TARA RAINSTROM

We Create What We Desire
We Build What We Need
We Live In Our Pleasure
We Make The World Better
We Let Ourselves Be Seen

WE CREATE WHAT WE DESIRE.

Every creation begins with a seed of desire. A feeling. A pull toward something more alive, more aligned, more true. But when we are disconnected from our desires, it can be hard to know what we’re here to create or where we’re meant to go next. This is the work I love most—helping people reconnect to what is alive in them and bringing those desires into form.

What is the desire stirring inside of you, waiting to be brought to life?

I’ve dedicated my personal and professional life to becoming a skilled guide for creativity, transformation, and meaningful change. Through embodiment, strategic planning, community building, and desire mapping, I help people move from imagining the life they want into actually building it. This practice led me to open Refuge, create whimsical worlds through Creative Expression for Kids, launch Tara’s Witchy School for Teens & Tweens, and bring many of my wildest dreams to life.

When we work together—whether through coaching, events, or creative collaboration—we’re not just creating something beautiful. We’re tending to the desires asking to be lived, and building lives, spaces, and experiences that feel deeply alive and fully our own.

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  • Embodied Desire Workshop

    Connect to the sensations of your Hell YES and Hell NO in the body; practice asking and receiving.

  • Summer Love Elixir

    An embodied desire in drink form. I spent the summer perfecting this love potion recipe so that it captured the essence of what summer love feels like to me - with the intoxicating blooms of Linden, the sweetness of strawberries, the support of Tulsi, the dreaminess of Magnolia, the romance of roses, and more. This complex elixir is one of my most delicious magical potions.

  • 31 Days of a Desire

    31 Days of a Desire is a challenge that I occasionally lead - it is an invitation to live in your desires with me for 31 days. I invite you to connect with your body and your heart’s longing, to boldy and bravely name your desires, and to engage with a community where we can witness one another, inspire, and be inspired.

  • Fairy Gardens

    Whimsical fairy gardens made with treasures from the forest made in Tara’s Creative Expression for Kids program

  • Samhain Elixir

    Elixirs designed to elevate an experience. Each ingredient in this small batch herbaceous elixir was intentionally selected to support feeling rooted, open the third eye, and connect to your ancestors.

  • Fairy Houses

    Little clay fairy houses with thatched rooves for our Enchanted Forest made in Tara’s Creative Expression for Kids program

  • Winter Solstice Incense

    Locally wildcrafted and sourced hand-rolled incense that smells like a fire burning in the hearth

  • A group of people sitting in a circle on pillows on the floor around a fake fire in the middle. The lighting is dark and a spotlight is on the disco ball reflecting little specks of light all over the room

    Community Scream

    A community ritual and somatic embodiment to express and release rage and grief so that we can return to joy in our bodies. Experience the radical shift of heaviness into empowerment.

  • Strawberry Tulsi Shrub

    A key ingredient in my love potion, this drinking vinegar tastes like drops of sunshine in summer

  • Group of people posing for a photo

    Pussy Paintings

    An embodied art project in Tara’s Pleasure Playground program

WE Build WHAT WE Need.

Rooted in my own journey of creating community and spaces of belonging, I weave together my background in computer systems design, strategic planning, and program development to help turn vision into something real, functional, and alive. We build what we need—and I bring that same spirit into how I support others in building lives and businesses that feel aligned. Whether it’s structuring ideas, designing systems that support your flow, or developing programs that reflect your truth, I help you take what you desire and build it in a way that feels clear, sustainable, and fully your own. ✨

  • If you’re feeling the pull toward something more—more clarity, more connection, more aliveness—I invite you to book a desire coaching consultation call. Together, we’ll explore what’s stirring in you, what you’re ready to cultivate, and what becomes possible when you begin listening to your desires.

    Book a free 15 minute consultation call

  • My event space that I own & operate in the heart of downtown Troy, NY. Refuge is an urban oasis & flexible gathering space that hosts a variety of public & private events.

    Check out the Refuge website for rental packages and our event calendar.

