IAVMT Training
Teachers
Anne Brownell, MA, LMHC, VMTR, is director of the Norma G. Canner Foundation for Voice Movement Therapy and teaches and supervises on the Foundation Training in Voice Movement Therapy: The Voice Unchained. After studying and working in the Expressive Therapies with pioneer dance therapist Norma Canner and noted clinician and author Penny Lewis, Anne’s search for the vocal component for a movement oriented therapy led her to be the first American to train in VMT with founder Paul Newham in London; to teach and supervise with him on trainings in both England and America; and to establish her own training program, first in the United States, with Christine Isherwood, VMTR (4 trainings), and then in South Africa with Hennie Pienaar, VMTR, where they recently completed their first program.
Anne has also acted as a VMT consultant for schools, working with children experiencing developmental and language delays; taught the first for-credit graduate course in VMT, for Castleton College, Vermont; conducted a private practice and supervision; and presented at conferences here and abroad. Prior experience includes working in Early Intervention programs, supervising graduate students in Dance Therapy on the therapeutic use of the voice, and conducting music and movement groups for previously homeless and substance abused people with HIV and AIDS. Anne has served as scriptwriter and executive producer on several films on the Expressive Therapies, most notably A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner and Going to the Source: A Study of Group Process in the Natural World. Her CD, A Journey in Song, illustrates a range of possibilities inherent in a single human voice, and she delights in performing songs in different genres and sounds.
Christine Isherwood, VMTR, BA (Hons), Dip Assert Training, is a singer and writer who has performed in political musicals, toured the UK and Europe with theatre groups and bands, and recorded as a pop singer. She studied with Paul Newham before being invited to apprentice to him and subsequently teach with him on the Voice Movement Therapy training in London. She has co-taught 4 Foundation Trainings in Voice Movement Therapy with Anne Brownell, on Martha's Vineyard, MA, USA.
Christine supervises practitioners and continues to teach groups internationally. Prior to her VMT training, she attained a B.A in Cultural Studies from the University of East London, then went on to qualify as an Assertiveness Training teacher, upon completion of which she undertook a two year training in Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychotherapy. She worked for ten years with homeless people in Central London, before going on to work for the UK mental health organization MIND. Her current band, Salt Doll, has a new CD "The Washed Ashore Collection" available at Topplers Records: www.topplers.net/saltdoll
Hennie Pienaar, MTh, ACPT, REBT Supervisor, VMTR is a Clinical Psychotherapist in private practice since 1993. He works with individuals and groups in Government, with corporations and in the private sector.
He is a licensed minister and motivational speaker. He received his supervisory certificate from the Albert Ellis Institute for Rational Emotive and Behavioral Therapy, where he did post-graduate work, and trained in Voice Movement Therapy in 2004 with Anne Brownell and Christine Isherwood. Hennie has worked as a psychotherapist at a treatment center for people with addictions, runs therapeutic groups at a private neuro-clinic and is the founder of Integrated Living, an organization presenting VMT to groups all over South Africa. He is also the founder and director of Flexible Living which organizes workshops, seminars and conferences for speakers in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and theology in South Africa. He is the founder of VMT South Africa, was assistant teacher on the first VMT training there in 2010, and is resident supervisor for the current students entering the Qualifying Period.
Eva Campbell-Haidl, VMTR, was born in Austria. She is an accomplished singer, songwriter and musician and has studied Jazz at the University of Performing Arts in Graz, Austria as well as at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama in London. She has performed many concerts in England, Austria and Germany.
Eva's search for authenticity as a human being, as a singer and a voice teacher, combined with her realisation of the interrelatedness of the voice and the nature of being human, led her to take the VMT training in America in 2004. In her practice year she worked with patients at the Jules Thorn Mental Health Day Care Centre in London and became a certified VMT practitioner in March 2007.
Eva has been working in her private practice as a voice teacher and as someone who encourages people to express themselves through their voice, with beginners and professional singers of all ages, for over 10 years. She has been leading workshops for groups in VMT, gospel and world music in Austria and England, has taught at the Notting Hill Preparatory School, conducted choir concerts and teaches on summer schools. Eva taught as the first apprentice teacher on the VMT training on Martha’s Vineyard in 2008.
Visit Eva's Website, www.voicemovement.at for more information.
Consultants
Melanie Harrold, VMTR, has been a professional singer/songwriter, recording artist, Band member, and touring musician for twenty years. For the last ten years she has been teaching singing while being engaged in an extensive, experiential research into the connections between vocal expression, movement and psychotherapeutic process.
She trained in Voice Movement Therapy in 1993 and assisted on subsequent trainings. As well as practising as a certificated Body Psychotherapist she now teaches singing to large groups, works with individuals from home and leads therapeutically based voice workshops around the country. She teaches voice and movement with The National Youth Theatre and The Circus Space and is currently running a twice-weekly singing class at The Hornimans Museum in London. She has been a guest teacher on both the American VMT trainings and the VMT training in South Africa on which she is the current senior supervisor.
Rev. William Charles Freeman, PhD, BC-DMT, (Board Certified - Dance/Movement Therapist) has guest taught on three VMT Foundation Trainings on Martha’s Vineyard, USA, and has acted as on-site supervisor for two VMT students during their internships in Vermont, USA, in consultation with Anne Brownell, VMTR as general supervisor. He is a movement therapist and consultant, specializing in work with children and adults with disabilities, their families and those who serve them.
For over thirty years, William has designed, directed and facilitated professional development, parent education and direct service programs in movement therapy and the expressive arts. He maintains a practice with individuals with and without disabilities and provides consultative services and teaching for education, mental health and arts agencies. He conducts seminars for professionals and parents, and retreats for individuals interested in personal growth and spiritual development through movement and the expressive arts.
William served as a program coordinator and director in the Special Education Administration Section of the Kansas State Department of Education. Expanding on this work, he served as the founding executive director of Accessible Arts, a not-for-profit educational organization, dedicated to making the arts accessible to all people, including individuals with disabilities. Working with children with significant disabilities, those at risk and their families, he also served as a special education consultant to several Vermont school districts.
William is the executive producer and writer of the videofilm, You're Okay Right Where You Are: Expressive Movement in Education, and has also worked on several other videofilms focused on movement and expressive arts. He also taught and developed programs in movement and expressive arts at Goddard College, the University of Vermont and elsewhere.
William is ordained in the ministry of Divine Science, is a certified spiritual director from the Institute for Spiritual Development and is a graduate of the Theology and Pastoral Ministry Program (Master of Arts) from Saint Michael’s College. He is co-founder and co-minister of New Thought Vermont: Divine Science in the Green Mountains, and served on the Board of the Divine Science Federation International from 2006 - 2010 (Vice President 2006 - 2008 and President 2008 - 2010). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the inter-denominational Weston Community "Church on the Hill" and chairs its Long-Range Planning process. He also served as a consulting minister to the Divine Science Church of Crestwood, Missouri (2008) and The First Universalist Parish of Chester, Vermont (2004 - 2005).
Active in community ministry, throughout his career as therapist, program developer and administrator -- teacher, consultant and minister, William has been focused on supporting individuals as they seek to move from the Divine Source and express the Divinity that lies within. He has an abiding interest in finding ways to combine his therapeutic knowledge and skills as a movement therapist with his interest in the life of the spirit and spiritual direction and is in the process of creating his own Ministry of Movement.