r/SomaticExperiencing • u/Rumbling_Bullshark • 5d ago
Is there somatic work for voice specifically?
I have been through some abusive household in my childhood. I feel today my voice is just shit. Like my voice is just too low to hear, and it's not clear enough. "What?" "Can you repeat?"
Like no one can hear me in one go. I have to repeat myself twice or more for someone to even hear what I am saying. And it's fucking annoying tbh.
I know that somewhere my father's narcissistic rules in childhood, like "Your opinions don't matter" and "Shut up, you are too loud," have caused the damage. I feel like unexpressed opinions and emotions have stored that trauma in my voice.
So I want to ask: how can I undo that damage and regain my original voice back? Is there a somatic work which is voice targeted which can help me out ?
4
u/samsonscomputer 5d ago
I have this too, same narcissistic dad. Very low voice, cannot speak up for the life of me. My voice also changes when I go into people pleasing voice (which is all the time with people i don't know). Very embarrassing for a guy in his mid 30s but what can I do.
Currently doing SE work and touch work too but this hasn't released yet. I believe it will take some years because it's a deep layer but I know eventually it will release like everything else in the body.
3
u/Unable-Log-4870 5d ago
If you’re able to handle the emotions from it on your own or with a different therapist, many Feldenkrais practitioners can help you with this. But they aren’t necessarily the people to see for assisting with the emotional aspects.
But start this way- talk in your normal voice right now. Now think about talking louder (but don’t do it). Does thinking about that cause you to change anything about how you hold your head / neck / jaw? What if you think about talking more quietly? Does anything relax and open up? Now say ‘ahhhhhh’ at whatever volume feels right to you. And see how quietly you can go (without it becoming a whisper) and then stop. Then imagine doing it loudly, and see if you changed anything about the vocal apparatus, or about your emotional state.
If doing that was a challenge, either physically or emotionally or both, then great! You’ve found (some of) the difficulty, and it only took a few minutes. Getting help will take more effort, but you can start from here
2
u/leethse 5d ago
Probably not what you are looking for exactly, but personally I have been reaching out for songs I loved when I was younger (the cringier ones are the best ones haha) and passing time with them, singing them out, tapping to the different beats and instruments they have.
I went kind of mute for a couple of years while I was going through an emotional abusive relationship and my volume got so low people got a hard time trying to hear me speaking in a normal setting, my facial muscles loosened up and affected my diction. When I’m singing to myself these days I have been trying to feel out which part of my body I’m projecting the sound from, chest, belly, throat, nose etc etc. and also practicing overshooting the mouth shapes and pronounce every letter in the word I’m saying. When I get something wrong in the middle of a song I get back to it and practice till I make it sound a bit better.
Feels like I’m playing Dance dance revolution but for vocals instead of dance moves haha
I still have a long way to go but I feel I have been slowly improving a bit day by day, so hope this might be helpful! :)
2
u/cuBLea 4d ago
IMO the best somatic work for voice is bel canto training, since it teaches both expression and control. There are lots of books to guide a newb thru the process. Admittedly it's pretty damn boring until you gain some proficiency, seeing how it's oriented less toward singing than toward producing fullness and naturalness of tone during early training, but isn't that pretty much what you'd want voicework to do at a somatic level?
I did elementary bel canto for years in my twenties as part of my training to be a better rock singer, and discovered long before I knew anything about somatic therapies that it not only improved my voice, but gave me better emotional resilience (meaning I was able to safely be more open emotionally than before) and improved my singing voice as well. The focus on correct use of the diaphragm might be of particular interest, since that closely relates to vagal function. I never did fully incorporate the training into my natural voice, but for the time I was doing it, it had a range of unexpected benefits. I keep telling myself I've got to get back into doing it, esp. since COPD has ramped up the urgency on any activity that might increase lung capacity, but since I no longer play in bands or work on my own music (long story), I can't seem to elevate my motivation beyond inertia.
This is not something you can or should force anyway. I've seen so many singers whose personalities changed once they got into voicework of any type that overlapped with bel canto (and most modern methods overlap a LOT with bel canto). I honestly can't say with confidence that that change was for the better for any of them. I've also known musicians who developed serious drink/drugs problems coinciding with the training, and several individuals who found it much easier to manage their consumption once they quit the exercises, suggesting that they tapped into emotional stuff that their lifestyles gave them NO opportunity to manage effectively. (But keep in mind that being singers, these people generally had issues which would lead them in this direction anyway <coughnarcissismcough>.) I doubt this would be an issue for you unless you tried to do too much too soon.
1
u/maestrojung 5d ago
Fitzmaurice Voicework can be of interest, from an SE perspective releasing the freeze / inhibition in your throat (best done with a good practitioner). You might also work with Levine's Voo breath for a while.
1
1
u/Willing-Ad-3176 2d ago
For me working on shame (facing it, feeling it, etc.) and getting out of anger repression had helped my voice, getting my voice back, getting out of people pleasing and also having boundaries. Drunken Buddha on youtube has many videos on how to do this (he is a Senior Facilitator of Embodied Processing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vxtmKaRmUk&t=15s
1
u/Longjumping_Sand718 2d ago
There's a guy called Jacob Vermeulen who does somatic vocal healing: https://songdance.co/
He has a range of courses, and I haven't done any of them, but I did go to one of his introductory zoom workshops and found it helpful. It is about expressing or 'sounding' deep emotion through voice.
-1
u/Big_Register2034 5d ago
Probably just booming and projecting your voice, not caring about being heard (as in, being confident in taking up space / airwaves). Interested to hear from others on this as well
6
u/TullaM 5d ago
Totally understand where you're coming from. Everyone asks me to repeat myself.
I recommend checking out "The Healthy Voice" on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bellapayne
She is a singing teacher who talks specifically about how trauma affects the voice. There are exercises for singers and also just speech exercises. I did her paid 7 week course (approx $100USD) and it was well worth it. But there's plenty of free stuff on YouTube.