Deepen your practice in somatic voice & expression
The library
Books, workbooks, music and talks to deepen your practice, before November and long after it.
Welcome to your 5-Day Vocal Flow Facilitator Training. The course is made up of 40 contact hours (our five days together, your private 1:1 and the integration call) and 10 hours of self-study.
For those of you who want to receive the official 50-Hour Vocal Flow Facilitator Certificate (YACEP), here’s how the 10 self-study hours work:
- Talks, 3 hours: Voice and the nervous system, below
- Workbooks, 3 hours: Fully Expressed and Heal Your Voice
- Practice, 2 hours: Practice Library replays
- Your first circle, 2 hours
Log each one as you go in your self-study log. Everything else here is for going deeper.
One
Books
Four threads, and these are the recommended readings for those of you who want to go deeper.
Why the throat closes
When the Body Says No
Gabor Maté
The one I’d start with. What happens when we say yes with our mouths and no with our bodies for long enough. My Compassionate Inquiry training comes from his work.
Waking the Tiger
Peter Levine
Where fight, flight, freeze and fawn come from, and why the body completes what the mind cannot. This is the spine of everything we do with sound.
Anchored
Deb Dana
Polyvagal theory written for people who work with other people. This explains why the nerves that move your vocal folds are branches of your vagus nerve, and why your voice is a live readout of how safe you feel.
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk
The most widely read of these, and worth it. Dense in places. Take it slowly.
No Bad Parts
Richard Schwartz
The founder of Internal Family Systems on the many parts of us, including the inner critic, and how every one of them is trying to help. The companion to the inner critic section of your workbook.
What sound does
The Mysticism of Sound and Music
Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Sufi teacher’s talks on sound, music and the soul, and the book I’m reading right now. Many of the quotes in your manual come from here, like this one: “The true use of music is to become musical in one’s thoughts, words and actions.”
Free Your Voice
Silvia Nakkach
Closest thing in print to what we actually do. Vocal shamanism, sound as medicine, and the voice as a way in rather than a performance.
Sacred Sound
Alanna Kaivalya
The myth and meaning underneath mantra and kirtan. Useful for understanding why a room changes when it sings together.
How to hold a room
The Art of Holding Space
Heather Plett
What it means to be with someone without steering them. The hardest skill in the training, and the one people underestimate.
Keeping your own practice alive
The Artist’s Way
Julia Cameron
Morning pages, the artist date, and the clearest account in print of how a creative person gets blocked and what it takes to come unblocked. Cameron is writing about the worthiness wound without ever calling it that. Do the full twelve weeks if you have them, or take what you need.
The Creative Act
Rick Rubin
Short chapters, one a day. More about listening than about making, and about getting yourself out of the way so the thing can arrive. Very close to what you’re doing when you hold a circle for someone else.
Two
Your manual & workbooks
Your course manual, and the pages to actually write in.
Training Manual & Heal Your Voice Workbook
Your course manual and workbook
The manual holds everything we cover across the five days, so you can keep facilitating from it long after November. The Heal Your Voice workbook is yours to work through at your own pace, on what the voice carries and how it lets go of it. You’ll get both when the training starts.
Fully Expressed
Three audio journeys and a companion workbook
Your pre-work. The worthiness wound, which is the thing that closes most voices long before technique ever does. Use the code VFFT100 at checkout and it costs you nothing. Open it here.
HeartSongs Songbook and Vocal Activation Guide
160+ songs with chords
Mantras, heart songs and medicine music, with the chords and audio access. This is what I sing from, and much of what we’ll sing together. You’ll get it when the training starts.
Three
Music to practice with
Something to put on while you move, warm up, or sit with sound.
Awaken Vocal Flow
Spotify playlist
The soundscape from the Somatic Voice Starter Kit. Good for singing along to, moving to, or resting under. Open it on Spotify.
Our shared playlist
Spotify, built together
A playlist we all add to. Bring your favourite songs to sing: the ones that open you up, calm you down or make you want to join in. Open it and add yours.
Four
Listening
Podcasts, conversations and talks worth your walk.
Conversations
Rediscovering Harmony
Nessi Gomes and me · BaliSpirit Festival Conversations · 29 min
I sat down with Nessi at BaliSpirit Festival to talk about songwriting, the connection between a singer and the people listening, and healing through the voice, which is where we land from about 21 minutes in. Watch it on YouTube.
