WORK PHILOSOPHY

I believe that, throughout the years, the student’s comment that made me the happiest is when someone called me, one day, a “facilitator”! Besides the fact that it has a certain “super hero” ring to it, I have to say that, more seriously, it made me feel fully in line with what I am trying to achieve: making voice professionals’ lives easier.

 

Over the years (lots of them), I have been accumulating as much theoretical, scientific, pedagogical, artistic, even physical, and of course, practical knowledge about the voice as possible in order to digest it and be able to share it back with my clients, in the most concrete, applicable and useful way possible.

 

I have learned from the most prominent voice specialists, read, taught, listened…

 

And this is my work philosophy in a nutshell: always expanding what I know in order to be able to adapt my practice as best as I can to each individual, with their own needs, concerns and expectations.

 

I haven’t met two identical performers yet. Some want to know everything about the physiological aspect of the voice. Some want to know everything vocal technique. Some don’t really want to dive into details, but have serious issues to fix and still have to be walked through a journey of better self-management. Some performers need to improve their understanding of breathing, others benefit instantly of clarifying what the break is and means. Every case is different, but I consider my work done when I have transmitted enough tools to let someone spread their own wings. Sometimes forever, sometimes for a while, and those come back, a few months or a few years later, for another set of lessons, with new challenges to overcome, due to crossing-over to another style, being cast in a new production, integrating a new band or what not.

 

It is important for a voice professional to embrace that their body is their ever changing, ever evolving instrument. That mistakes have been and will be made, and that is normal. That you sing with whom you are and with your emotions at any given time, and that can sometimes be overwhelming and challenging. It is also crucial to embrace that taking care of your voice is taking care of your  whole body and health. That is why I always recommend some practice of yoga, Alexander, Feldenkrais, you name it.

 

In short, my role is to:

• Help voice professionals know their instrument better, to remove the drama that so often accompanies vocal crisis situations, and allow them to jump right into a healing / self-caring  mindset,

• Do so by mindfully listening to each story, in order to tailor each treatment to each individual,

• Help voice professionals embrace imperfections and mistakes,

• Communicate with my clients’ singing teachers, when they have one, in order to create a solid supportive team around them,

• Refer my clients to the right competent specialists (ENT, Osteopath, Bodywork practitioner…) when necessary.

 

You can come work with me if:

• You are a singer or an actor, professional or not,

• You want to understand how your voice works,

• You need to better apprehend what’s similar and different in various singing techniques, in order to navigate them healthily,

• You are going through vocal hardship and can’t find by yourself a way out of it.