Professional Development in the Auckland Region

Finding your voice in psychotherapy: theoretical and clinical implications of vocal psychotherapy

Presenter: Dr Diane Austin, Psychotherapist and Music Therapist

We come into the world as helpless infants, dependent on our mothers and other caretakers to meet our physical, emotional and psychological needs. When these needs are not met, when a child cries and there is no answering voice, or the sound that returns confuses or obliterates, then the ability to play, explore, learn and grow is compromised.

Learning Objectives

• How do we find our own sounds, movements, feelings and sensations?
• How do we discern our own voices and grow into our own unique identities?

This workshop will demonstrate and explain how Vocal Psychotherapy can help to heal adult clients suffering from early childhood wounds. We will explain how breathing, sounding and singing interventions can bring about change and growth.

Dr Diane Austin is the Director of the Music Psychotherapy Center in New York City where she offers a two-year post-graduate certificate program in Vocal Psychotherapy. She has maintained a private practice in music psychotherapy for over 25 years, and teaches in the graduate music therapy department at New York University. Diane has lectured and taught internationally on the use of the voice in in-depth music psychotherapy and her work has been published in numerous journals and books. Diane created the first international distance training program in Vocal Psychotherapy in Vancouver, B.C. She also has a distance training program in Seoul, Korea. Her book, The Theory and Practice of Vocal Psychotherapy: Songs of the Self was published by Jessica Kingsley.

Sing Your Heart Out Songs of the Self: vocal psychotherapy

Presenter: Dr Diane Austin, Psychotherapist and Music Therapist

We bring you ‘Sing Your Heart Out, Auckland’ for the first time in New Zealand! This is a rare opportunity to explore and experience Vocal Psychotherapy with Diane Austin for yourself! Through over twenty years’ experience, Diane has researched the power of music to help people move beyond emotional and psychological challenges, to connect with their inner most feelings. Diane particularly noticed the key role of the voice in this process, and established ‘voicework’ as an integral part of the psychological process.

This workshop will provide opportunities for participants to experience Vocal Psychotherapy, a new in depth model of music psychotherapy that incorporates breath work, natural sounds and vocal improvisation with verbal processing in order to facilitate a connection to oneself and others. Students will have opportunities to observe, participate in and conduct voice-centered therapeutic experiences, interventions and sessions.

Learning Objectives

• To acquire both didactic and experiential knowledge of the therapeutic qualities of vocal improvisation in music therapy
• To learn vocal interventions and how they can be adapted with different populations as well as when, how and where to use them
• To experience and learn the benefit of deep breathing practice not only as a necessary part of singing correctly but also as a therapeutic tool in helping clients relax, revitalize and reconnect to the body
• To understand how free improvisation using natural sounds and movements enable clients to access feelings, images, and memories, from the unconscious and integrate them into conscious awareness.
• To learn “Vocal Holding Techniques” and “Free Associative Singing,” advanced methods of music psychotherapy that promote intrapsychic and interpersonal change and growth.

Dr Diane Austin is the Director of the Music Psychotherapy Center in New York City where she offers a two-year post-graduate certificate program in Vocal Psychotherapy. She has maintained a private practice in music psychotherapy for over 25 years, and teaches in the graduate music therapy department at New York University. Diane has lectured and taught internationally on the use of the voice in in-depth music psychotherapy and her work has been published in numerous journals and books. Diane created the first international distance training program in Vocal Psychotherapy in Vancouver, B.C. She also has a distance training program in Seoul, Korea. Her book, The Theory and Practice of Vocal Psychotherapy: Songs of the Self was published by Jessica Kingsley.