I was delighted to be invited give a lecture recently in Helsinki at the renowned Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts https://www.uniarts.fi/en/units/sibelius-academy/. Speaking to the Vocal Department, I explored the line between therapy and teaching singing, addressing overlaps and essential differences, and presenting new research demonstrating the symbiotic links between singing and emotional regulation.
I started with a show of hands asking who would describe themselves as:
- A singing teacher?
- A performer, past or present?
- A therapist?
It was interesting to see how many raised a tentative hand, identifying themselves as a ‘therapists’, in addition to their role as voice teachers.
On my own journey, I’ve been a professional opera singer, a teacher in conservatoires training opera and musical theatre performers, a researcher in music psychology and finally training as a therapist. A common thread in these areas of music and psychology is a strong belief in the potential for growth that music affords. I argued that there are strong similarities between therapy and teaching performers and some essential differences that are helpful to make explicit.
I shared some of my own research in peak and flow experience and the preconditions of these states to suggest that what happens between the therapist and client and between teacher and student involves the creation of transcendent space. And this space is a creative source of change for both parties. However it is vulnerable-to what we bring as therapists and as teachers and to how we meet what the person we work with brings on any one day.
We covered topics in neuroscience, depth psychology, personality, music psychology such as breathing, autonomic nervous system activation, and the reciprocity of theatrical performance. Counselling basics such as alliance, transference/countertransference and active listening were compared and contrasted between the two disciplines of therapy and teaching.
Singing teaching like psychotherapy is a creative act-part science, part art. The science is in the observation, hypothesis generation, trial and error and having measurable outcomes. The creative art is in the syncretic ability to pull together things often hunches and intuitions that to other people may seem unrelated.
