Tara Teng is an embodiment coach who talks to us about the intersections of faith, embodiment, and justice.
I originally planned on doing solely anti-trafficking podcasts this month, but this one was too timely not to share earlier.
About Tara:
Tara Teng is an Embodiment Coach who works in the intersections of spirituality and sexuality. She helps people find their way back to their bodies, overcome shame, and dismantle purity culture in a way that is in alignment with their values and beliefs so that they can build a healthy, sexual ethic and thrive in freedom and wholeness.
Aside from her 1:1 coaching, Tara hosts women’s circles, workshops, online classes and retreats throughout Vancouver, BC on the topics of theology, justice, embodiment, sexuality, and relationships.
Tara comes to this work after witnessing her generation struggle under the oppressive confines of the purity industry’s movement of the 90s and 2000s, bringing with it all the broken relationships, sexual dysfunctions, auto-immune disorders and sexual violence that ensued as a result of abstinence-only teaching that left us with an unhealthy obsession with virginity and lack of sexual ethics in our relationships.
She also has spent ten years working to advance the socio-economic status of women, diminish sexual violence and end human trafficking alongside collaborative work with community stakeholders, lawmakers, and some amazing organizations. Her advocacy work has helped to pass new laws in Canada that protect victims of human trafficking and she has established Canada’s first Municipal Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.
Tara is a TEDx Speaker, a former Miss Canada and was named Canada’s “Woman of the Year” in 2011. She is one of the Globe and Mail’s “Top 25 Most Transformational Canadians”, received an International Heroes award from the Joy Smith Foundation, as well as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal in recognition of her vast human rights work.
In her personal life, Tara is a single mother to two young children. She continues to invest in her community as a mentor with the Miss BC leadership program, is an Ambassador for OneTWU and a Board Member of SheLoves Media Society.
She lives, works and plays on the unceded traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Matsqui, Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nations.
She blogs at www.tarateng.com and can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @misstarateng.