‘It’s strength in numbers’: New centre bringing wellness, art and community together

Last Saturday marked the official opening of the Leitrim Wellness & Arts Centre, a new venture founded by former primary school teacher and reflexologist Kristina Kenny, who hopes the centre will provide both a welcoming space for the public and a supportive working environment for independent practitioners.

The opening day offered visitors a glimpse of the range of therapies, classes and creative activities now finding a home in the centre.

Popular Leitrim yoga teacher Tara Killeen started the day by demonstrating the benefits of chair yoga and how the practice can be made accessible to people of different ages and abilities.

She was followed by self-employed acupuncturist Aimee, who spoke about the causes of sinus problems and explained how acupuncture can be used in areas including back pain, fertility, digestive issues and fatigue.

Massage therapist Anna also spoke about her work, including helping women recover weakened muscles following C-sections.

Art is an equally important part of the new venture.

Local artist Siobhan Cox exhibited a large collection of her paintings during the opening and spoke to visitors about her career in the arts.

Other self-employed women working from the building include Kristina, who offers reflexology, Helen, who practises Amatsu, and Mary of Willow Beauty.

For Kristina, however, the centre is about more than bringing a collection of services into the same building.

It is about creating a community.

“There has never been a wellness centre in Carrick before and it was a need within the community,” she said.

“Many therapists work from home alone, which can be lonely and isolating. This centre provides a friendly atmosphere for practitioners to work alongside each other.

It is an idea that has been more than a year in the making.

Kristina took over the building last year when it was being used as an architect’s office and began gradually transforming it.

The former office was dark and needed considerable work, and Kristina spent weeks painting and renovating the premises herself.

Upstairs is still being repurposed as the centre continues to develop, but the doors began opening to the public during the summer.

The concept has evolved organically.

Rather than deciding what people should want from the space, Kristina has been listening to what local people have been asking for.

“There’s never been a place for therapists and for people to work together, so that’s how the building came about,” she explained.

The result is a centre with several layers.

It provides a professional base for therapists and practitioners who might otherwise work alone from home, while giving clients a central location where they can explore different approaches to wellbeing.

Alongside that is a growing emphasis on music, creativity and community.

Music, babies and a reason to get out of the house

Kristina’s own background has played a major role in shaping the centre.

A primary school teacher for around 15 years and a music teacher, she has worked extensively with children, including children with autism, and has seen first-hand the impact music and sound can have.

She now runs music classes for mothers and babies after discovering that local parents were looking for activities they could attend together.

“I just started them last year because people were asking for them,” she said.

Kristina runs Kinder Music sessions and said the response from babies can be immediate.

“The babies love the music. Once I start playing the guitar, they just chill out and then the mums are happy.”

But the classes are not solely about entertaining babies.

For Kristina, one of their greatest benefits is giving mothers an opportunity to leave the house, meet other women and talk.

“The mums get to chat as well and that’s the most important thing — the mums get to socialise and get out of the house.”

That can become particularly important during the long Irish winter when parents can find themselves spending considerable periods at home with a baby.

Kristina also runs baby music activities outside the centre, including multisensory sessions where music is combined with lights and other stimulation.

Some are deliberately designed to become more than simply a class.

Mothers can attend with their babies, stay afterwards for coffee or lunch, chat with other parents and perhaps go for a walk, turning the experience into a full day out rather than another hour spent at home.

The success of those sessions reinforced Kristina’s belief that wellbeing can often be as much about human connection as the activity itself.

New opportunities for older people

The centre is also reaching people at a very different stage of life.

With funding from MSLETB, Kristina is preparing to run a free beginner music course for adults from the end of September.

She has already received considerable interest, particularly from retired women who may always have wanted to learn an instrument but never had the opportunity.

Some have dreamed of learning the tin whistle or fiddle but do not necessarily want to enrol in college or commit to lengthy formal study.

Instead, the new course will offer a relaxed environment where they can learn, meet people and enjoy themselves.

For Kristina, it has highlighted demographics which can sometimes be left out when activities and courses are being organised.

People do not suddenly lose their curiosity because they reach retirement.

A person who never had the opportunity to learn an instrument at 20, 30 or 40 can still pick one up decades later.

The social side matters too.

It gives people another reason to get out of the house, meet others and perhaps discover something they never realised they could do

Yoga for every ability

Yoga is another important part of the centre’s programme.

Tara Killeen, who led the chair yoga demonstration during Saturday’s opening, has been teaching yoga in the Leitrim area for around 20 years.

Kristina describes her as something of a trailblazer.

Tara began teaching at a time when yoga and holistic wellbeing practices were far less mainstream in rural Ireland than they are today.

She will run chair yoga at the centre on Wednesdays while also continuing to work in other locations, including Mohill and surrounding communities.

That reflects another part of Kristina’s vision.

The centre is not designed to lock practitioners into one location.

Instead, she wants it to become a hub where people working across Leitrim can collaborate, promote holistic health and support one another, even if they also run classes or businesses elsewhere.

It also offers another social outlet for people who may not want their leisure time to revolve around drinking or going to the pub.

