Why Costa Rica

2 min read

Just now

Listen

I didn’t come to Costa Rica for a holiday.

I came because learning sometimes requires distance – from systems, from habits, from the places that taught you how to survive rather than how to breathe.

My background is rooted in lived experience. I’ve spent years navigating addiction, the criminal justice system, trauma, and recovery – not as theory, but as life. Those experiences didn’t end when I “turned things around”. They became the foundation of my work.

Today, I work in frontline services supporting people with complex needs, particularly those impacted by substance use, criminalisation, trauma, and exclusion. I also lead and develop trauma-informed projects that centre lived experience as expertise – not an afterthought.

But the longer you work in this space, the clearer something becomes: systems alone don’t heal people. People heal people. Environment matters. Culture matters. The way support is delivered matters.

That’s what brought me here.

This trip to Costa Rica has been organised by Inside Out Support Wales and funded through the Taith Learning Exchange programme. It’s part of a learning exchange – not to teach, but to observe, listen, and understand how other countries approach support, justice, wellbeing, and recovery outside of the UK framework.

Costa Rica offers a different pace, a different relationship with nature, community, and care. I’m here to learn from that – to notice what feels different, what works, what feels missing, and what we might carry back home.

This blog is not a travel diary in the glossy sense. It’s a record. A reflection. A place to hold moments, conversations, contradictions, and insights as they happen.

Some days it will be practical.

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Some days it will be personal.

Some days it might just be about food, weather, ants, or thunderstorms rolling over a city that refuses to rush.

But underneath it all is a bigger question:

What does support look like when it’s rooted in dignity, environment, and humanity – not just systems and outcomes?

Costa Rica is the setting.

Learning is the purpose.

Reflection is the method.

This is where it begins.

Stay tuned 👌

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