Radha Bhardwaj

Founder and Director

I begin by expressing gratitude for Indigenous nations and bring respect for the land that I am on today. I value and learn from the ancestral wisdom of the people who have and do reside here. I am committed to deep listening, collaboration, and contributing in meaningful ways through my work.

To engage in sustained personal and social change, we need skills and collaborators to practice into our highest potential. After decades of senior leadership experience, I am passionate about connecting people to stories and tools that forge meaningful action. I have learnt the value of engaging the hearts of people I work with, bringing communities together to cultivate change and delivering strong outcomes through diversity of thinking. 

Banyan Tree Circles is born from the belief that extraordinary social change begins with the self, even as we foster circles of organizational and community transformation.  My struggles with anxiety, my relationship to social justice work, and chronic gut pain led me to seek out nurturing strategies to tend to my body, spirit, mind, emotions and relational self so that I can bring my entire awareness to the work that I love. Our nervous systems carry our stories!  To move beyond the social and systemic trauma of activism work and make sustainable change, we have to engage in radical self-care practices in all dimensions of our lives. Banyan Tree Circles reflects the sacred relationship we have with ourselves that threads to the collective character of our work. 

With over 20 years in not-for-profit leadership, I bring a wealth of experience in building inclusive and accessible workplaces, organizational development, health promotion and mindfulness, trauma-informed practices, public education, and curriculum development. After decades of working with trauma-informed populations, I have built successful programs from scratch and spearheaded strategic initiatives relating to homelessness, gender justice, and sexual health. As a former Executive Director of the AIDS Committee of York Region and Blue Door Shelters, I offered a results-driven vision to passionately lead both organizations to diversify funding by fueling person-centered and strengths-based approaches to build resilient solutions from the ground up. I bring deep understanding in anti-racism and anti-oppression practice through my own lived experiences as a woman of colour who has passionately worked alongside individuals and groups to alleviate systemic disparities. 

I was raised in a family and culture with a rich storytelling tradition. Storytelling naturally helps me connect audiences to social research, inspire giving, and create alignment between diverse groups. As an educator and skilled public speaker, I support student, staff and board resilience both locally and globally. I have facilitated discussion forums and delivered poster presentations on women’s health, staff resilience, harm reduction, and access to services at local and international conferences. I dabble in writing short stories that have been published in journals and poetry that has found its way to two music albums. I am fortunate to speak a few languages, including Hindi, Tamil, and Swahili. 

After graduating with a Master of Social Work degree from University of Toronto, I completed a Master of Public Health degree from University of Waterloo. I am a certified yoga instructor (300+ hours). For the last decade, I have continued rigorous study and practice in Yoga philosophy, āsana, prāṇāyāma, vedic chanting, and Patajali’s yoga sutras. I have been privileged to join meditation retreats with masters like Thich Nhat Hahn and also study trauma-informed mindfulness practices guided by the research at Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga. My passion for traditional wisdom systems and land-based practices led me to work with an Indigenous mentor for a year and become a certified Forest Therapy guide. In 2021, I will be a qualified yoga therapist (IAYT certified – 1000+ hours) trained in the lineage of Sri. T. Krishnamacharya and Sri. Desikachar at Yoga Therapy Toronto and through Yoga Vaidya Śālā in Chennai, India. These ancestral practices rooted in ancient Indigenous knowledge systems of interconnectedness provide systematic and evidence-based tools for compassionate and integrated action. 

Raised in India and East Africa, the tapestry of my lived experiences in varied contexts and the history of migration play a key role in my personal and professional practice. From climbing the sacred Mt. Kenya, walking the Camino de Santiago, journeying on pilgrimage to ancient ancestral temples in Southern India, and hiking to cliff-top monasteries in Bhutan – I have sought to learn land- and body-based practices backed by research to braid an inner landscape of peace that fuels my social justice activism with loving kindness. My study, research, travels and committed mindfulness practice have culled a clear understanding that intentional self-awareness is a bridge to collective healing and a more just world.  

A perfect day for me would bring yoga at dawn, beautiful words on a page, a powerful idea to explore, the quiet contemplation of a forest trail and my garden to tend. Music and chai with my daughter Tara and our little dog Zevie sprinkles gratitude and radical self-care in abundance! 

Photography courtesy of Mollie Coles-Tonn, © 2018. All rights reserved.