John Wheeler

About John Wheeler

John Wheeler, LPCC-S, is a therapist, life coach, author, facilitator, and public servant devoted to helping people reclaim themselves and create lives that actually feel like their own. John’s work is shaped by both professional training and lived experience. Growing up, he knew what it felt like to navigate uncertainty, financial hardship, and the quiet ache of not always having access to the same opportunities as others. When his family faced bankruptcy during his high school years and moved into a small apartment to make ends meet, John experienced firsthand how limited resources can shape a young person’s life. He missed out on experiences like school trips and other opportunities that simply were not within reach. Those experiences did not make him smaller. They gave him perspective. Over time, John became deeply committed to helping others recognize their value, trust what they know, and move beyond the limitations they were taught to accept. His path has included work in education, mental health, coaching, facilitation, and public service, including serving his community through school board leadership. In each role, a common thread has guided him: people deserve to be seen, respected, supported, and empowered to choose something greater for their lives. As a therapist and life coach, John began noticing a recurring pattern in his work with clients. Many people were not simply struggling with anxiety, confusion, or low self-worth. They were going against what they knew to be true in order to maintain relationships, avoid conflict, meet expectations, or keep the peace. Again and again, he witnessed the cost of that disconnection: self-doubt, emotional exhaustion, and a gradual loss of trust in one’s own reality. That awareness became the foundation for his book, Shutting Off the Gas to Gaslighting: Reclaiming Your Reality and Power in a World That Tries to Deny It. In this work, John brings together clinical insight, real-world experience, and consciousness-based tools to offer a different conversation about gaslighting. Rather than focusing only on identifying the behavior of others, he invites readers back to themselves. John’s approach is grounded, compassionate, and empowering. He does not believe healing requires making war on anyone or proving your reality to those committed to denying it. Instead, his work centers on awareness, choice, self-trust, and the ability to recognize what is true for you without needing someone else to validate it. Whether he is working with clients, writing, facilitating classes, or serving his community, John’s target remains the same: to create spaces where people can stop making themselves wrong, start trusting what they know, and choose lives that reflect who they truly are.