Hi, I’m Eleni. Global citizen of Greek descent.
I’m an Educational Consultant, Academic Coach and EFT Practitioner. I support kids, adults, and schools/educational institutions both online and in person.
I love working with people from different cultures. I offer in-person services here in Athens, Greece, but most of my private and group coaching/training sessions are online.
The kids, teens, and adults I work with tend to be multicultural or international-minded. I myself am an Adult TCK (Third Culture Kid) who has lived and worked in 7 countries across 3 continents: Zimbabwe, North Sudan, Belgium, Pakistan, Russian, England, and now Greece.
My work as an educator, trainer, and therapeutic coach is secular. Living in different cultures as an expat child and adult taught me the importance of respecting people’s culture and spiritual/religious practices.
DEGREES & QUALIFICATIONS
DEGREES
- Undergraduate degree from Liverpool University (Modern History and English, 2004-7. Grade: 1st Class)
- Masters from Cambridge University (Masters in Education, Researching Practice, 2008-10. Grade: Distinction)
QUALIFICATIONS
- UK certified (2008-9 Post Graduate Certification in Education, Cambridge University) and qualified (2008-10 NQT) teacher.
- UK certified (2019 Level 1 & Level 2) and accredited (2020 Level 1 & Level 2) EFT Practitioner with EFT International.
- UK certified (2023 Level 3) and accredited (2024 Level 3) Advanced EFT Practitioner with EFT International.
Conferences & Contributions
Nov. 2024, EFT International Symposium on Trauma. Panel member talking about how EFT Tapping can help youth build resilience for the future.
Oct. 2024, Mind Body Spirit Fest 2024. Conference Theme: Mind-Body-Spirit Connections, Deree College, Athens. In-person introduction to EFT Tapping “Handling Stress using EFT Tapping to Stay Calm, Focused and Productive”. Experiential workshop for college students.
Sept. 2024, BeWell Festival, Athens. In-person introduction to EFT Tapping workshop for health and well-being.
Sept. 2024, 9th ENSEC Conference, Crete. In-person “EFT Tapping Boosting SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and Mental Health in Schools” workshop.
Oct. 2022, I hosted an online conference called the Tapping in Schools Summit for anyone interested in learning more about how EFT Tapping is being introduced in schools (PreK-Grade 12). My interviews were followed by an audience of 900+ school psychologists/counselors, EFT Practitioners, teachers, school leaders, and parents. Videos available here.
Jun. 2022, 8th ENSEC Conference, Romania. Online “EFT Tapping for Adult Social and Emotional Learning” workshop.
Oct. 2021, IB Students Conference, Breaking Horizons. Online keynote presentation: “Stories from my life: Successes, failures, and finding my purpose”. Video available here.
Oct. 2019, IB Global Conference, Abu Dhabi. In-person “IB Learner Profile: A self-reflection tool for IB teachers” workshop.
Aug. 2019, 7th ENSEC Conference, Hungary. In-person “Well-being Education in Secondary Schools: Building it in Rather than Bolting it on” presentation.
Oct. 2018, I hosted an online conference called the Stress Less Summit for international schools that offer the IB Diploma. My interviews were followed by an audience of 900+ parents, teachers and school leaders in the IB schools community. Videos available here.
MEET ELENI
WORK EXPERIENCE
While working as a classroom teacher in international schools and British schools, I taught well over 3,000 middle school and high school students. The real number is a lot more than just 3,000 kids, but I stopped counting after my first few years of teaching. Let’s just say I’ve taught A LOT of students as a classroom teacher!
I was one of the highest performing teachers at the St Catherines British School of Athens in my 8 years of service there from 2012-2020. As a History teacher (Key Stage 3 History, IGCSE History, HL IB History) and IB Theory of Knowledge teacher, I took such good care of my students that they consistently achieved the goals they needed to get into top universities. For example, every year about three of my HL IB History students got the grades they needed to get into Oxford University, Cambridge University, and Ivy League universities to study History or Law.
After I became a qualified EFT Practitioner in 2020, I resigned from my classroom teaching job at St Catherines to work full-time as an academic/student success coach, EFT Practitioner, and school staff trainer for private schools. I specialized in assisting primary and secondary school students who want my help with achieving their academic goals by clearing their academic stress blocks like study procrastination (avoiding studying) or exam anxiety.
