Helping people help themselves

Evany van Wyk

Marjolize Scholtz has been a wellness professional for over 17 years. During her career her empathy towards people has grown immensely. Scholtz was born at Khorixas and grew up on a farm in north-western Namibia.

Today, she is a qualified mental and emotional mastery expert, a life coach and a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner. NLP is used as a method of personal development through promoting skills such as self-reflection, confidence and communication. It is popular in sports, education and the corporate sphere. That may be a mouthful, but in a nutshell, she knows how to help people heal mentally.

Among other things, she has completed a strategic wellness management degree and holds another degree in health and social services with specialisation in psychological counselling. She has been Bank Windhoek’s corporate wellness consultant for the past 12 years.

Scholtz’s job includes assisting individuals find a solution or path of their own to recovery, so that they can become healthy. This can be in whichever domain the individual identifies as not functioning optimally at that particular stage in their lives. Scholtz says some healing processes and journeys take longer than others, but any progress is something worth celebrating. Looking back, she actually wanted to become a doctor when she was younger, but as she grew older the urge to help people become the best possible versions of themselves took over. Clearly having made the right decision, Scholtz says she loves when people are able to look back on their journey and realise how much they have grown and managed to overcome their challenges, “especially those challenges that they once thought were the end of life as they know it.”

It is not easy dealing with people’s emotions, though. According to her, it is vital to find ways to distance yourself from those negative feelings, but still manage to care enough to want to make a positive difference.

“There have been many successes at Bank Windhoek’s wellness centre,” she says. The extent of the change is not important to her because healing and wellness is a life-long journey. As long as people know that there is help out there, she can sleep soundly at night.

Another passion Scholtz has is overseeing Bank Windhoek’s blood donation clinics, which have received the top corporate clinic award from the Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia (NamBTS) for many consecutive years.

“I was also recently elected as a NamBTS council member. It is such an honour,” she says.

Someone once told her that a person’s heart will reflect in their eyes and that staying true to your heart will always be a reason to continue on your journey. She has therefore decided to do everything she takes on with a dash of love, especially her work.

She is also a mother of two sons.

“My sons play sport and I make a point of it to be the loudest supporter on the side-lines cheering them on,” she says.

The Scholtz family are adventurous, enjoying outdoors activities such as scuba diving and travelling. “There are still so many dive sites and destinations on our wish-list,” Scholtz told Careers.

Scholtz is open to whatever the future brings, as long as it includes opportunities to assist people to grow, staying true to her passion and values.

“I am excited to see where my wellness journey takes me,” she concludes.