Voice Movement Therapy  
Sing and shout your way to health

By Lisa Barr

      In the tunnel of the throat, between the heart and the head, is a little music box. Open it up, and out pour the sounds and memories of every life experience we have ever had. The voice box has been the instrument we have played from day one: from the goo-goo, gaa-gaa babble of pre-verbal infancy to the great waves of adult laughter. We give voice to ideas, dreams and disappointments. We express a rainbow of emotions with shouts of enthusiasm and cries of sorrow. We grunt, whisper and sigh. Paul Newham, founder of voice movement therapy, believes the human voice is the sound of the soul.

      Newham grew up in England in what can be described as acoustic hell. The rageful outbursts of his alcoholic father and his mother's cries of despair made up the melancholic opera of his childhood. As a young boy, Newham spent many nights with his ear pressed to a cup against a closed door, straining to hear the words of the conversation behind it. He learned that the exact words revealed less than the tones of the conversation. The vocal tones indicated the type of interaction his parents were engaged in: the sharp, piercing quality of a heated argument or the gentle, soft sounds that marked a temporary truce.

      After graduating from drama school, Newham took a job as an anaesthetist's assistant, then as a psychiatric nurse trainee. Moved by his observations of human respiration and the colorful vocal expressions of mental patients, he went back to school and studied performance and psychotherapy. To help fund his education he offered drama and movement workshops to the disabled and mentally handicapped.

      During this time, Newham met Roy Hart, an actor and director who experimented with theatre without words. Newham became interested in the pioneering vocal work of Hart's singing teacher, Alfred Wolfsohn, a German soldier who suffered from shell shock during World War I after he was buried alive, surrounded by the cries of the dying. He suffered severe audio hallucinations, but discovered psychological relief by mimicking the sounds that haunted him. The works of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and William Reich also helped Newham to shape his vocal system.

 

Resources, local and beyond . Eve Maisonpierre (Boulder), 303-786-9540 . Christa Ray, 303-823-6241 . Newham, Paul, The Healing Voice (Element, 1999) and Therapeutic Voice Work: Principles and Practice for the Use of Singing as a Therapy (Jessica Kingsley, 1998) . Newham, Paul, "The Singing Cure" audio course, available from Sounds True,         www.soundstrue.com         or 800-333-9185 . www.iavmt.org www.vmtusa.com www.voicemovement.com

     Newham taught his voice movement therapy, based on physiology, anatomy, psychology and movement, at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Anne Brownell, now trainer and director of Voice Movement Therapy USA, was the first American to complete the voice movement therapy program with Newham in 1994, and brought the new modality to the United States in 1995.

      Voice movement therapy is primal in its approach and can "explore the mysteries and stories inside a person," says Carolyn Campfield, director and trainer at the Institute of Voice Movement Therapy. The goal is to reconnect with what voice movement therapists call "the authentic self" by allowing full expression of all aspects of our being through the use of vocal ingredients (such as loudness, pitch fluctuation and register) and spontaneous movements that arise during a session.

      Massage and compression are also used to bring a client's awareness to the voice or breath. For example, suppose you have a shallow voice, without much gusto. The therapist may place her arm across the upper regions of your chest and gently compress it. This will help you be aware of where your breath is coming from, and restricting the upper chest will force the breath to come from a different place, perhaps from the lower abdomen. These slight shifts can make a big impact on the way we express ourselves.

      The best way to understand voice movement therapy is to look at a hypothetical example based on a case study. "Katherine" came to voice movement therapy because she wanted to learn to speak up for herself. During the first session, the therapist asked many questions: What were her hopes and her fears about coming? How did she feel in relation to her voice? What were the major events in her life?

      Katherine was then led into an expansive sound-proof studio, where her voice seemed to resonate. She felt shy at first, so the therapist asked her to simply breath and listen. The therapist added some sounds and Katherine felt comfortable mirroring the sounds back. She began to move and lift her arms. Her voice lifted also, into a higher pitch and then to a lower one as she lowered her arms to the floor. She was asked to exaggerate a certain tone that the therapist picked up on. Soon, her voice seemed to be stretching to an unfamiliar volume that seemed earth shattering, yet exhilarating, as if she were an eagle flying above the mountains looking down at the world below.

      Katherine had just stepped out of her familiar timidness and connected with a sub-personality of boldness, a part of her that had remained repressed and unexpressed. This is what Jung called the shadow, a part of the self which Katherine had judged as unacceptable. Afterwards, she felt changed: her posture was different and her throat seemed more open.

      During her fourth session, Katherine experimented by exaggerating very high pitches. Doing this triggered memories of being inside a closet hiding from her abusive father. She expressed the tiny voice of her childhood, recalling how she would comfort herself by singing softly, all the time fearful of what her father would do next. She rolled up into a ball in the corner and cried like a small girl. She rocked herself back and forth and suddenly began screaming at the top of her lungs, piercing the air with the sound of dislodged pain. Tears followed as if a dam had broken inside of her.

      The voice movement therapist encouraged Katherine to ride out the wave of strong emotion. Katherine's improvisation began shaping into a song. Her voice shifted from the cracked helplessness of a child into the deep, strong voice of a woman. Her body moved and swayed with the singing. The therapist both witnessed and supported this new sound, encouraging Katherine to push on to see where her story was leading her.

      Katherine spent the rest of the session and the next pouring her heart into the container of song: writing lyrics, and composing a deeply powerful, mature melody of survival. She now had completion and a song with which to remember and honor the child who had survived. Katherine's voice work drastically impacted her life: she quit her factory job and went back to school. The therapist noticed that Katherine had a stronger presence, articulating her wants and ideas more openly.

      Voice movement therapy is helpful for any situation where vocal expression is blocked, limited or difficult, including physical impediments, low self esteem, depression, eating disorders and those who have suffered trauma of any kind. Performers wishing to expand their expression are also drawn to voice movement therapy,

      Brownell suggests that voice movement therapy "may not be for someone who does not want to take a risk or is unwilling to walk on unknown ground." Campfield also points out that, "Working with the voice can open doors to regression, especially pre-verbal times." Because of this, safety and trust are top priorities.

      Voice movement therapy usually requires a commitment to more than one or two sessions. Most people have anywhere from three to10 visits. Costs range from $35 to $85 a session, and can be done on an individual or group basis.        

 

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