Who Takes Care of Your Health?
The Gift of Health Begins in Your Heart
A healthy life is a happy life — and your wellbeing deserves to be one of your greatest priorities.
The Gift of Health is here to help you return to that priority in a gentle, powerful, and heart-centred way. This practice begins not in the mind, but in the heart — your heart. It is something you feel deeply, rather than something you simply understand.
In a world that often asks us to chase results, achieve more, and push harder, this practice invites you to soften. To pause. To receive. To reconnect with yourself in a way that goes beyond relaxation and reaches into true restoration.
We teach you how to use the Keys to Good Health
This beautiful energy healing practice supports you in feeling your inner peace and releasing blocks within your energetic anatomy. As these blocks begin to shift, Life Force energy can flow more freely through the body, allowing every cell to receive the energy it needs to function, restore, and thrive.
Re-energising the body and returning to inner peace are the true Keys to Good Health.
Your body holds a remarkable ability to heal, rebalance, and renew itself. The Gift of Health gently reminds you of this natural wisdom and offers you a simple yet powerful way to restore the flow of Life Force energy within your body.
When you prioritise your health, you honour your life.
When you return to your heart, you return to yourself.
And from that place, healing can begin.
The Founder - Allison Slater
I am delighted to introduce you to our work and our healers. I am Allison Slater; I’ve worked in the field of natural healing for over 30 years and have been blessed in being guided to find a very beautiful method of healing that can be used by anyone.
I believe that when we are born, we bring with us a gift to give to the world. My gift is one of healing, and for thirty years I have been doing work that I absolutely love, is incredibly fascinating, and has been very rewarding.
My interest in natural healing began after Reflexology helped me overcome a period of depression in my late 20s. This was so successful that I trained in it, started practising in 1990 and have run a very busy practice ever since. I have enjoyed studying and practising different modalities over the years, learning and seeing good results from all of them.
Then, I finally listened to the little voice that had been talking to me for years. I closed the books, and the Gift of Health came with great joy from the wisdom of the heart, the feeling of the heart. This beautiful practice is a practice of Love. It helps us feel our inner Love and use it to help our bodies heal themselves.
In recent years I have been blessed as Christian, Debbie, Colleen, Kate, Jean-Anne and Warren, have joined me in practising this work.
They have enhanced The Gift of Health enormously with their high level of consciousness, their deep compassion, and their commitment to working on themselves. This is so important because in this work it is not how much we know, but who we are as human beings, that counts.
allison@soul-connections.co.za | +44 7775 895276 | Kent UK
”Thank you for all that you do to help others and for always having such a warm and open heart for service.” Dr P Naidoo
“I don't have enough words, or thanks for this precious gift."
Melanie Wicks
The Practitioners
Debbie Caknis
My aim is to fill my life with peace, joy, happiness, and love. These simple principles are the foundation of how I interact, consult, teach, mentor, and facilitate, with both humans and animals.
I believe that my gift to the world is my ability to help others to achieve their highest potential, either through teaching, or just being an example for them to follow.
My interest in natural practices and how they complement allopathic medicine, began after a 27-year long career as a nurse and midwife, specialising in the care of ill and premature babies, as well as in nursing management. I feel that my medical background helps me provide quality in other peoples’ lives.
I enjoy offering Reiki and Crystal Healing Courses, Psychic Development and Quantum Sensory Healing Courses, as well as Kundalini Yoga Classes. I also run short Animal Communication Courses and an Internationally Accredited 1-year Animal Communication and Healing Course.
In 2005 I started facilitating magical Wild Dolphin Retreats in Mozambique, and since 2013 have been running Wellness and Transformation Retreats in South Africa.
“Debbie’s Animal Communication Course is so much more than just animal communication. It is comprehensive and loaded with additional information and healing techniques. Such a blessing to be able to attend this amazing course with amazing people.” - Shirley
“l just returned from an incredible Dolphin Retreat in Mozambique. Surpassed all expectations… incredible encounters with the dolphins, superb weather conditions, diving, food, excursions, and people…. What an absolute joy. Thank you, Debbie… could not have wished for more!” - Anne
Colleen Branfield
In 1986 I got married and moved to East London from Durban. My early influences were from my mother, a nurse, and my grandmother, a nurturing and beautiful soul who cared for many children and babies in the Transkei as a young woman. Her knowledge of the good"old" remedies fascinated me, and many became trusted remedies once I had my own children.
