On the outside, Tara Simkins had it all together.
She was a young, successful attorney with a great husband and three growing boys. But on the inside, it was a different story.
“Inside, there was an emptiness. I was relying on external validation,” said Simkins, whose search for meaning and fulfillment began more than a decade ago and ended with her business, Soul Works. She’s a certified life coach, mentor and money coach as well as the founder, CEO and creator of the Soul Shine Lab.
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Simkins said she loved being a professional, but she also loved being a mother.
Her husband, Turner, knew about her struggles. He met a life coach and suggested the concept.
Athletes have coaches; dancers and other creatives have choreographers and directors, but people don’t always have someone to help them wade through the processes of life and help them make sense of everything, she said.
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A life coach doesn’t tell someone what to do, but helps a person tap into what’s already inside. The coach helps a person think and consider the possibilities in a situation.
“The world is changing. What we need are individual thinkers,” she said. “We need to teach our children the art of creating something out of nothing.”
She’s been working as a certified life coach for a decade, and people thought she was crazy when she walked away from her law practice to pursue it.
“Sometimes you need to have the person who looks like they have it all together to walk away from it,” she said.
The idea of becoming a life coach probably goes back even earlier. As an attorney, she was part of the team who represented a man whose wife had been killed in an accident involving her vehicle and an 18-wheeler. A mechanical failure led to the truck jackknifing.
The lawsuit dragged out over the course of several years, going through multiple courts, before a judge finally ruled in her client’s favor.
She said she remembered looking at his face when the verdict was read and although he was receiving $2 million, nothing could bring his wife back. In some ways, it was a hollow victory. That was in the mid-1990s, and it was an “aha” moment for her.
According to the law, Simkins said, the award represented wholeness and conclusion, but it did nothing to heal his grief.
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Wholeness is an important concept for Simkins who sees clients dealing with grief and other emotions. She’s no stranger to trauma, fear and heartbreak.
Not long after going on her journey with her life coach, Simkins faced the fight of her life — one that tested the limits of her faith.
On the eve of her son Brennan’s seventh birthday in January 2009, he was diagnosed with a rare subtype of leukemia. Over the next two years, he went through four bone marrow transplants and experimental protocols. Each bone marrow transplant brought hope that was soon dashed as he relapsed.
The couple chronicled the family’s journey through the CarePages website and eventually Turner Simkins penned a book about it.
Before the last bone marrow transplant, Tara Simkins said the family had to take a serious look at what life might be like — either with Brennan or without him.
The final bone marrow transplant worked, and he’s been in remission since, she said. Even so, he still has health challenges. At 19, he’s already had cataract surgery, and he had seizures at one time. He recently got his driver’s license and is planning to go to college.
The pandemic was nothing new for the Simkins’ family. Wearing masks and being diligent had already been part of Brennan Simkins’ life. For years, the slightest thing such as a skin reaction to detergent could send him back to St. Jude Children’s Hospital’s ICU.
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Her response to the agony of a parent watching her young child suffer and watching other parents — some of whom lost their children — was proactive.
Simkins wanted to make a difference in the world and used her son’s experience to fight for others.
Tara and Turner Simkins are the co-founders of The Press On Fund, a childhood cancer research fund.
Tara Simkins said that only four percent of research dollars go toward pediatric cancers.
“I wanted to use my voice to raise money,” she said.
Through the Press On Fund, a $1 million dollar, four-year study is underway at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center focusing on pediatric brain tumors. Another more recent grant was $150,000 to St. Jude Hospital for a brain tumor study in 2018. The fund has sponsored much research over the past several years. To learn more, visit pressonfund.org.
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She said she hopes to have an updated impact study out soon.
Simkins is glad she walked away from her career. She said she has the peace of knowing that she’s where God intended her to be, and her goal is to help others get where they need to be.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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