The Barn Retreat People

Emily Smith

Retreat Admin Assistant

Tasha Bassingthwaighte

Barn Retreat Manager

Tasha was interested in spiritual practice from a young age and did her first Buddhist meditation retreat at the age of 18. She lived in Nepal, spending time with Tibetan Buddhists, and later moved to a dharma centre in France, deepening her experience and practice of Buddhism.
 
She has lived in various intentional communities in Canada, the USA, and the UK, and has worked in the realm of social services and social justice for the past decade, including community-building while working with refugees, immigrants, and women in poverty.
 
Tasha's inspired in her role by how The Barn works its magic on people. "In one of the early retreats I witnessed at The Barn, on the second day, a retreatant said that it was the most important thing they'd ever done in his life. He repeated it on the last day. The Barn touches people like that, myself included."
 
She lives in Totnes with her partner and her children.

Nina Jankelson

Assistant Barn Manager

Nina began practising mindfulness in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, attending retreat in Northern India and Nepal and later drawing inspiration from the Insight Meditation tradition and the teachings of Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

A former residential coordinator at Sharpham's Barn Retreat, Nina has been facilitating meditations, ceremony and retreats for the past five years. Her practice is grounded in a connection to the land and in contacting moments of ordinary beauty and grace in the every day.

She is interested in exploring how contemplative practices can open up our experience of the world and is passionate about creating opportunities for others to do the same. 

Luciana Edwards

Barn Gardener

Luci first took up gardening aged three, when she had a carrot patch on her mum’s allotment. Since then she has gone on to train in permaculture design and has a MSc in Sustainable Agriculture focusing on soil health, which is her number one passion.

Luci has worked on organic and agroecological farms in Portugal, Nepal, Thailand and the UK. She has worked at The Barn as a kitchen gardener since January 2019, and enjoys producing food in close harmony with nature.

Luci also has experience of mindfulness, having undertaken an 8-week mindfulness course, as well as longer retreats at Sharpham, and continues her own practice at home.

Luci loves all things natural, so when she’s not in the garden you can find her exploring wild spaces with her family.

Hannah Cavender

Volunteer Coordinator

Hannah was introduced to meditation through an 8-week mindfulness course during her undergraduate degree. This sparked a curiosity which led her to attend her first retreat at The Barn a few years ago.

Her powerful experience on retreat opened the door to a regular meditation practice, further retreats, and delving deeper into Buddhist teachings and Insight Meditation. She also completed a 10-week counselling skills course in 2023.

Now joining The Barn as a coordinator, she is excited to support others on their journeys of self-discovery and connection through meditation.

Hannah is really interested in how mindfulness, community living, and connection to nature support wellbeing and mental health, particularly in the context of healing from trauma.

Viren Jeram

Volunteer Retreat Coordinator

Viren is stepping away from his job as a manager in the National Health Service to become a Volunteer Coordinator at The Barn in September 2024.

He visited the Barn first in 2019 and has visited regularly as a retreatant.

“The Barn has become a spiritual home for me over the past few years and I’m really excited to be able to support others to experience the wonders of the practice and be nourished by it,” he said.

Viren is passionate about Indian classical music and plays the tabla.

Nic

Volunteer Retreat Coordinator - The Barn

Nic's journey to The Barn started long before she had even heard of it. Her first experience of meditation took place in the NHS where Nic practiced as a mental health social worker and a practitioner in Peer-Supported Open Dialogue: a deep way of listening and sharing with others in the spirit of cultivating a sense of meaning about and belonging in the world.

Since then, she has continued to explore and develop her practice, including the ways in which Buddhist philosophy, deep ecology and psychology come together to enrich and enhance our sense of being with ourselves and all living beings. This curiosity first brought Nic to The Barn in July 2024 and she applied to be a volunteer coordinator without hesitation.

"I had been carrying around a feeling for some time of 'waiting' for something," she says. "I had a growing sense that there was a vast expanse of life I was not living, at least not in ways that felt intuitive or fully aligned with the things that are most important to me. This year at The Barn feels ripe for discovery about how to be in the world and integrate my practice more fully into my life. Sharing this experience of discovery with everyone who visits The Barn is a great joy and privilege - and a way to see and practice with the various ways that the Dharma nourishes ourselves and the world around us."

Nic is a food enthusiast - cooking it, eating it, even just looking at it - and loves experimenting and making meals for other people. She enjoys spending time in the water and is currently making friends with the River Dart (during some very brief, wintry dips). She far prefers listening to speaking but finds that words flow freely through a pen, even if she feels very shy about sharing them with others.