July 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

The storied Annie Hart tells stories with heart
by PAMELA ROGOW

As a child, Annie was “always strangely fascinated by indigenous peoples, reading Thor Heyerdahl and stories about New Guinea, native Americans and other ancient storytelling cultures.”

Annie Hart is a storyteller, with a twist. She has incorporated her training in hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) to unfold tales that are captivating and may shift the perspectives of her listeners. In the space between shaman and therapist lives Annie Hart, 49 years old.

Annie was raised in Blue Bell with her father, Charles (Chick) Hart, a golf pro at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, and her mother, Louise (Gina) Hart, a longtime nurse at Chestnut Hill Hospital. As a child, she was “always strangely fascinated by indigenous peoples, reading Thor Heyerdahl and stories about New Guinea, native Americans and other ancient storytelling cultures.”

In her 20s, she began to wonder how to make this a better world, and to focus on imaginative “inner and outer worlds.”

“Stories are about changing our inner reality,” she points out. “Stories take us to other beautiful worlds that help us remember the magic and light that can infuse our lives. Problems disappear, and people become happier and more alive when they change their inner story.”

Her interests took her to the University of Oregon where she earned a degree in rhetoric, then worked as an Italian interpreter, artist and community organizer before moving to Santa Cruz, California, where she earned “consultant and trainer” certification under NLP pioneer Robert Dilts.

In addition to NLP, Hart also trained in the hypnotherapy, expressive arts and communication. These fields influence how she makes her living “as a breakthrough coach, helping people get unstuck.” She works with individuals, couples and small businesses and describes her work as quick, easy and fun.

NLP, Hart explains, is called “the structure of mastery.” It’s about how we do things well, and how we structure and organize ourselves unconsciously — either in ways that work for us or may keep us stuck and unfulfilled. Hart tells stories and works with people (she doesn’t use the word ‘client’ much) “so that they can activate their internal resources in a new direction. You can change the way the brain programs your life … NLP works with unconscious patterns, kind of like the programs on your computer. It is different from therapy in that you don’t need to talk as much or go so far back into the past. It’s more fun, too. You don’t have to think about doing things differently, you just end up doing things differently.”

Hart also credits Milton Erickson as the creative genius behind the form of hypnotherapy that she has studied. “He basically told people stories, and weeks later their whole lives would change, and they didn’t know why. That’s what I mean when I use the word ‘magic.’ People would come in with ‘unsolvable’ problems, but he didn’t look at them as problems but as a resource in the making. He found the latent material inside that clients could tap into.”

When Annie tells stories, they are indeed entertaining, “but it’s not about entertainment. What usually happens is that something wakes up inside of people, something wonderful that maybe they didn’t expect.”

This summer, she is telling stories on the last Friday evening of each month, at the new Hill Tea Bar on Hartwell Lane and Germantown Avenue. It’s for grown folks. The program is under an hour, somewhat interactive and fun.

Come fall, look for storytellings at the Hill Tea Bar, paired with dinner. The next event, Friday, July 25, 7 p.m., is titled “Other Beautiful Worlds: Stories from the Heart of the Cosmos.” No charge and no reservations necessary.