Born in February 1964 (on the first day of the Chinese Dragon) in Shropshire, England, Debra enjoyed a conventional British upbringing as the eldest of three children.  Unable to read until the age of 11 however, she managed to avoid the usual shift into logic which accompanies the Western education process.  Instead, Debra maintained contact with her guides and so called "imaginary friends" and indeed continued to develop these skills, only many years later studying and qualifying both as a UK commercial lawyer and clinical hypnotherapist- in so doing bringing together a desire for structure and form within an otherwise seemingly formless world.

Spending her childhood and young adult life being guided to many sacred sites across the world, she was often spontaneously attuned to the magical energies which she found there.  In particular, she found every excuse to repeatedly visit Egypt during the 70s and 80s, at the time often blissfully unaware of her life's Service work already unfolding.  Since those early years, Debra has returned to this magical land of Khem time after time, on each occasion retrieving a little more of her memory related to the ancient mystery schools and their powerful teachings.  A significant part of her soul purpose for this lifetime is to participate in the activations which she facilitates at many sites each year.

Debra is qualified in a number of different healing modalities including:

• Hypnotherapy
  
• Past Life regression Therapy
  
• EFT and Emotrance
  
• NLP
  
• Reiki and Sekhem
  
• Angel Therapy
  
• Crystal and Colour Therapy and the use of Essences for the promotion of well-being

These days she prefers to blend use of these and other skills in accordance with the needs of her clients rather than to work with any particular healing system. Debra works out of the main College site at Willenhall but also works on a distant healing basis where required. To contact Debra for further information on booking a consultation, please email her at debra@athenaschool.co.uk

It is with deep love and gratitude that Debra continues her work in Service in Love, offering to help others as they are guided towards their own personal growth and highest potential.

Kat is a qualified, practising complementary therapist from Penkridge, Staffordshire. A European Business graduate, she worked for 8 years in accountancy but became more and more interested in holistic and complementary therapies. Her work colleagues paid for her to attend a Reiki course as they said she was never cut out to be an accountant! She also took the VTCT Diploma in Indian Head Massage and a short course in Crystal therapy in 2002 while still working full time.

In 2003, after some changes in family circumstances she resigned from her job and spent 2 years travelling in South America, Australasia and Asia, living in Nepal for 5 months while volunteering at an orphanage in Kathmandu and in a school in a remote hill village.

Returning to the UK, after experiencing many wonderful therapies and seeing their effects she could not see herself back in an office environment so retrained full time in Massage, Aromatherapy and Reflexology. This was followed by Bowen Therapy, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi and many other spiritual and hands-on therapy qualifications over the years.

Further overseas travel, incorporating training courses, enabled Kat to immerse herself in her passion and interest in Ayurvedic Therapies including Abhyanga Massage, Pizichilli, Shirodhara, Udvartana and other therapies, qualifying in a ‘Kerala Panchakarma Therapist Program’. Being able to practice and learn these ancient Indian therapies over 5000 years old, was an experience she will never forget! Her visits to India have reaffirmed her desire for an Ayurvedic lifestyle which encompasses yoga and meditation giving her an enriched outlook on life.

Kat now offers complementary techniques from around the world, in particular India and Thailand, to add to your toolbox!

I am a Complementary Therapist and Beauty Therapist who believes that quality training for therapists inspires quality treatments.

I am passionate about providing quality holistic care in my own treatment suite, and love the treatments I offer. I specialise in Aromatherapy, massage therapies, skincare and make up, as well as being a Reflexologist and offering a range of beauty therapies.

As a tutor, my aim is to carefully guide students through the learning processes, always keeping awareness of a holistic approach. I am an experienced teacher and my standards and expectations are high as I am committed to raising the profile and status of my profession as a therapist.

Leanne is a fully qualified reflexologist and gym instructor. As a mum of two young children she has a very busy lifestyle and has found reflexology has had a positive effect in relaxing and improving her children’s holistic well being.

Leanne has previously worked as a care assistant and enjoys working to help people maintain and improve their way of life. From her experience in these fields she understands how the body can benefit from exercise and holistic therapies including reflexology whatever their age or ability.

With her calm, hands on approach to life Leanne strives to helping people improve their lifestyle.

Lynny Jennings is based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and has worked as a fitness professional for over twelve years. Originally a trained dancer, Lynny has long be in-tune with physical demands that can be made of the body – demands which became all too apparent when an injury forced her to abandon dance as a career but at the same time led to her interest in fitness, health and well being.

Intially, she qualified as a personal trainer and group excercise instructor and, running her own successful business, she continues to deliver classes at numerous gyms and health clubs in the area, specialising mainly in Body Balance – a mixture of yoga, pilates and tai-chi based excercise – and other mind and body classes.

