The Therapeutic Voice

The Therapeutic Voice

One of the great honours of my work is sharing sound with holistic professionals at organisations such as forthcoming courses at the Holistic Healing College and the College of Psychic Studies.  It’s really inspiring when practitioners realise they can easily and profoundly amplify their practice with an increased awareness of the power of voice and sound. 
So here’s a few thoughts about the power of the Therapeutic Voice.

Listening
Therapists are often natural empaths who can fine tune their listening antennae to pick up a wealth of important information about their clients.  Many ancient systems of medicine including Traditional Chinese Medicine use vocal diagnosis to tune into the state of a person’s wellbeing - for example a healthy laugh indicates joyful heart energy, whilst a nervous laugh can indicate anxiety and emotional strain.  We’ve all heard someone say ‘I’m fine’ tersely through gritted teeth and understood that they were anything but fine.  The pitch, speed, rhythm, timbre, volume and tone of a person’s voice can give us many signals beyond the actual words they are saying.    

Inviting Expression
Clients can feel very nervous about sharing their feelings so we can support and invite their expression by using simple breathing and sounding techniques including deep breathing, sighing, yawning, stretching and toning (which is singing simple vowel sounds).  This supports the client to relax and open to expression in a safe, abstract way.  E-motions start to move when our body moves, so gentle breathing, sounding and movement can enable your client to start feeling safe to connect and share their feelings.

Vocal Guidance
As therapists our voice is crucial in helping our clients feel relaxed and able to trust the process we are guiding them through.  It acts as a sonic lighthouse - so developing clarity of intention is crucial so that the tone of our voice is in tune with our communications and can be easily understood by the client.  We can set our own personal intention and support our clients to set clear intentions so that the session proceeds with clarity.

Grounding the Voice
Keeping ourselves grounded and stable will enable us to support our client when they are feeling vulnerable. We can do this by breathing slowly and deeply and engaging our abdominal muscles when we speak, so that the voice is anchored in the lower body and has a deeper, warmer tone.  By doing this we reassure the client that we are offering a still, safe place for them to share.  

Creating an Open Space
Softening the tone of the voice and speaking from an empathic place of connectedness enables us to offer heartfelt support to our clients.  Instead of preaching, fixing, advising (head based responses) it can be more powerful (and more difficult) to sit back and listen and give a warm mmm, yes or encouraging affirmation. Clients often find their own answers and gain insight as they talk things out and they will sense that you are supporting their own intuitive and creative awareness, rather than pushing your own agenda.  Using open questions and language that mirrors the client’s own terminology enables the client to reflect consciously on the way their perspective is framing their reality.

I’d love to hear about your experiences of the therapeutic voice

Wishing you the wonderful heartfelt sharing of your healing voice in the world

Tips to help you and your clients communicate

* Listen - invite and make space for silence and listening in the session
* Intention - set a clear intent before your session and invite your client to do this too.
* Breathing - practice breathing deeply from the belly, before, during and after the session and invite your client to do so.
* Ground Yourself in the way that is right for you - eg breathing through the soles of your feet, stamping your feet, taking time in Nature.
* Sound AH - this is the sound of the Heart- singing a warm AH from the centre of the chest opens empathic communication.

SoulSong - Let Your Soul Sing

SoulSong  - Let Your Soul Sing
I am delighted to announce that I will be running at retreat, SoulSong in Ibiza - 3rd-10th May.  This has been a long time dream of mine come true and I am super excited to share it with you.
Click here for a special brochure.

In celebration, here’s a deep sea dive into how singing connects us to our deepest tidal rhythms and return us to the sea of our being…..

Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music.  - Hafiz

Soul  - Both science and spirituality describe sound and water as core elements of creation.  One original meaning of the word ‘Soul’ was ‘coming from or belonging to the sea’ which was thought to be the starting point of existence.  (The Old English word for soul - sawol - is very close to the Proto Germanic - saiwaz - meaning ‘from the sea’ which was considered to be the home of souls) 

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul - Plato

Soundwaves - sound vibrations are an inherent part of all life.  Any sound we receive or create, sends waves of energy through every layer of our being.   Singing is an act of self-creation, self-expression, self-discovery and ultimately surrender.

This earth is a vast harmonic wave system that is built and sustained by unheard music.  - Corinne Heline

Waters of Life - Most of our body is made of water all essential processes for life in the body requires water.  Sound has immense capacity to travel within and transform water - whales use sonar to communicate across long distances, whilst ultrasound enables us to view babies within the waters of the womb.  So when we sing, we introduce a sound current which sends ripples through every cell of our body.

I sing to the realists.  People who accept it like it is.
- Aretha Franklin

Seabed -  The groundwork involved in singing - breathing, adjusting posture, listening, concentrating, learning lyrics and melodies - calls us to attention.  We  become more present, aware and available - we get real.

Singing from your heart is like fresh air that heal you again from the pollution around you - Ahmed Farrag

Sea breezes - the pull of musical tides on our breath as we sing literally inspires us.  The word soul is related to the Greek word psyche, which comes from the verb ‘to cool/blow.’  The Latin for inspiration comes from spiritus - so as we breathe more expansively, we become more spirited and lighthearted.  The seabreeze of inspiration cleanses our mind, soothing anxieties and worries and taking us into a more present moment awareness.

At the root of all power and motion, there is music and rhythm, the play of patterned frequencies against the matrix of time, Before we make music, music makes us.  - George Leonard

Rhythmic waves - As we swim in the rhythmic currents of sound, our breathing deepens, steadying the heart rate.  Agitated, frequent brain waves (beta waves) slow to a more relaxed, calm and meditative tempo (alpha waves)

Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony? - Leonardo da Vinci

Ups and downs - singing enables us to surf and express the full dynamics of our emotions -  rough, calm, rocky, moody, stormy, tranquil -  in a safe, creative way.  Troubled waters are soothed and harmonised in song.

