I start by teaching people how to use their voices without pushing or stressing the voice. I teach people how to sigh, how to relax tight muscles in the belly, and then to allow the breath to enter with ease. We do exercises to decrease tension in the throat, tongue and jaw. You learn to build a level of comfort with your voice.

Next we create our Artist's Palette of Colorful Sound. This is where we learn the sounds of numerous emotional/energetic states.

The process starts with me making different sounds and you repeating them. This is a time of exploring a wide range of sounds-their pitch (high or low sounds), their vocal color (lighter or darker qualities, fuller, more rounded). There is plenty of nuance here. We also explore the tempo of a variety of emotional or energetic states.

 For example, sadness has a longer, slower tempo than surprised delight. Try it and see what you think.

Next, with another person or one-on-one with me, you make your own sounds for a variety of states. You explore what the sounds of despair, hopelessness, disappointment and sadness are. You also explore your sounds for delight, playfulness, hope and appreciation of beauty among other qualities.

In the beginning, we listen to what we feel. We honor it and respect it by using our voice to give it a sound. We listen to it and sound it for a short period of time as a way of honoring it.

When we feel a readiness within our body, we can begin a process of using our voices to explore and create different possibilities. We are not going to automatically move from feeling really down to feeling great. We must first honor, respect and validate those difficult times and feelings and how they feel in our bodies. Then we can build a process for having more possibilities in our lives.