EIGHT years ago this month Taunton gained a valued health and wellbeing centre, which has helped thousands of locals "prioritise their wellbeing" in the years since.

The Sangha House in Mitre House on Tower Street, Taunton, was founded and continues to be run by Denise and Andy Spragg.

The couple moved to Taunton in 2016 to open a wellbeing centre, after ten years of running a successful retreats business. Speaking at the time, Andy said that he wanted to open a centre following his own personal health problems.

Andy said: "I started practising Buddhism and Tai Chi over 25 years ago after I had an operation to get rid of a tumour on my hip joint. I was quite young at the time and the experience was quite frightening and really shook me up.

"I started doing meditation and Tai Chi and holistic therapies and found it really beneficial and therapeutic."

Denise and Andy Spragg decided to bring "the power of mindfulness" to others in Taunton and have been doing so ever since.

Speaking earlier this year, Denise said: "We moved down to Taunton eight years ago and set up The Sangha House. We base it on the four quadrants of holistic health, the physical, mental, social and spiritual. That comes out in various ways.

"We believe that holistic health is in four sections, and if one of them is out of sync then the person's health generally is not going to be good.

"What we're really keen to do, since the pandemic, Olena Gullidge [massage therapist] and I are finding that a lot of people are stressed out, anxiety is through the roof, depression, and we want to bang the drum for holistic treatments as an essential maintenance, they're not just a treat."

Denise believes people should stop thinking of holistic treatments and consultative therapies as non-essentials — those on offer include massage, counselling, hypnotherapy and Buddhist mentoring.

She said: "In tough economic times, people stop 'treating' themselves, but it's preventional. For people who have a little bit of disposable income, if they're having health issues, spiritual healing or a massage can feel just as lovely with far more benefit than reaching for a nice meal or a glass of wine."