I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by.  No matter what culture we're from everyone loves music. - Billy Joel

White horses - Riding the crest of the sound waves can bring wonderful rushes of euphoria and delight.  As with any form of exercise, we release happy hormones as we sing.  The pure pleasure of being immersed in beautiful, resonant sounds is uplifting and renewing. The sense of achievement gained from creating musical forms boosts self confidence. 

Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and  invents. - Ludwig van Beethoven

The Light House -  singing promotes self awareness, as we observe the movement of our emotions, thoughts, breath and energy.  Light bulb moments of insight and intuition may arise as we find new ways to navigate our inner and outer landscapes.

Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours. – Elton John

Transcendence - Composers, scientists, therapists, psychologists and musicians have described the power of sound to profoundly alter our state of mind.  Singing has the capacity to help us overcome limited, everyday constructs of ourselves and discover totally new perspectives.

Music can change the world because it can change people. - Bono

Surrender -  Ultimately singing is a place of letting go, of allowing sound currents to transform us. We surrender our fears, resistances and behaviours and begin to express ourselves from a place beyond our everyday story about who we are.  We return to the vast mysterious sea of our being.

If you would like more information about the SoulSong Retreat please do contact me

Wishing you glorious deep sea diving in the waters of song

A Roaring Start to 2014

 

A Roaring Start to 2014

Dear Friend

Wishing you a truly magnificent, magical start to 2014!

What are your dreams and aspirations for 2014?  

What is your heart longing for?

Are you ready to roar?

As we enter 2014, here’s 4 Thoughts about how to get the New Year off to a Roaring Start.

1. Start from the Heart

It takes courage (which originates from coeur - French for heart) to stay tuned to ourselves and follow our hearts.  There are so many endless distractions, obligations, pressures, enticements, commitments, chores and tasks to get caught up in.   Staying tuned inside means turning down the astral radio that blares out conditioned notions of ‘what everyone else is doing/ thinking’ and getting on with what we need to be doing, thinking and feeling.  Everyone has their own way of tuning in - whether its yoga, singing, meditating, walking, writing, painting, daydreaming, dancing, doodling, working out - the important thing is that it is authentic and helps us listen for our heart’s desire.

2. Think Big, Dream Big, Ask Big

My friend visionary leader Harun Rabbani, encourages people to discard ‘realistic thinking’ and to set outrageous goals.  It works. I realise that I get small outcomes when I am thinking small.  One of the quickest lure into thinking small is worry - particularly worry about money.  Big dreams get us thinking bigger than worries - I never had the slightest idea how I would fund creating three albums - I just had a compelling dream to make music which propelled me into action.  Big Dreams require making Big Asks. In 2012, I co-ordinated a big fundraising concert for Sing for Water - it had me asking for donations, asking for a venue, asking for singers, asking for support, asking for press attention.  In my early life, from stories like Oliver Twist, I’d got the impression that asking for more was greedy.  Acting on big dreams has taught me that asking opens doors. Firstly, because asking more of myself makes me raise my game.  Secondly, asking others gives them an opportunity to contribute their creative expertise, support or skills and if they can’t help, they will usually direct you to somebody who can.

3. Take Daily Daring Actions

Any big dream starts out in the etheric realms of our imagination and inspiration. Grounding it takes innumerable thoughts, words and actions to bring in into reality.  The Protestant Work Ethic that I inherited was helpful to a degree in enabling me to apply elbow grease to my To Do Lists.  However what really helped was understanding that in the process of making my big dreams come true, I was actually being transformed.  The next step, rather than being a box to tick off on an endless list, could be a new discovery, a moment of reckoning or a totally over the cliff moment of daring do.  I have had to repeatedly summons up every last bit of courage to pick up the phone or press the send button or stand up to sing in front of hundreds of people.  Recognising that I am being catalyzed turns every process into a creative adventure.

4.  Stand Out

I’ve found that it really is no good monkeying about trying to fit in.  In truth there is a place where you fit exactly and that is the very unique space that you are currently occupying - inside your skin.   All your amazing qualities are currently parked up in your earthly life vehicle.  Having established that, it is then pointless trying to conform to other people’s perceptions of life  - because far from fitting in, there is no way you can actually fit in there.  That spot, as Oscar Wilde pointed out, is already taken.  The fear of ‘being different’ dissipates when we realise that everyone is different and that acknowledging, celebrating and getting really creative with that difference is the source of peace.   It brings the peace of self-acceptance which promotes the acceptance of others.  Expressing yourself truthfully is inevitably going to bring you into a fuller understanding of your difference which rather than creating isolation actually promotes more connection, empathy, compassion and understanding of others.  We appreciate the uniqueness that each of us brings to life’s banquet.  So whatever it is you do, do it as you.

If you’d like to give your self expression a rocket boost for the New Year, please do join me at Hear Me ROAR! - a wild vocal liberation workshop - on 19th January.

Wishing you a truly Roaring start to 2014

Tips for Roaring in 2014

1. Tuning In - how can you tune up your tuning in - consider the wonderful creative practices that help you tune in - can you give yourself more?

2. Big - what’s your big dream for 2014 and what do you need to ask of yourself and others to do it?

3. Daring - what’s the first daring step that needs to be taken?

4. Stand Out  - how can you express more of your uniqueness - what colours, textures, style, musical genres, sounds, scents - help you feel and express more of you?

Picture: Chagall - The Dream