Introduction A few months ago, Lesley wrote to me to ask if I'd interview her. I hopped over to her website and had a look. I was intrigued and agreed to interview her. Therefore, without further ado, I have great pleasure in introducing to you, Lesley Witt ...

Aneeta: Lesley, thank you for writing to me and welcome to the site. Please tell me a little about yourself – where were you born, where did you grow up, what do you do for a living and where do you live now?

Lesley: Hi Aneeta, I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe which is where I grew up and I now and have lived in Johannesburg for many years. I specialise in the neurosciences, Hypnotherapy, coaching and training and much of my training is based in storytelling.

Aneeta: I have read the material on your website, www.coachapproach.co.za. However, for the benefit of my subscribers, can you please explain the kind of work you do?

Lesley:  I deal in my private practice with self-esteem issues, depression.eat/sleep disorders, phobias etc and in my corporate practice I am a Business Coach which enables people to get from their present position to their true potential. I also design and write workshops for teams and I do many storytelling workshops where Daniel, my son participates. Diagnosed with brain cancer at age1, Daniel was given 48 hours to live. He is now 26, tiny in stature, compassionate, very present and a joyful person. He does no read or write but sings in all our official languages like a little bird. People are touched by him and his singing and then I tell his story or rather act it out and I facilitate a workshop where people open up to their stories.

Aneeta: Over the years, I’ve come to know a little about NLP and self-help work. I would like to know, what makes your work special? How does what you do stand out from the many others practitioners out there?

Lesley: I started off with a low self esteem and through this work I have come to value myself. I believe that everything starts with how we talk to and treat ourselves even at CEO level.

My work caters to self first and I have devised along with the NLP, some amazing techniques.

Aneeta: In your email to me, you mentioned a book called ‘Meet Daniel’. Please describe this book for me.

Lesley:  This book is written but not as yet published. It is Daniel’s amazing story of survival, his everyday stories and the book moves on to people and their stories.

Aneeta: Needless to say, your work must involve storytelling. What part of storytelling do you use most in your work and what advice would you give those who would like to venture into storytelling?

Lesley: Storytelling is such a powerful tool. Every one of us has a story. I love that what weaves the psyche of person, is so different as to what weaves the psyche of another. And yet with all our stories we are all human and require to love and be loved.

For anyone venturing into the storytelling arena – it is exciting but you need to become upskilled in order to deal with people and the emotions and thoughts.

Aneeta: Lesley, thank you.

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