Vocal expression and play sit at the heart of music therapy practice. Every day in practice, participants and music therapists use our voices to communicate, express and relate. The way people use their voice offers extraordinary insight into their current state of being and their unconscious. It can show us not just the heart of a person’s identity but can also represent the masks and barriers people present in order to navigate the world safely. This can be particularly true for people who have experienced trauma, or whose voices or expression have been silenced, suppressed or unseen.  

  

In music therapy, voice is commonly seen as a useful tool in a therapists’ toolkit, but is often not the focus of therapy beyond functional rehabilitation or communication goals. In vocal psychotherapy, voice is centered as the key form of musical expression. Vocal psychotherapy is a therapeutic journey toward authentic vocal expression, wherein participants are supported to connect and make meaning of past experiences and relationships through specific vocal psychotherapy techniques.  

  

In this 90min workshop, Dr. Lucy Bolger – a vocal psychotherapist in training – will share foundational concepts and techniques from vocal psychotherapy and explore how these can be adapted and related to broader music therapy practice.  Participants will be invited into an experiential exploration of their own authentic voice, and introduced to core principles of vocal psychotherapy. Vocal psychotherapy is an advanced competency that requires two years of additional training. Therefore, this workshop will not teach specific vocal psychotherapy skills, but will focus on how therapeutic voicework can be more effectively integrated into everyday music therapy practice, and the therapeutic potentials of this for participants across the lifespan