  • This sweet little program of mine is a playful, weeklong adventure where imagination leads the way. We make art, move, tell stories, play music, and dive into dress-up and creative play. It’s a space to explore, express, and be fully, joyfully yourself. The program runs during school breaks and one week in the summer at Refuge Event Space.

    Click here for more details

  • The coming of age program that I always dreamed of - one that is rooted in Herbalism and the Wheel of the Year. This hands-on experiential program is a one-week day program that I run in Refuge where we learn how to build relationships with plants, honor the seasons, and learn how to live with intention.

    Click here for more details

  • I am available for booking for private events and classes/workshops for your group or business on the subjects of Art, Dance, Herbalism, Embodied Desire, Consent, Somatics, Tantra, Leading with Pleasure, and more.

    Fill out this form if you are interested in booking me.

WE live in our pleasure.

Pleasure has been one of the most honest teachers in my life—it has brought me back to my body when I felt disconnected. A quiet return: to breath, to body, to sensation. I’ve learned that pleasure is not something I reserve for rare moments—it is something I practice coming home to, again and again.

Living in my pleasure is not about perfection or constant bliss. It is about listening to my body, honoring what it knows, and allowing joy, rest, desire, and aliveness to be part of everyday life. Through my work—whether in coaching, gatherings, or creative experiences—I create spaces that support this return, for myself and for others. Spaces where we can slow down enough to feel what is actually true, where pleasure becomes a guide rather than an idea, and where something real has the chance to shift.

In our Bodies

Embodied workshops & programs

In our Business

Building viable business models from a place of pleasure

In our Homes

Infusing our homes and daily lives with pleasure

In our Community

Building community with intention and in alignment with our desires

We make the world better.

When we work together—whether it’s designing an event, holding space for a gathering, or moving through desire coaching—it becomes more than a moment or an experience. It becomes a practice of return. A return to body, to clarity, to joy, to what’s real underneath everything else. And from that place, something ripples outward: people leave more connected to themselves, more honest in their relationships, where people feel safe to be seen, to soften, and to come back into alignment with themselves.an

This is the work of building a more connected, honest, and alive world—together. If something in you is stirring, if there’s a desire asking to be tended to, an idea waiting to be brought into form, or a longing for deeper connection and alignment, I invite you in. Let’s create something meaningful together and see what becomes possible when desire is given space to lead.

  • A multi-year project to renovate and restore the unique property that I live on and operate my business in to transform it into an Urban oasis.

    Tending to this property and curating the spaces for people to gather in Refuge has been my biggest and most meaningful project so far.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. My hot takes as a former grant reviewer for many years and current grant recipient.

    I’ve taken an alternative approach to financing that aligns with how I move through the world.

  • Where my love affair with data began - an origin story.

    After Hurricane Katrina, I worked with the East Biloxi Coordination Center to build them a solution to direct donations and aid to where it was needed and coordinate volunteer activities for rebuilding the city after devastating losses. I worked with a team of computer scientists from Berkley to design & build a database solution for the Coordination center to help them organize relief efforts. I saw a need and I built them a solution.

  • I’ve been involved in may projects that combine art with activism -

    -POLLY (Queer AF dance party fundraisers) - I created many of the art installations to transform the spaces we inhabited

    -FlagSSS Day Collective - taking our art to the streets, where protest meets party

    -Club Zoe, The Mental Health Association, Boys & Girls Club - teaching after school arts programs for children in underserved neighborhoods.

WE let ourselves be seen.

Tara Rainstrom is a community builder, creative facilitator, artist, and experiential consultant based in Troy, New York.

She is a catalyst to help people make their wildest dreams come true. Her work centers on helping individuals, groups and organizations reconnect to who they are and what they want, clarify their desires, and take intentional steps toward meaningful change.

Expand To Learn More About Tara

As a dedicated data diva and long time impact-driven leader in tech, her expertise in systems equals her passion for pleasure-filled living.

You may recognize her from the community as the owner and operator of Refuge Event Space, a multidisciplinary event and gathering space in downtown Troy designed to foster connection, creativity, and personal growth.

She’s all that and much more.

LET’S CREATE TOGETHER.