I starting coaching adult learners (university and part-time students in full-time jobs, professionals preparing for exams, etc) using EFT Tapping for clearing blocks to achieving goals. Academic goals include making better progress on getting their dissertation done, better time management for important essays/assignments, managing stress in preparation for being more composed in their internship interviews/school placement assessed lessons, preparing psychologically for oral exams (med school, UK), and preparing for yoga instructor exam resits.
I also love coaching parents and school/university staff using EFT Tapping to assist them with their well-being and other goals. Over the years, my experience working with people using EFT Tapping expanded to include parents, grandparents, teachers, school administrators, therapists, learning support staff, school psychologists/counsellors, and university/college students.
What ties together the work I have ever done as an educator, school trainer, and EFT Practitioner is my interest in what works. I enjoy working with kids and adults in schools, universities, and companies who are ready to work in a collaborative, problem-solving manner towards their well-being and professional/academic growth goals.
2004-2007: Worked as an intern in St. John’s International School which is an IB school in Brussels Belgium, Palmerston Special School which is a school for children with special needs in Liverpool UK, and Greenbank Primary School in Liverpool UK.
2007-2008: Worked as a member of staff (PA to the Deputy Principle) and teaching intern at an IB school in North Sudan that was called Khartoum International Community School (staff have now been evacuated and the school shut down due to the civil war).
2008-2009: Completed two assessed teaching placements as part of my teacher training PGCE program at Cambridge University in English public schools (Comberton Village College and Hinchinbrooke School in Cambridgeshire)
2009-2012: Worked in a British state school as secondary school History teacher where daily incidents of verbal and physical violence from students to staff and staff to staff were considered normal (to protect the school’s reputation and brand, I will not mention it’s name)
CREATING MY PERSONAL EFT PRACTICE FOR EMOTIONAL SELF-CARE
JANUARY-MARCH 2012: Started practising the biological component of EFT Tapping to support my nervous system by relieving my stress in between sessions with a qualified trauma therapist (EMDR) to successfully recover from work-related PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016: Completed a self-study online tapping course to learn how to do both the psychological and the biological components of EFT Tapping for my wellbeing and preventative mental health reasons.
2016-2018: Deepened my EFT Tapping practice for self-care after reading books on tapping and Energy Psychology.
2018-today: Continue to regularly invest personal resources and time for EFT sessions for my own self care with other fellow EFT Practitioners
AUGUST 2009-2016: Worked full-time in schools serving in a range of roles (A Level, IB, IGCSE, and GCSE History teacher, IB TOK teacher, TOK Coordinator, etc) and types of schools (British state school, private IB World School). Under my care, the results of my students who were preparing for rigorous academic assessments consistently resulted in good to great performance in external assessments.
JUNE 2016-2018: Re-negotiated my full-time permanent contract with a private IB World School to turn it into a part-time permanent contract so that I could start working to support students with academic success blocks using my academic coaching and teaching skills.
DECEMBER 2018: Started using EFT Tapping as a stress relief tool when coaching young people in my private practice. Noticed most of my clients made quicker progress when we used EFT Tapping than when we used other mindfulness-based tools and types of meditation for stress relief. In awe at the effectiveness and efficiency of the results! So I wanted to get myself certified and learn more about how to apply these tapping strategies to help my clients achieve their goals quicker and with more ease.
AUGUST 2019: Became a certified Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner with EFT International.
FEBRUARY 2020: Became an accredited Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner with EFT International. Qualified to extended my EFT Tapping services to adults. After qualifying, I resigned from my part-time permanent contract working as a classroom teacher in a school to grow my private practice and offer bespoke training for schools as an EFT Practitioner and Educational Consultant.
JUNE 2023: Became a certified Advanced EFT Practitioner (Level 3).
SEPTEMBER 2020-today: Private schools started hiring me to work virtually with their staff for stress management, student and staff wellbeing, and body-based Social Emotional Learning training as an independent Educational Consultant.