How to Be Authentic
Dr Gabor Maté · Harvest Series podcast · 31 min
Why being true to yourself is so hard for most of us, and what we give up to stay connected. It sits right underneath why so many voices go quiet. Listen on Spotify.
Voice and the nervous system
Your 3 self-study hours for talks.
Voice and the Nervous System: Your Vagus Nerve
Francie · animated video · 9 min
Start here. Where the vagus nerve travels, how it reaches your voice box and your heart, why humming helps your system settle, and what “toning the vagus nerve” actually means. Ends with a short hum together.
Path of the Vagus Nerve
Sam Webster · anatomy lecture · 19 min
For the science-curious. A detailed walk along the whole nerve, from the brainstem through the neck, chest and belly, with every branch named. Watch on YouTube.
Why You Don’t Like the Sound of Your Own Voice
Rébecca Kleinberger · TED Talk · 13 min
Why your voice sounds strange to you on a recording, the difference between your outward, inward and inner voices, and everything we say without realising it. Watch on TED.
How Our Voices Reveal Anxiety
Jackie Gartner-Schmidt · TED Talk · 10 min
A speech pathologist on what happens in the body when the throat tightens and the voice shakes under stress, with simple ways to ease it. Watch on TED.
Befriending Your Nervous System
Deb Dana · Sounds True, Insights at the Edge · 66 min
The spoken companion to Anchored. How our nervous system moves between states, and how we can get to know it and find our way back to safety. Listen on Sounds True.
How Trauma Lodges in the Body
Bessel van der Kolk · On Being podcast
The spoken companion to The Body Keeps the Score, with practical wisdom on what happens in our bodies and brains after overwhelming experiences. Listen on On Being.
Name It to Tame It
Dan Siegel · Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education · 4 min
A short, clear explanation of why putting a feeling into words helps calm it. A tool you can use in any circle. Watch on YouTube.
How to Speak So That People Want to Listen
Julian Treasure · TED Talk · 10 min
The tools of the speaking voice, like register, pace, pitch and volume, with a handful of vocal warm-up exercises to finish. Watch on TED.
Shh! Sound Health in 8 Steps
Julian Treasure · TED Talk · 7 min
How the noise around us wears on our wellbeing, and eight simple steps to restore a healthy relationship with sound. Watch on TED.
The inner critic and your parts
Understanding Our Inner Critic
Dr Richard Schwartz · Wisdom 2.0 · 6 min
The founder of Internal Family Systems on what the inner critic is, and how to relate to it as a part trying to protect you. Watch on YouTube.
Internal Family Systems, Explained
Dr Richard Schwartz · IFS Institute · 8 min
A short overview of parts and Self, straight from the source. Watch on YouTube.
Worthiness and courage
The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage
Susan David · TED Talk · 17 min
A psychologist on letting ourselves feel what we feel, and the emotional agility that grows from it. Courage is at the core of healing your voice. Watch on TED.
The Space Between Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion
Kristin Neff · TEDx Talk · 19 min
The limits of chasing self-esteem, and how self-compassion, through kindness, common humanity and mindfulness, gives us steadier ground. Medicine for the worthiness wound. Watch on YouTube.
The Power of Vulnerability
Brené Brown · TED Talk · 20 min
What her research on connection and belonging revealed, and why vulnerability sits right at the heart of both. Watch on TED.
Singing together and holding a room
How Singing Together Changes the Brain
Tania de Jong · TEDxMelbourne · 19 min
A soprano and choir founder on what happens when people sing together, from hearts falling into rhythm to a deeper sense of belonging. Watch on YouTube.
Watch Me Play… the Audience!
Bobby McFerrin · World Science Festival · 3 min
Bobby McFerrin gets a whole room singing the pentatonic scale without teaching it. Three joyful minutes on how much a group already knows. Watch on TED.
Lead Like the Great Conductors
Itay Talgam · TED Talk · 21 min
A conductor on how the great conductors create harmony without saying a word, and what their styles teach anyone leading a group. Watch on TED.
How to Truly Listen
Evelyn Glennie · TED Talk · 32 min
A deaf percussionist on listening with the whole body. Lovely for anyone learning to hear what a room needs. Watch on TED.
XOXO
Francie
Which one resonates with you?
Tell me what is inspiring you right now, or send me something you think belongs on this list. I read every message.
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