The birth of our son in 1990 proved to be a traumatic year relating to his health. He went through many operations and other medical interventions and made a full recovery within his first seven months. He was also asthmatic. These experiences sparked my interest in natural medicine and I have never looked back.
Our younger son was born in 1993 and those years bring such happy memories of being a stay at home mom.
In 2005 I took the opportunity to apply for the two year Therapeutic Reflexology and Meridian therapy course in Johannesburg. It was the experience of a life time. I was on a new journey that would see my new career come alive and keep me connected to this amazing world of natural health. Since 2012, I have run my business from our farm on the East Coast of East London, the quiet country life keeping me grounded and a steady stream of clients coming through my door.
I met Allison Slater in 2013 at a congress in Cape Town. Her positive influence, gentle approach and the generous sharing of her knowledge, has changed the way I practice the modalities I offer. I value her guidance and the practice of The Gift of Health. Since 2020 I have been attending the weekly Zoom Gift of Health, Peace practices that are offered by Allison, Kate and Christian. Something I look forward to every Tuesday evening.
I continue to use The Gift of Health with wonderful reports from my clients.
Christian Steyl
We each have a unique path through this life. Some roads are direct, while others meander with plenty of twists and turns. But all roads lead to Rome. We will all, at one point or another, require help along the way.
That is how my journey with healing began - I needed help. I was lost, stuck, frustrated, and in desperate need of transformation. In short, I had a lot of growing to do. That unfolding is still ongoing.
By grace I was guided to incredible healers and teachers, that each in their own way, inspire and influence how I now work and teach.
Healing for me is the journey of surrender to a higher knowing. It is coming to stand in the wisdom and power of your own heart. My role is to be present and be willing to be a channel of grace in service of that surrender; to listen on behalf of my clients to the deep yearnings of their soul, until they are able to hear its voice clearly for themselves.
The Gift of Health has been an incredible tool in my personal transformation as a healer and teacher. It has guided me to become a more humane human being. For me it is a deeply co-creative and sacred journey into the merging of the personal with universal.
It is my divine pleasure to share this gift with you. I look forward to working with you and sharing in your own unfolding.
With Love and Infinite Light, Christian.
Warren Adams
After healing myself naturally from cancer of the oesophagus and an almost failed liver in 2012, I embarked on a journey of discovery into true health.
It started with nutrition, but I quickly realised it was so much more than just the physical body (or physical health). True holistic health means addressing all of our bodies: physical, emotional, mental and energetic. It's about giving ourselves the right fuel and creating the right environment for the body's innate ability to heal itself.
I've spent 10+ years exploring different modalities and the beautiful process of The Gift of Health is among the most effective I've found. It enables the flow of vital energy to nourish both the body and the spirit.
After receiving a remote session from Allison in 2022, I felt its power and importance immediately, so I knew I had to learn this gift. I traveled from Spain to South Africa and had the honour of being taught by Allison. It became my first steps into energetic medicine and influenced my entire path. Since then, as a healing facilitator, I've studied and practised other modalities, but The Gift of Health will always be one of the most effective methods I know.
I live in Spain and it's been my pleasure to bring this wonderful gift to people here, as well as worldwide, including people in Mexico, Canada and beyond.
You can find more information about me and what I do at 4wardhealth.com
Kate Lawrie
In my early 20's my mum was diagnosed with a terminal illness, for 8 years we watched helplessly as she slipped into a world of her. Grief became an every-day emotion as we lost little pieces of her daily. In the midst of this I was sent a lifeline in the form of a friend who was studying BodyTalk and this was the beginning of my healing journey. The BodyTalk sessions helped to lift the heavy emotions and bring a sense of lightness back into my mind, body and soul. They also sparked a curiosity and a reconnection to my soul. And so began my own journey of learning, healing and a fascination with all things related to energy. I have been practicing BodyTalk and Reiki since 2011 and remain in constant wonder and awe at the power of energy healing.
In 2022 I met Allison and was introduced to the Gift of Health. The Gift of Health healing has been life changing and through sessions with Allison as well as Tuesday's Peace I have been able to move through certain life challenges and have come to feel and experience a deep peace within.