BOOKS I'VE READ THAT INFLUENCE HOW I THINK AND WORK
Sarah Kobrus (2023) Good Grief: Transforming Loss into Hope and Resilience for the Globally Mobile
Anderson Frank με μετάφραση Δέσποινα Πλουσίου (2024) Αφήνοντας πίσω το τραύμα:
Επούλωση σύνθετου τραύματος με τη θεραπεία εσωτερικών οικογενειακών συστημάτων (IFS) / Greek translation of Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems
Dr Peta Stapleton (2019) The Science Behind Tapping: A Proven Stress Management Technique for the Mind & Body
Dr Patricia Carrington (2008) Try It On Everything: Discover the Power of EFT
Dr Dawson Church (2014) Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention
Dr Carol Dweck (2017) Mindset: Changing The Way You Think to Fulfill Your Potential
Wendy Sullivan & Judy Rees (2008) Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
Dr Mihaly Csikszemtmihalyi (2002) Flow: The Classic Work of How To Achieve Happiness
Dr Daniel Goldman (2013) Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
Dr Judson Brewer (2021) Unwinding Anxiety: Train Your Mind to Heal Your Brain
Dr Angela Duckworth (2018) Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
James Clear (2018) Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
Arianna Huffington (2014) Thrive: The Third Metric To Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life
Arianna Huffington (2016) The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time
Charles Duhigg (2012) The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How To Change
Paul McKenna (2009) Control Stress: Stop Worrying and Feel Good Now
Dana Cohen [M.D.] & Gina Bria (2018) Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight, and Heal Your Body Through The New Science of Optimal Hydration
Clint Ober, Stephen Sinatra [M.D.], & Martin Zucker (2014) Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!
Uz Afzal (2018) Mindfulness for Children: Help Your Child to be Calm and Content
Malcolm Gladwell (2020) Talking to Strangers
Dr Travis Bradberry & Dr Jean Greaves (2009) Emotional Intelligence 2.0
Dr Daniel Goldman (1994) Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Dr Marc Brackett (2019) Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Our Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive
Arun Gandhi (2017) The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons From My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi
Eric Berne, MD (1964) Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relations
Thomas Harris, MD (1969) I’m OK – You’re OK
Dr George Simon (2010) In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing With Manipulative People
Dr George Simon (2011) Character Disturbance: The Phenomenon of Our Age
Chris Voss (2017) Never Split the Difference
Dr Christiane Northrup [M.D] (2019) An Empath’s Guide To Evading Relationships That Drain You and Restoring Your Health and Power
Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés (1992) Women Who Run With the Wolves
Marlene Rose Shaw (2019) How Kind People Get Tough: Assertiveness Tools, Tips and Techniques for More Confidence and Happier Relationships
Dr Gabor Mate [M.D.] (2011) When the Body Says No: Understanding The Stress-Disease Connection
Dr Gabor Mate & Daniel Mate (2022) The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk (2015) The Body Keeps The Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
Dr Judith Herman [M.D.] (2015) Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Violence to Political Terror
Dr Peter Levine (1997) Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
Dr Peter Levine (2015) Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body In Search of the Living Past – A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory
Mark Wolynn (2017) It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How To End The Cycle
Lindsay Gibons (2015) Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How To Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents
Karl Dawson & Kate Marillat (2014) Transform Your Beliefs, Transform Your Life: EFT Tapping Using Matrix Reimprinting
Dr Bruce Lipton (2015) The Biology of Belief
Dr David A. Treleaven (2018) Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing
Dr Deborah Miller & Jondi Whitis (2022) Emotional First-Aid for Children: Compassion in Action, How to Quickly Help in Times of Trouble
Christy Gibson, MD (2023) The Modern Trauma Toolkit: Nurture Your Post-Traumatic Growth with Personalized Solutions
Dr Nicole LePera (2021) How to Do the Work: Recognise Your Patterns, Heal From Your Past & Create Your Self
Dr Daniel Goldman (2002) The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results
Matthew Syed (2016) Black Box Thinking: Marginal Gains and The Secrets of High Performance
Simon Sinek (2011) Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
Simon Sinek (2017) Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Dr. Brené Brown (2017) Braving The Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and The Courage To Stand Alone
Adam Grant (2013) Why Helping Others Drives Our Success: Give and Take
Rachael Jayne Groover (2015) Powerful and Feminine
Sheryl Sandberg (2013) Lean In: Women, Work and The Will To Lead
John Baird and Edward Sullivan (2022) Leading with Heart: Five Conversations that Unlock Creativity, Purpose, and Results
Dr George Simon & Dr Kathryn Armistead (2021) Essentials for the Journey: Embracing and Living the 10 Commandments of Character
Dr David Feinstein and Donna Eden (2011) Ethics Handbook for Energy Healing Practitioners
Dr Don Dinkmeyer & Rudolf Dreikurs [M.D] (2000) Encouraging Children to Learn
Kevin Hawkins (2017) Mindful Teacher, Mindful School
Kevin Hawkins & Amy Burke (2021) The Mindful Teacher’s Toolkit: Activities for 4-18 Year Olds
Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully (2020) Educating Mindfully: Stories of School Transformation Through Mindfulness
Steve Oakes & Martin Griffin (2016) The A Level Mindset: 40 Activities for Transforming Student Commitment, Motivation and Productivity
Dr Daniel J. Siegel (M.D) & Dr Tina Payne Bryson (2020) The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired
Sue Palmer (2015) Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About It
Dr Fabienne Vailes (2017) The Flourishing Student: Every Tutor’s Guide To Promoting Mental Health, Well-Being and Resilience in Higher Education
Dr Dominique Thompson & Dr Fabienne Vailes (2019) How To Grow a Grown Up: Prepare Your Teen for the Real World
Lynn Roulo (2016) Headstart For Happiness: A Guide Book Using Kundalini Yoga and the Enneagram
Dr Bridget Grenville-Cleave, Dr Gudmundstdottir, Dr Felicia Huppert, Vanessa King, David Roffey, Dr Sue Roffey (2021) Creating The World We Want to Live In: How Positive Psychology Can Build a Brighter Future
CONTINUED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AUGUST 2019-FEBRUARY 2022: Invested in Level 1 and Level 2 certification, followed by Level 1 and 2 accreditation to become an a qualified EFT Practitioner. Certified and accredited by one of the top EFT trainers in the world, EFT International.