Initially, her one-to-one personal training provided excercises for all levels, sports rehabilitation, injury prevention, nutritional advice, dietary analysis, cardiovascular and flexibility training. Because Lynny has always made efforts to get to know her clients as friends, it soon became apparent that there was just as much work to be done on an emotional level, and that physical fitness and outer appearence were not in themselves enough to bring happiness and wellbeing. Having previously conquered some serious issues of her own using an holistic approach, she then went on to train as a Holistic Therapist, thereby ensuring her clients would benefit from an all-inclusive methodology.

Now a qualified practioner of Reiki, Reflexology, Indian Head Massage and Holisitc Massage, Lynny continues to formally study holistic therapies and uses them, not only for ceaseless personal development, but primarily for helping a wide range of people, from all walks of life, realise their full potential.

Clare is based in Lichfield and is a dynamic and extremely successful fitness professional with over 17 years experience. She runs her own very successful Personal Training business and has qualifications in Group Fitness, Nutrition & Swedish & Sports Massage. For sports massage Clare is based in a busy health club where she treats a wide range of clients, she has also worked with local sports clubs.

Clare has always been passionate about exercise & helping her clients achieve their goals. She also coaches a ladies running club and has herself completed many half marathons & triathlons.

She teaches a wide range of classes from spinning, Body Pump and Body Combat to Body Balance – a more yoga & Pilates based class. And this is the direction along with Massage that Clare believes her career path is leading her.

She believes in the benefits of massage both Holistic and Sports and the positive effect that exercise can have on the whole body, mind & spirit.

Ruth lives and works in Birmingham and the Black Country. She left a successful career in teaching after 20 years to develop her growing interest in holistic therapies. She studied at Athena and gained qualifications in Reflexology, Massage, Arometherapy and Reiki – later becoming an accredited Reiki Master Teacher – and began to build up a regular client base using all she had learned. However, she quickly found herself specialising in work among the terminally ill and the elderly and developed a range of techniques and strategies to use in this challenging and rewarding work. She is excited by the prospect of teaching at Athena as this brings together so many strands of her career.

Liz is based in Bristol, Gloucester and Birmingham, with a thriving holistic therapy practice. She teaches Crystal Therapy at a variety of locations including Gloucester College of Arts and Technology, and Hawkwood College, and has a Postgraduate Certificate of Education.

Her main interests are Crystal Therapy, Energy Healing and Release, Tarot and Spiritual Development, and she works with the 3 fundamental healing principles of Intention, Permission and Intuition.

Liz takes a common sense approach to healing and holistic therapies, and, having learnt through experience that appropriate boundaries and grounding are essential, these form an important part of her practice.

Alison began her career in the world of Finance but moved into training and developing others when she realised her life purpose was to help bring out the best in others . Her first experience of holistic therapies began when she gained her massage therapies qualification in 2004. She decided to use her skills as a volunteer in her local hospice and it was there that she was introduced to Reiki, becoming a Reiki master over a period of 3 years. She also qualified in Aromatherapy after seeing the benefits the different oils made to patients physically and mentally.

At the same time as volunteering at the hospice Alison was also setting up her own training business, Limitless Consulting, and as part of her ongoing commitment to her own personal development began studying NLP and Hypnotherapy, qualifying as a clinical hypnotherapist and an NLP Master Practitioner. These skills have been invaluable both in the training Alison designs and delivers and more recently as part of the Life Coaching and Hypnotherapy she offers private clients through her business Limitless for Life.

Alison is very grateful that she has the chance to follow her passions and make a difference in this world. She remains committed to working with her local cancer support centre and to helping others see just how amazing they can be.

Andrea began her career working with children and young people, supporting families and promoting the care and education of youngsters. For some years Andrea specialised in working with children’s whose developmental progress, social skills or behaviour presented particular challenges. She enjoyed particular success in working with children whose developmental delay lead to problem behaviour in the classroom.

Young people often require support and assistance to fully achieve their potential and respond to the challenges of growing up. Andrea has worked extensively with young people individually and in groups and was particularly successful in assisting them to feel more confident and achieve improved academic results.

Andrea trained as a Counsellor and used those skills in a range of settings, eventually teaching counselling skills to others during her time as a College Lecturer. During the early years of work in Counselling Andrea worked with women experiencing domestic violence and those particularly young women affected by substance abuse.

The work Andrea has been involved in eventually led to her establishing a small consultancy in childcare and development and for many years this ran alongside Andrea’s fulltime work in management, training and education. Her work as a counsellor took a back seat while she expanded her skills and concentrated on a full time career.

As well as her therapy qualifications Andrea holds an honours Degree in Sociology, Social policy and Women’s Studies and JNC registered diploma qualification in Youth work (Post grad).

Andrea’s full time work over the last 15 years included a lecturing post At Dudley College where for a number of years Andrea headed up the Health and Social Care team, teaching Childcare and Education, Sociology, Anatomy and Physiology, Communication skills. Counselling, Social policy and a range of other subjects. In particular Andrea specialised in working with young people who had learning disabilities or challenging behaviour.

