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ABOUT ME
Heather Porteous
Personal Summary
Professional Background
My Guiding Principles
Client
Testimonials
Personal Summary
As an experienced coach and therapist with a holistic view of life and
additional qualifications in brief solution-focussed Human Givens counselling, NLP (neuro-linguistic
programming) and advanced hypnotherapy and hypno-healing, I specialise in helping people
to increase their personal effectiveness so that they can develop their gifts
and talents, lead happy and fulfilling lives at home and at work, and
successfully handle whatever major changes or challenges come their
way.
In addition to coaching I am qualified
to use the Emotional Freedom & Healing Technique, a psychological version of
acupressure incorporating methods from Ancient Chinese medicine and modern-day
applied kinesiology which is effective in releasing negative emotion and can be
used with clients over the phone.
I am also an experienced Reiki Practitioner and
Master Teacher with a busy
private therapy practice, and have trained as a volunteer Victim Support
worker and AIDS support "buddy" for the Waverley Care Trust.
I am a sensitive and perceptive listener with a lively and informal coaching style,
and am able to develop strong rapport with my clients to help them make progress in the shortest possible time.
My approach is to trust in my clients' powerful inner resources and encourage
them to develop and use them effectively. I have an intuitive sense of when to encourage and when to challenge, and
keen insight which allows me to understand the heart of the issue and enable my clients
to become aware of perceptions and patterns of thought and behaviour that are
holding them back.
I trained with CCUI (Corporate Coach University International) in the USA, have a post-graduate
diploma in Human Givens counselling, a diploma in Advanced Hypnotherapy and
Hypno-Healing, and am also a Certified Practitioner of both NLP and Time-Line
TherapyTM.
I am married to a teacher and have a son who works in banking and a daughter
in marketing. We have two dogs who keep me fit and active, I love the outdoors and all kinds of physical
and mental challenge, and balance it with a keen interest in
spirituality, psychology, nutrition, holistic health and alternative/complementary therapies. Meditation is an
important part of my daily routine, giving me new insights and understanding
and keeping me centred and in touch with what really matters in life.
Professional Background
I graduated in Modern Languages and Law from Edinburgh University in 1976 and taught
English as a Foreign Language abroad and in Edinburgh for a number of years before taking time out to bring up my family.
During that time I trained in Church lay leadership and counselling and worked in youth and adult education, exploring issues of self-awareness, leadership and interpersonal skills.
I subsequently spent six years in the medical sales and marketing division of the multinational Johnson & Johnson Corporation. I worked closely with top-level management through a time of major cultural change, relocation and restructuring, acquiring a sound understanding of today’s business needs with all the ongoing challenges of
work/life balance, redundancy, changing working practices and staff morale.
On leaving Johnson & Johnson I trained as a coach and worked as a training consultant with Insights Training & Development, specialising in personal and team effectiveness,
before establishing my own private practice ten years ago offering coaching,
Human Givens counselling, hypnotherapy, Reiki and Emotional Freedom Technique.
My Guiding
Principles
"Seek first to understand, then to be
understood."
Stephen Covey
"As you think, so shall you be."
Proverbs
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves:
"Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us - it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela -
Inaugural Speech - 1994
Life is an opportunity,
benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfil it.
Life is a sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa
"Lord, make me an
instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we
receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
St Francis of Assisi
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