From Domestic Violence Refuge to CEO: I Built My Life Again | By Tammy Takkar

Today, people see me as a CEO, entrepreneur, educator and wellbeing professional. They see Active Clinic, the qualifications, the achievements and the woman I have become.

But behind that woman is a story that took me almost 20 years to feel ready to tell.

There was a time when my life looked completely different.

I was a young woman living in a new country, away from the familiarity and support of home, trapped in an abusive marriage and trying to protect not only myself, but my two-year-old son.

Eventually, I reached a point where staying was no longer an option.

I left.

I didn’t leave with a successful business, financial security or a clear plan for the future. I left carrying fear, uncertainty and responsibility for a little boy who depended entirely on me.

That decision became the beginning of my new life.

The people who helped me when I needed it most

One organisation will always have a very special place in my heart: Sandwell Women’s Aid.

During one of the darkest periods of my life, they gave my young son and me something incredibly important — safety, support and hope.

When I struggled to see what my future could look like, they encouraged me to start rebuilding it.

They encouraged me towards education.

That encouragement mattered more than they could possibly have known.

Education gave me something to focus on. It helped me rediscover my confidence, independence and identity. Qualification by qualification, I started to realise that my past did not have to determine the rest of my life.

I began rebuilding from the ground up.

From surviving to building

There was no overnight transformation.

I studied. I worked. I raised my son. I faced judgement, financial pressures, cultural expectations, loneliness and moments of enormous self-doubt.

But I kept going.

Education became one of the foundations of my independence, and eventually my passion for health, wellbeing and helping others became my career.

Over the years, I moved from being a therapist to becoming an educator, wellbeing specialist and entrepreneur.

Eventually, I founded Active Clinic.

Today, I am the CEO of a multi-award-winning clinic, a longevity and wellbeing specialist, Naturopath, Ayurvedic Consultant and educator. I have spent years continuing my education because I still believe in the same thing that helped change my own life:

Knowledge creates choices.

And choices can create freedom.

Success means something different to me

For me, success has never simply been about having a business or collecting titles.

Success is being able to look back at the woman who once felt frightened and uncertain about her future and know that she kept going.

It is watching the two-year-old boy I once held while trying to rebuild our lives grow into a young man.

It is creating opportunities for my children that, at one point in my life, I could barely imagine.

And it is being able to use everything I have learned — personally and professionally — to help other people improve their own lives.

My past has influenced the way I work today. It has taught me that wellbeing is about far more than what people can see on the outside. Behind every person is a story, and sometimes the person who appears strongest has fought battles nobody knows about.

A thank you I will never forget

I want to publicly say thank you to Sandwell Women’s Aid.

Thank you for being there for my son and me during a very dark chapter.

Thank you for providing safety when we needed it.

Thank you for encouraging me to believe that education could help me build a different future.

You were part of the beginning of a journey that eventually took me from a woman trying to survive to the woman, mother and CEO I am today.

I will never forget that.

To the woman who may be reading this

If there is one reason I am finally sharing my story, it is because somewhere another woman may be at the beginning of the journey I once faced.

She may not be able to see beyond today.

I couldn’t either.

Rebuilding doesn’t happen all at once. Sometimes it starts with one safe place, one supportive person, one course, one qualification or one decision to believe that there can be something beyond the life you are currently living.

My journey wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t perfect.

But I rebuilt.

I educated myself.

I raised my family.

I created a career.

I built a business.

And eventually, I became the CEO of the life I once couldn’t imagine having.

I am not sharing my story because of where I started. I am sharing it because of what became possible when I was given the support and opportunity to start again.

From refuge to CEO — this is not just my success story. It is my story of survival, education, independence and rebuilding.

Tammy Takkar
CEO & Founder, Active Clinic
Longevity & Wellbeing Specialist | Naturopath | Ayurvedic Consultant | Educator