“It’s all about the breath”, imparts Sasha Mitchell who runs the SW Division of Resonance Voice Training, a company that provides personal impact, voice and presentation skills training. She helps people present themselves better, speak more fully, manage nerves and gain confidence. Sasha runs workshops and also does one-to-one, helping anyone from managers in the workplace who have a difficult meeting or presentation to give, people returning to work after a prolonged absence, those who need to speak in public such as a father-of-the-bride or CEO, to small business owners who want to project themselves more effectively. She has worked with the Foreign Office, female ex-offenders, Chambers of Commerce, corporate businesses, councils and school children. “Everyone,” she says, “can learn to have a healthy voice”.
The daughter of poet and playwright, Adrian Mitchell, Sasha moved round the country with him on tour, using her voice to lull, guile and delight the audience. She read his poetry, sang his lines and loved the way her words had an effect on those listening, as well as the confidence and joy it gave her too. Sasha established a career in acting and started working at the BBC at 16, later achieving cult status as the baddie in the last ever episode of Blake 7 and recognition as DS Karen Malahyde in Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford Mysteries. Now, as well as her local consultancy work, she still travels round the UK, fulfilling her role as a Lead Associate for Resonance Voice Training.
After six years of staying with her partner in Kilmington every other weekend, Sasha finally made the move full time a year ago. She loves the change of pace the countryside provides, giving her time to hide in her writing shed creating stories, work in the allotment and most importantly for Sasha, spend more time reading all she can and developing her client relationships.