Meet your Coaches

Murray Dabby, LCSW and Lesly Fredman, Creative Coach, have teamed up to bring a unique approach to social anxiety, social phobia and shyness through the art of improv and play

  • Murray Dabby LCSW is a psychotherapist, group therapist, relationship coach, teacher and trainer with over 30 years of experience. He practices and trains people in the non-diagnostic performance based Social Therapy. He is director of the Atlanta Center for Social Therapy where he sees groups, individuals, couples and families in his therapeutic practice. With a background in working with chronic mentally ill, family therapy, diagnostic research, community activism and community social work, he was one of the founders of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy, an international training program where the social therapeutic method is taught, practiced and developed. He continues on the affiliate faculty there. Murray co-developed The Couples College training for couples on relationship building in a group context. Murray has a history in the performing arts: as a musician, community theatre director, and using performance and improvisation in his teaching methods. Murray has trained professionals and non-professionals alike, nationally and abroad, in workshops with professionals in business, therapeutic settings, and in working with refugees of war in the former Yugoslavia. He also runs a youth non-profit the Atlanta All Stars Talent Show Network, and is an Adjunct Professor at Clark Atlanta University.

  • Lesly Fredman is a Creativity Coach (www.leslyfredman.com); Managing and Artistic Director of Theatre on the Prowl, with over 30 years experience teaching improvisation, performing, and directing numerous theatrical productions; and a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader. She is the co-creator/leader, with Imago therapist Jesse Bathrick, of playshops for couples (“Play Date Nights”) and women in transition (“Navigating the Space In Between” and “Off and On the Map”); and with poet Alice Teeter, of Improvoetry Workshops, a blend of poetry and improvisation to enliven the creative process. She has led church retreats (“Play as Spiritual Practice”) and improv classes for men in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and adults suffering from social anxiety. Lesly has a B.A. in Humanities with an emphasis in Theatre from Florida Presbyterian College and a year of graduate work at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. She has received training from Coaches Training Institute, one of the premier life coach training organizations in the world; and is a member of the Creativity Coaching Association and the Artist Conference Network, a nationwide coaching community of artists.