Personal change of direction

Behind Kristina’s decision to create the centre is her own experience of major change.

She spent around 15 years working as a primary school teacher and has extensive experience working with children with autism.

Music was an important part of that work.

She found that sound and music could be particularly effective in helping some children with autism to calm and regulate, something that continues to influence her work today.

But her life changed following the sudden death of her father during Covid.

The loss hit Kristina hard.

She made the decision to step away from teaching because she did not feel ready to walk back into a classroom of 30 children while dealing with her own grief.

“I was so sad and I didn’t want the students to be affected by the fact that I wasn’t in a good mood or in a good place,” she said.

Instead, she gave herself time.

Kristina began studying reflexology and found herself moving gradually towards holistic therapies.

She discovered a different pace of working and a new direction at a point in her life when she needed both.

Between reflexology, sound and music, the foundations of what she is doing today slowly emerged.

Her experience also gave her an insight into the pressures facing people in demanding professions and the importance of recognising stress before it becomes overwhelming.

Kristina acknowledges that she was fortunate to be in a position where she could step away from her job and change direction, something that is not financially possible for everyone.

She has also praised the support available locally to people considering setting up their own businesses.

Leitrim Local Enterprise Office, she said, has provided valuable free coaching, mentoring and training, while the local arts sector has also supported her work.

Funding has enabled her to deliver music projects to children and parents, including programmes for children with additional needs.

A space where women can talk

Something else has happened since Kristina began developing the centre — something she did not necessarily plan.

It has become a space for women.

“It’s a place for women, really,” she said.

That was not the original intention, but the nature of the businesses, classes and people gathering there has created an environment where women can talk openly.

Conversations can range from mental health and stress to hormones, periods, motherhood and the everyday realities of women’s lives.

Issues that might once have been discussed only quietly between close friends are becoming increasingly normal conversations.

Kristina believes women have spent generations simply dealing with many of those experiences themselves.

Now, she sees value in creating somewhere they can speak about them without embarrassment.

There is also the question of identity.

For women juggling work, children and family responsibilities, finding even a couple of hours for themselves can be difficult.

Coming to a yoga class, trying a therapy, making music or simply talking to another woman can provide an opportunity to reconnect with themselves outside those responsibilities.

Creativity is another part of that.

Whether through music or art, Kristina believes people need opportunities to express themselves.

Art at the heart of the centre

That is why the “Arts” in Leitrim Wellness & Arts Centre is every bit as significant as the “Wellness”.

Siobhan Cox’s work has already brought colour and character to the newly renovated building.

Her large collection of paintings formed a major part of Saturday’s opening and Kristina hopes the centre can provide a platform for artists as well as therapists.

She describes Siobhan as a colourful character with a wealth of experiences and stories behind her work.

The centre, Kristina hopes, can introduce the wider community to women like Siobhan and to the many creative people already living and working in the county.

There is a strong element of women supporting women running through the project.

The practitioners involved come from different backgrounds and disciplines but share a desire to build something collectively rather than operate entirely on their own.

Photographer Autumn Woods, originally from America, also supported the fledgling project by providing photography free of charge.

At this early stage, Kristina said much of what has happened has come from people simply volunteering their time or skills to help get the centre established.

“Everyone just [said], ‘Let’s just support each other,’” she said.

“It’s strength in numbers.”

More than Carrick’s nightlife

The centre also represents something Kristina feels strongly about — showing another side of Carrick-on-Shannon.

The town’s thriving pubs, restaurants and weekend trade are an important part of its economy, but they are not the whole story.

Carrick also has artists, markets, therapists, musicians, community organisations and people looking for quieter ways to meet and connect.

Kristina points to the farmers’ market and the many cultural and community events taking place locally as examples of that other side of the town.

“There are lots of really good community groups around,” she said.

“They do so much work and we’re such an inclusive county.”

She believes there has been a gap, however, for a dedicated centre where people interested in wellness, creativity and holistic practices can come together.

That is the gap Leitrim Wellness & Arts Centre hopes to fill.

The centre is still evolving.

Parts of the building continue to be developed, new courses are beginning and the network of people associated with the space extends beyond those permanently based there.

Following Saturday’s official opening, another open evening is also planned, when members of the public will have an opportunity to come inside, meet the practitioners and find out more about the therapies, classes and creative activities on offer.

For Kristina, what began as a personal change of direction following a difficult period in her own life has become something much larger.

She may have taken the building, painted its walls and brought the idea together, but she is reluctant to make the story solely about herself.

Instead, she wants the centre to give other practitioners a platform and create somewhere people feel comfortable trying something different.

It might be a mother bringing her baby to music for the first time.

It might be a retired woman finally learning the tin whistle.

It might be somebody discovering chair yoga, acupuncture, Amatsu, massage or reflexology.

It might be someone standing in front of a local artist’s painting and finding themselves inspired to create something of their own.

Or it might simply be a person who wants somewhere to go, meet others and take a little time for themselves.

For Kristina, that sense of connection is at the heart of the new Leitrim Wellness & Arts Centre — a place where practitioners no longer have to work in isolation and where wellness, art, music and community can exist side by side.