Anne Giles, M.A., M.S., L.P.C., is a counselor, speaker, instructor and writer.
Anne helps people with patterns of feeling, thinking, speaking, behaving, working, and relating that have become problematic for them. She specializes in helping people reduce or eliminate substance use. Protocols helpful for substance use can also be helpful with Internet gaming, gambling, binge-eating, and other behaviors. She specializes in research-informed care for addiction and trauma. Anne’s passion for helping others is driven by her desire to ensure that the highest quality counseling, based on the latest research, is available at local and national levels.
Anne is a rostered provider of Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD.
Anne is a student of Mandarin Chinese. She passed Level 1 and Level 2 of the Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (HSK) 汉语水平考试 proficiency exams in June, 2021. She is certified for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
Anne attended Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia and is a member of the Virginia Tech Class of ’81. Anne was a schoolteacher in Tampa, Florida for many years before returning to her hometown of Blacksburg, Virginia in 2006. She has three cats.
Anne co-authored, with Sanjay Kishore, M.D., Help That Helps: A Kind, Research-Informed, Field-Tested Guide for People with Substance Use Concerns, a free, self-guided program for people with substance use challenges to use in tandem with medical care. Note: Self-help is not an evidence-based treatment for substance use disorder.
Anne received her professional counselor’s license from the Board of Counseling, Commonwealth of Virginia, on September 12, 2018, under the supervision of Katherine “Wren” West, L.P.C. (formerly Starkey). Anne opened a private counseling practice on October 1, 2018.
She is the founder and president of Handshake Media, Incorporated.
Anne’s Bachelor of Arts degree in history, minor in geological sciences, and Master of Arts in education are from Virginia Tech. Her Master of Science degree in mental health counseling is from Nova Southeastern University. She is Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Human Subjects Research Certified.
Anne’s articles, essays, reviews and poems have appeared in The Sun, Press, Tampa Review, CrossCurrents and others. She is listed in A Directory of American Poets & Fiction Writers from Poets & Writers.
Anne wrote a personal workplace advice column for Valley Business FRONT from December 2008 through December 2012.
She has taught in rural, suburban, urban, public and private schools, at the secondary and university levels. In 2008, she was a volunteer counselor at New Life Recovery Center, a New River Valley Community Services Board program, and served on the NRVCS Board of Directors from July, 2013 – March, 2014. She is a volunteer tutor with Literacy NRV.
She competed in sprint triathlons during the 2008-2011 and 2013 seasons, primarily in the Virginia Triathlon Series. She enjoys lifting weights at The Weight Club. She was a beginning ballroom dancer, 2019-2020, and took instruction at Sapphire Ballroom.
Anne was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1958, lived in Covington, Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, and Moscow, Idaho as a child, then in Blacksburg, Virginia through young adulthood. She moved to Tampa, Florida in 1983, lived there for twenty-three years, and returned to Blacksburg in July, 2006. She has one sister, Margaret Galecki. Her sister is married, has grown children and grandchildren, and lives in Radford, Virginia. Anne’s mother, Virginia Tech statistician Mary Wilson Burnette Giles, died in 2011. Her father, Virginia Tech Professor Emeritus Robert H. Giles, Jr., died in 2022. Anne has had several names.
Anne has founded and co-founded several startups. She was co-creator of Cognichoice, a behavioral health software platform, and New2Recovery, a mobile application to aid people in early recovery from substance use disorders.
Brief, language-related bio:
Anne Giles, M.A., M.S., L.P.C., is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, U.S.A., and a student of Mandarin Chinese. She has passed the pre-2021 HSK 1 and HSK 2 exams but did not pass the HSK 3 exam in 2021. She holds master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction and mental health counseling, and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. She attended the virtual National Chinese Language Conference in 2021 and 2022. She has taught English at the middle school, high school, and college levels. Her experience in working with non-native speakers of English includes serving as a support person for two visiting scholars from China to Virginia Tech, 1982-1983, tutoring non-native speakers, working with language exchange partners, and enjoying co-housing with international visiting scholars, 2020 to the present. She is a volunteer tutor with Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley, Virginia.
