Who is Voice Movement Therapy for?
VMT Practitioners work with clients from a variety of populations:
- Individuals who have emotional or psychological issues around the use of their voice, such as those needing to find the authenticity and power in their actual physical as well as metaphorical voice, as well as those for whom a useful way of working through trauma is with both voice and body;
- Individuals who wish to explore issues and interests through their voice as a way of accessing more expressiveness, artistically and personally, and deepening their sense of self;
- People such as singers, actors, teachers, clergy and other speakers who use their voices professionally and need to increase their expressiveness, versatility, flexibility, durability, strength and range;
- Children and adults with developmental and language differences and/or no verbal language, to increase their expressiveness and their ability to communicate and socialize;
- Individuals interested in working cross-culturally through the universal language of music, especially as expressed through the voice;
- Individuals with voices damaged by illness or accident who need to re-find and re-train their voices after medical intervention, either after working with or in conjunction with a Speech/Language Pathologist.
VMT Practitioners work with individuals and groups in a variety of settings:
In mental health hospitals and substance abuse clinics; continuing education programs; after-school and youth groups; schools and programs specifically for individuals with special needs; community centers; clinics with children and adults experiencing developmental and language differences or other neurological or medical problems, such as multiple sclerosis and other medical conditions affecting the voice; geriatric programs, drama and music schools; and private practice. They also run workshops, short courses and in-service trainings. Recently, the work has been used with: refugees with little or no facility in English who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder; in hospitals to communicate affectively with non-English speaking people when a translator is not readily available; in community settings with people suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders; and in schools with children experiencing language and other differences and delays.
© 2000 Anne Brownell, MA, LMHC, VMTR.