I feel so privileged to have been taught by Allison. I am honoured to be able to offer the Gift of Health healing sessions. I am learning more about the great force of love that fuels our existence and all of life, I have come to know this force as extremely benevolent and awe-inspiring and has the power to heal on all levels and to bring a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Jean-Anne Austin
I love this definition of our Divinity: The ability to transcend perceived human limitations.
I have always felt a deep connection to energy and the Natural World. I have experienced some very difficult times in my life, which have led me to go deeper within, and find inner peace, healing, joy, and a deep connection to all that is.
I have been practising a fascinating energy modality called Body Talk, since 2015, which has brought me great joy and personal healing. I have worked with people and animals, in person and remotely.
In 2022 I had an amazing Gift of Health session which was very gentle and effective. The energy that flowed through it was quite tangible and the peace that settled within my BodyMind was bliss. I was very drawn to this work, so I did the workshop with Allison. I think we all need the high vibration of this work with the peace, healing, love, joy, and connection it brings. I am so grateful to Allison for blessing me with this work. I love using The Gift of Health and seeing it’s wonderful effects on my clients. Namatse.
Lauren Shantall
I have always been drawn to helping people. My first job after graduating from university was working for the Reading Programme for the Visually Disabled at UCT. However, my subsequent career path took me away from this kind of work.
Many years passed, in which time I learnt yoga, travelled in India where I stayed at various ashrams, and continued to live with a spirit of adventure and self-learning — getting lost and finding myself along the way. I got married and live with my husband and our son.
And then it was 2020… my father, two uncles and my aunt died during COVID within a short space of time. I learnt how to process my grief with the help of a beautiful, remarkable energy healer, whom I still go to every week.
Working on myself reawakened my desire and intent to be of service to others, and this led me to undergo formal training in energy healing.
Outside of this, I am an artist who loves to paint plants and flowers, and I run a small communications agency. I'm very much part of the working world and I love the balance, variety and stimulation that all these facets of my life bring. I believe that this varied experience enables me to understand different people and different situations.
I am completely non-denominational, and I honour and respect all spiritual frameworks and all beings that work towards the highest and best for all.
WORKSHOPS
The Gift of Health Workshops
Reconnect with your energy. Restore your flow. Support your wellbeing.
Discover a simple, heart-centred energy healing practice designed to help you reconnect with your inner peace, support your energetic wellbeing, and bring renewed vitality into your daily life. Whether you feel called to learn this practice for yourself or to continue towards Practitioner Level, The Gift of Health offers a gentle yet powerful way to understand energy, healing, and the natural wisdom of the body.
Personal Workshop
A One-Day Workshop for Self-Healing and Personal Wellbeing
In this inspiring one-day workshop, you will learn The Gift of Health Pattern for your own personal use. This workshop is ideal if you would like to support your own health and wellbeing, deepen your awareness of your energy body, and learn a simple practice you can return to whenever you need to re-energise, rebalance, and reconnect.
You will receive a workbook with all the information you need to continue using the practice at home.
Please note: this workshop is for self-use only and does not include certification.
Investment: R1250 / £100
Practitioner Level
For Those Who Feel Called to Take the Practice Further
After completing the Personal Workshop, students who wish to continue to Practitioner Level will be guided through a practical experience process designed to build confidence, understanding, and skill.
To complete Practitioner Level, students are required to:
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Complete 3 treatments on 6 different people over a 3-month period, offered free of charge for practice purposes.
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Submit short case studies from these treatments to their teacher.
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Complete a healing session with their teacher, either face-to-face or by distance.
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Take part in a verbal assessment with their teacher to share their understanding of energetic reality and energetic anatomy.
Once these requirements have been successfully completed, a Certificate of Competence will be issued.
Investment: R1250 / £100
Workshop Details
Class size: 4–8 people
Time: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Refreshments: Beverages will be provided
Lunch: Please bring your own lunch
Workshops are taught by Debbie Caknis and are available in-person, remotely, or as a hybrid experience combining face-to-face and remote learning.
Begin with Yourself
The Gift of Health is more than a workshop — it is an invitation to prioritise your wellbeing, reconnect with your heart, and remember the healing wisdom that already lives within you.
“This practice results in a beautiful calm and peaceful state... A state of connection and a vibrational shift that filters through into my whole life.”