Voice Movement Therapy-USA
What is Voice Movement Therapy (VMT) ?
The human voice reflects both physical and psychic states and has the ability to convey cognitive meaning and affective expression simultaneously. It is our primary instrument of communication for both ideas and feelings and can move us with words and beyond words. It is the only instrument wherein player and played upon are the same and therefore can only achieve full expression when firmly grounded in the body.
• Actor and director Roy Hart in experimental theatre, especially theatre without words.
• Psychologist Wilhelm Reich in body-oriented psychotherapy;
• Psychologist Carl Jung through his conception of the process of active imagination;
• Otolaryngologist Paul Moses in diagnosing both physical and psychological conditions through auditory recognizable constituents of vocal sound.
VMT is a multi-modal Expressive Therapy which seeks to increase the flexibility, durability and versatility of each individual voice through 1) an investigation of its organic and developmental relationship to breathing and bodily movement and 2) an exploration of how the components of the voice and related movement patterns reflect different aspects of ourselves and our life stories and can be used to effect change and growth.
VMT work begins, not with the spoken word, its cognitive content or articulation, but with the affective aspects of voiced sound and combines a basic knowledge of vocal acoustics and the anatomy and physiology of the vocal system — as influenced by events in the body — with movement and massage, imagery and enactment, creative and therapeutic process. It is, in essence, an exploration of the self and ones ability to communicate, verbally and non-verbally, through the voice. It is useful for those for whom vocal expression is blocked, limited or otherwise difficult as a result of emotional distress, muscular tension and/or neurological or physical impediments, as well as those who seek further personal or professional empowerment through the voice.
It is useful for those for whom vocal expression is blocked, limited or otherwise difficult as a result of neurological or physical impediments and/or emotional distress, as well as those who seek further personal or professional empowerment through the voice.
© 2000 Anne Brownell, MA, LMHC, VMTR
This work is currently being applied and expanded by registered members of the
International Association for Voice Movement Therapy, C/O Deborah Crane, 912
Hunters Ave, Orland, Philadelphia, PA, USA 09075-2318
info@iavmt.org
www.iavmt.org
Alfred Wolfsohn teaching Marita Gunther, London, 1952. Roy Hart Theatre, Anduze, France
Copyright 2003 Voice Movement Therapy USA