Roots isn’t just something that happens inside four walls. It’s about creating spaces where people feel supported enough to begin changing their own lives.

I was approached by a local charity to deliver a 12-week rehabilitation programme for men rebuilding their lives after prison, addiction and other personal challenges. Each session combined physical training, open discussion, guided meditation and activities such as cold water therapy and river dips. The goal wasn’t simply to improve physical health, but to help each person reconnect with themselves, build resilience and realise that change is possible.

One of the biggest lessons I took away was this: we must be careful not to define people by their past. Every person deserves the opportunity to grow, and growth begins when we create space for it.

I wasn’t there to change these men. They changed themselves. My role was simply to hold the space, offer guidance and remind them that they were capable of more than the story they had been telling themselves. They had to choose to show up each week, and that’s where real transformation began.