FEBRUARY 2020-DECEMBER 2022: Committed to investing in continued professional development. Highlights of my CPD experiences:
- May 2020: Trauma-Focused EFT Workshop, led by chartered Psychologist and accredited EFT and EMDR practitioner, Christina Buxton.
- June 2020: Trauma Summit, hosted by Action Trauma.
- November 2020: “Women, Trauma, and Mental Health: Empowering Women With the Skills and Insight to Thrive“, hosted by PESI UK.
- January 2021: Intergenerational Trauma Conference, hosted by Action Trauma.
- October 2021: Young Hearts & Minds Conference, hosted by Action Trauma.
- February 2022: Global Mindfulness in Education Summit, hosted by Dr Helen Maffini and Dr Chris Willard.
- February 2022: “Considerations for Working Safely with Children and Trauma”, led by Dr Amy Gaesser.
- March 2022: “Online Educators Retreat”, led by Amy Burke and Kevin Hawkins.
- March 2022: “I Stress, Eustress, We Stress: Exploring the Evidence for EFT’s Effectiveness in Transforming Stress” by EFT International.
- March 2022: “Growth Mindset in the Classroom: Online Conference for Educators”, hosted by the Big Life Journal.
- June-July 2022: “Social and Emotional Learning, and Positive Development”, ENSEC (European Network for Social and Emotional Competence) Conference
- August 2022: “Tearless Trauma Technique”, live EFT training teleclass with Dr Peta Stapleton.
- August 2022: Began working through the advanced EFT training as a member of EFT HQ from Evidence-Based EFT by Dr Peta Stapleton.
- August 2022: “Tapping in the Classroom”, self-paced training for teachers and school counsellors led by Dr Peta Stapleton.
- September 2022: “Tapping with Children”, live training led by EFT Guild member Deborah Sampson.
- October 2022: “Chasing the Pain and Tips from our Clinical Trials”, live EFT training teleclass with Dr Peta Stapleton.
- Took part in Dr Gabor Mate’s 12-hour in-person training here in Athens on the 22nd-23rd June 2023 to learn more about his Compassionate Self-Inquiry method of circular questioning.
- Took part in the in-person Sept. 14-15th 2023 trauma training with one of the world top psychiatrist Dr Bessel van der Kolke to learn about Complex PTSD and which trauma healing methods this world-renowned psychiatrist has found work best.
- Completed the world’s best Tapping in the Classroom training by Dr Peta Stapleton (July 2023-February 2024).
- Regularly invest in world-leading training such as Dr Peta Stapleton’s comprehensive Evidence-Based EFT HQ (August 2023-today).
- Became a certified Advanced EFT Practitioner in June 2023 and accredited Advanced EFT Practitioner in July 2024.
- 2-day Trauma-Focused EFT Tapping certification led by Dr. Christina Buxton & George Brooks (May 25th & June 15th 2024).
COMING UP:
- 3-day European Network for Social Emotional Competences Conference in Crete (September 5-7 2024).
- 2-day training led by Dr Bruce Lipton here in Athens (October 12-13th 2024).
- 3-day all access virtual training for any professional development workshops at the Washington D.C, Psychotherapy Networker Conference (March 20th-23rd 2025).