Annie Gillenwater

“I was not going to achieve this ‘better’ life if I continued the same unhealed patterns of my culture, my family and my ancestors.”

Annie is a EFT Practioner, Qualified teacher, Wellbeing Coach and a Reiki Master. She is a published author and in 2011 she co-wrote the book called A New Approach for Calm Classrooms. Annie uses the silent tapping technique to support children regulate their difficult emotions such as anger, anxiety, fear etc.

Annie served in education for 23 years as class teacher and later on as a Specialist Advisory teacher for Special Education Needs and Disabilities. She worked in many schools in the UK supporting children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health and behaviour challenges, Autism and Pathalogical Demand Avoidance (PDA) whilst training school staff to support these conditions in mainstream schools. 

In January 2020 she began her Coaching and Healing Practice. In her 1:1 and group coaching programs called ‘Own Your Power’, she uses different healing modalities to support wellbeing, increase productivity, achieve work/life harmony and enjoy better-quality of life. She is also a reiki healer and since the pandemic has offered remote reiki healing across the globe.

Note from Annie

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

I start with this quote because this has been one of the biggest influences in my life.

I was born and raised in South Africa during apartheid and experienced different traumas, as we all do. Cultural challenges, race challenges, discrimination, financially poor family were just some of my childhood experiences. This then became my springboard for a ‘better’ life. But I was not going to achieve this ‘better’ life if I continued the same unhealed patterns of my culture, my family and my ancestors. So, at the age of 20 I set off on a different path and left South Africa. Leaving everything I knew gave me an opportunity to shine the light on what needed to be healed within me.

In the UK I enjoyed a very rewarding teaching career and alongside my career I embarked on a self-healing journey. This led me to many holistic healing fields such as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Nuero-linguistic Programming (NLP), Reiki Healing, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Meditation, Mindfulness and positive affirmations which I incorporated with teaching. As I learned and practiced, I shared the tools with other teachers, children, schools and parents to empower them so they can heal themselves. This has made my work more powerful.

I find that these two fields (Healing and Education) work conjointly and produce profound results when working with children and adults; raising self-esteem, reducing anxiety, reducing stress and enjoying a better quality of life.

So, going back to the quote – ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ became my motto. As I educated myself on self-healing, I empowered others heal themselves too. 

Today, I continue my journey of Healing and Educating.

You can find me at www.lighthousehealinginstitute.com