"We are the meaning makers - we create the meaning of our lives
by the thoughts we think and the stories we tell ourselves."   Michael Neil

 

"Happiness is not by chance but by choice."  Jim Rohn

 

Practitioner Profile

 

 HEATHER PORTEOUS

 

 

Personal Profile

I am an Usui Ryoho Reiki Master, trained in traditional Japanese Reiki techniques and also familiar with Western Reiki, having trained under a number of Reiki teachers from both the Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki traditions to broaden my knowledge and understanding of energy healing.  As part of this journey I also did the full National Federation of Spiritual Healing training in 2003.  I use all this knowledge when teaching Reiki.

I have a busy private therapy practice in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which I have run for 13 years, offering Reiki healing, life coaching, Human Givens counselling, advanced hypnotherapy and hypno-healing, NLP, and EFT for helping people with all kinds of mental, emotional and physical problems, holistic health, anger and stress management, and personal and spiritual development.  

I also run regular Reiki workshops throughout the year in which I teach predominantly Japanese Reiki techniques with additional information on energy, spiritual healing, holistic health, correct breathing, stress and mood management, and mind control.

In addition to Reiki therapy 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.  As a life coach, I have trained in personal and business coaching, Time-Line Therapy and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), and have a background in business and in personal effectiveness training.  As part of my continuing interest in developing my skills as a holistic healer, I have completed a post-graduate diploma in Human Givens brief solution-focused counselling and psychotherapy, and in addition, I am fully qualified in advanced hypnotherapy and hypno-healing, a qualification recognised by the NHS.

I specialise in working one to one with clients wanting support in making changes to improve their health and relationships, overcome physical, mental and emotional challenges, develop their potential, and create more balanced and fulfilling lives. I am an experienced coach, counsellor, hypnotherapist and trainer with a holistic understanding of life and health and a deep knowledge of people and their needs. I have also trained as a volunteer Victim Support worker and as an AIDS support "buddy" for the Waverley Care Trust.

I like to work in a sensitive, open and light-hearted way with my clients, as I believe that we all develop best in an atmosphere of trust, acceptance and honesty.  Having successfully come through a number of traumatic, life changing events and challenges over the years myself (multiple close family bereavements, divorce, a couple of serious and life threatening illnesses, redundancy and setting up my own business), I can offer the hard-won insight, wisdom, understanding, confidence and empathy of personal experience.  I have a calm and relaxed manner and am genuinely interested in others, which makes it easy for me to work closely with people.

I am married to a teacher and have a son who works in banking and a daughter who works in marketing (both the pride and joy of my life!).  We have two lively young terriers (littermates!) who keep me fit, active and young at heart, I thrive on the outdoors and all kinds of physical and mental challenge, and balance it with a keen interest in spirituality, psychology, nutrition, holistic health and complementary therapies.  Meditation is an important part of my daily routine, giving me new insights and understanding and keeping me centred, balanced, peaceful and in touch with what really matters in life.  

 

Professional Profile

I graduated in Modern Languages and Law from Edinburgh University in 1976, and then taught abroad and in Edinburgh for a number of years before taking a career break to bring up my family. 

I subsequently trained and worked as a volunteer for several years with individuals and groups (both children and adults), exploring issues of self-awareness, personal development, leadership and interpersonal skills.

During the course of my career, I spent six years working with the multinational pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson Corporation, in the highly challenging and competitive field of medical sales and marketing.  I worked closely with the General Manager, supporting him and his senior management team through a period of extensive company growth and development, cultural change, restructuring and eventual relocation to the South of England.

I left Johnson & Johnson to establish my own life coaching practice and gained further experience working as a freelance consultant with Insights Training & Development, a Scottish company specialising in personal and team effectiveness. 

I am a graduate of Corporate Coach University International in the USA, completing my coaching training in 2000. I have a post-graduate Certificate of Counselling Skills from Strathclyde University (2000), am a Certified Practitioner of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and Time-Line TherapyTM (2000), having trained with Andy Smith in London, and also gained a post-graduate diploma in Human Givens Counselling & Psychotherapy from Mindfields College in 2004. I am trained in advanced hypnosis and hypnotherapy, graduating from the Atkinson-Ball College of Hypnotherapy and Hypnohealing in 2007 (a qualification recognised by the National Health Service), and I also qualified as an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner with Helen Walker in 2008.

 

My Reiki Training Path

I qualified as a Western Reiki Master in Edinburgh in 1999 under the guidance first of Steve McTaggart and then of Mark Calvert, having served a year's "apprenticeship" as a volunteer healer at the weekly Reiki therapy clinic Mark used to run at the Solas drop-in centre for people in Edinburgh who are HIV+, before going on to set up my own private practice and subsequently start teaching Reiki.  I later did additional extensive Western Reiki training with Alan Sweeney in London in 2002, then some training in Japanese Reiki techniques with Frank Arjava Petter from Germany, and in 2008 took further courses in Japanese Reiki in Liverpool with Tadao Yamaguchi, who lives in Japan. Tadao's mother practised Reiki for 65 years from 1938 until her death in 2003, according to Tadao never using any other form of medication or medical intervention for her four sons, who grew up with Reiki and are all now healthy middle-aged adults, despite one of them having had a very weak disposition from birth. She did her Reiki training when she was just 17 with Dr Chujiro Hayashi, one of the last people to become a Reiki Master under the tutelage of Mikao Usui (during the last 6 months of Usui's life), the founder of Reiki, before he died in 1926.

 

My Reiki Lineage

Mikao Usui Sensei, Founder (Japan)
Chujiro Hayashi Sensei (Japan)
Hawayo Takata (Hawai)
Bethal Phaigh (USA)
William Lee Rand (USA)
Steve McTaggart (Edinburgh) + Mark Calvert (Edinburgh) + Allan Sweeney (London) + Frank Arjava Petter (Germany) + Tadao Yamaguchi (Japan)

 

My Philosophy

"Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me.  At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called 'the love of your fate'.  Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.'  It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge.  If you bring love to that moment - not  discouragement - you will find the strength is there.  Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life.  What a privilege!  This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. 

 

 

Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you  have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive.  Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a  negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes." 

Joseph Campbell 1904-87, writer, anthropologist, philosopher

 

My Guiding Light

"Lord,
Make me a channel of your 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.

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;
and
It is in dying
that we are born to eternal life."

St Francis of Assisi

 

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Stephen Covey

 

"As you think, so shall you be."

Proverbs

 

Success 

"He has achieved success who has lived well, 

laughed often, and loved much; 

who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children; 

who has filled his niche
and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it,

whether by an improved poppy, 

a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; 

who has never lacked appreciation
of Earth's beauty or failed to express it; 

who has always looked for the best in others 

and given them the best he had; 

whose life was an inspiration; 

whose memory a benediction." 

Bessie A Stanley, 1904

 

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."  

Albert Einstein 1879-1955, Nobel Prize physicist
widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time

 

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