Resonant Self Counseling

I joined Shara’s vocal workshop full of anticipation. I was curious about her approach to using the voice to reveal the tender places inside that call for attention, yet can be hard to hear.
Walking into the room on the day of the workshop, I worried that my energy might overtake the intimate group, an old fear. She held the group well and I quickly felt safe. Her able facilitation allowed me to expand without the fear that I would crush someone else’s participation. Starting slow, she gracefully led our little band of strangers through simple vocal exercises (harmless enough) then gradually worked us up to using our voices in ways that seemed almost taboo. It felt amazing! How quickly I arrived in unexplored territory! It was exhilarating to experience something so very new yet so familiar. One participant said the experience was like meeting her own voice — for the first time.
The experience of freely making all manner of ugly and erratic sounds with a group of others had the opposite effect than what I expected. Far from being embarrassed and estranged from my fellow participants, I fell a little bit in love with each person there. Our spontaneous and unplanned sounds naturally synched up, blending together in the most unlikely coordinated symphony. It was touchingly intimate. Participants expressed that this kind of vocal expression was a freedom they hadn’t experienced even with those most intimate to them, let alone by themselves.
An accomplished vocalist herself, Shara explained that the voice is not simply a means of communicating and sounding good. Making and expressing sound is actually a powerful and ancient way of getting in touch with our selves. She helped us reorient to our voices, moving away from fixating on how it sounds to focusing instead on how it feels.
To put people at ease enough to risk making the kind of sounds that, «want to be felt,» speaks to the steadiness of Shara’s presence and her gift for using sound to heal.
I gained glimpses into the healing capacity of my own voice as it joined in the swell of sounds that touched on long forgotten grief then gave way to sounds that carried my spirit up with them. I left the workshops feeling lighter, more alive.
More important than the know-​how I gained to clear my energy with my voice was the permission Shara gave, through her teaching and example, to start using my voice fully. Regarding my voice as a healing tool, a gift for my own enjoyment was new to me.
Here’s the paradox: we want to be heard and want not to be heard with equal intensity. Perhaps you notice this tension within yourself. I invite you to this profound work. Shara delivers. You will not regret the exploration.
~Kathryn Lucatelli