Her most recent full time post was as the Chief executive of Walsall Council for Voluntary Service’s; which she completely transformed into a forward thinking and successful charity with the new name of Walsall Voluntary Action. After 6 years at WVA and following considerable personal and organisational success Andrea gave up this role and now focuses her time on her Clinical Hypnotherapy and Coaching practice based in Darlaston in the Black Country.

Andrea began studying hypnosis and NLP in 2002, while still in full time employment and first qualified in 2005. She continues to engage in professional development activities and has studied a number of other subjects directly relevant to her work as a clinical hypnotherapist. These other subjects include; Coaching with NLP, Transactional Analysis, Emotional Freedom Technique and Bilateral Stimulation Therapy and Aromatherapy.

Some years ago, although I was quite happy in my role as a management accountant, I felt the need to broaden my horizons and having always had an interest in aromatherapy oils, signed up for a series of evening courses at Telford College of Arts & Technology. Over the following two years I qualified in Swedish body massage, Indian head massage, Aromatherapy and Reflexology and began to use my skills on family and friends working from my home in Telford.

Quite by chance, I stumbled across Clear Intentions when looking to advance my reflexology skills, having been told that they offered a course in vertical reflexology. While there – I was attracted to the crystal therapy course and this was the beginning of a truly fascinating journey. Crystal therapy was swiftly followed by Aura Balance (energyfield therapy), Healing with Angels Practitioner diploma, Kahuna Reiki and Alchemy of the Heart Ascension programme. And continuing into the future - Ascended Master and Ascension Sekhem Reiki programmes.

The training I have undertaken has enhanced my life in ways that I cannot even begin to describe. It is therefore my wish to pass this knowledge on to other people, helping them attain their true potential by running workshops and continuing with my holistic therapy healing.

Nicola qualified as a classroom teacher in 1990 and has a career background in teaching children from ages 3 years-19 years. She spent 15 of her teaching years in the Caribbean working as a director of music but eventually began to feel the pull towards a new and different career but didn’t quite know what that career would be. She felt drawn towards the healing arts but did not know in which field she wished to work.

In trying to decide what to do she enrolled on a crystal healing diploma course and suddenly the whole world of healing opened up. She enjoyed the feeling of being able to help people to make positive changes in their lives or to help them on the path to recovery.

Although she felt she wanted a new career in the healing arts, she realized by watching the children she taught every day that the music she was teaching them had its healing powers too. Watching a child walk into a classroom with the weight of the world on its shoulders and seeing it leave with a lighter air and a smile on their face showed her that healing was what she was doing every day. So instead of changing one career for another, the two careers have now melded into one.

As a teacher, she teaches music to children in nursery and primary schools in Walsall. Since 2005, Nicola has qualified in a number of skills including: Clinical Hypnotherapy, E.F.T, Emotrance, Auricular Acupuncture, Angelic Reiki, Crystal and Gem Therapy, Reflexology, Auriculotherapy and Tai Chi and Qigong. When not teaching in school, Nicola runs weekly classes in Tai Chi and Qigong and works as a Holistic Therapist.

Lizie is a highly experienced Graphic and Web Designer based in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands who specialises in websites, search engine optimisation (SEO), business branding, graphic design for print and online and professional PowerPoint presentation design.

Lizie has worked closely with Debra and the Athena team for over six years now and is responsible for all marketing, websites and promotional activities. Lizie also offers her services to students and graduates of the Athena School of Natural Therapies who may be launching or establishing their holistic businesses: www.holisticwebsites.co.uk

After becoming the mother of the very beautiful Isabella in 2010 Lizie commited herself to working between home and the College and took on the Student Liaison role. Lizie now thoroughly enjoys spending her time speaking with lovely people - helping them with their course choices and welcoming them to the College.

You can contact Lizie at any time with any queries or feedback you may have:

Email: lizie@athenaschool.co.uk
Telephone: 01902 238 901

Born in Kent, Becky moved to Lichfield, Staffordshire, in 1999 to commence marital life. Her son, Ben, instantly appeared and she spent the next 10 years devoting her time to motherhood and the preschool Ben had attended, as a playworker. Spending time with such free-spirited, untainted souls, giving unconditional love was an extremely blissful and grounding experience. For Becky this puts her time spent in this lifetime into perspective.

Following a turn of synchonised personal events, Becky was introduced to Debra Goldston who had an employment opening at the College. From early adulthood, Becky has had a deep interest in alternative treatments and is constantly on the self-development path. This commenced back in 1991 when she was taught Transcendental Meditation and in 2011 was given an attuntment to Level 1 Reiki. This technique she regularly gives to family and friends.

Becky is bubbling over with excitement in joining the Athena School of Natural Therapies family. "Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle and the life of that candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared". Athena School of Natural Therapies is that candle.