‘in touch’ through their feedback, comments, and suggestions. They allow ‘befriending’ and an introduction to the services the Centre can offer to those who may not otherwise have heard of it. They allow opportunities for people to meet (virtually and in person) and form a supportive and forward-thinking community by paying attention to social links and a sense of connection with the bigger picture. I like to meet the Friends at events – they are a fun group of individuals, all quite different, and considerate of each other and encouraging. I enjoy hearing the ideas bounce about and they always give me something new to think about. Fund-raising from the Friends has been warm-hearted and of great support and enabled a lot to be achieved through their generosity over many years. I really appreciate having the Friends and wish them well with our grateful thanks on behalf of all the staff – to the next 25 years and beyond!