Voice is a telling sound. Obviously, you say something that people get meaning from and you have a certain tone in which you say something. However, that tone is not always the way you want it to be. Tension and emotion can distort your voice so that it no longer sounds like the voice you identify with.
For voice coaches, it won't be news that the emotion someone is having can be heard in the sound of their voice, but how can you deal with this as a voice coach?
What else can you do to get relaxation in the voice besides recommending Hmmmm exercises and the LaxVox? How do you help people who suffer from stuttering or neurological problems that prevent them from speaking properly?
In that case, you can also do a lot with a few hypnosis exercises to help people relax their throat, neck and shoulders making their voice sound as natural as possible or making it easier for them to find the words they are looking for.
Hypnosis for Voice
Now you may think it's a little crazy to talk about hypnosis for voice, but hypnosis is nothing but a (mental-emotional) state in which a person is relaxed and focused on the person giving suggestions. If you as a voice coach apply hypnosis to your clients, the client will focus more on you and the advice or suggestions you give your client.
When someone is in hypnosis, they are still in control, but are more likely to take what you say, hypnotic suggestions, for truth.
In the case of coaching, this can be very helpful. In the process, the client - when in hypnosis - is better in touch with the subconscious mind, allowing hypnosis techniques to have a quick effect on beliefs.
If someone has limiting beliefs to use the voice properly, such as when someone suffers from globus symptoms, you can use hypnosis techniques to remove or change these limiting beliefs.
With some knowledge of hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions, you can already say something during normal conversations that helps your client release certain emotions or tension that affect the voice[1].
In addition, there are specific hypnosis techniques you can use to help people who have voice problems.
Visualizing Tension Away
For example, a guided visualization can help someone relax the neck again. This is a technique that can also be used for whiplash symptoms.
If people feel their neck is in knots, you can help them with a visualization to untangle the neck again.
Another way is to visualize clearing a blockage in the throat, such as when someone suffers a lot from an unexplained tickle in the throat. For example, by a cleansing light or something similar.
Pinpointing the cause of tension
Another technique commonly used during hypnotherapy is regression. With regression, you help the client to go back to the first time in their life when they suffered from a particular feeling that is now causing problems.
This allows you to find out what belief was once formed that is now causing the problem. Then you can help the client give that memory some kind of update with new information, either removing the limiting belief or transforming it into something that does give the client a relaxed neck[2].
Emotion Anchoring
Sometimes, as a voice coach, you want a certain emotion to be evoked during certain situations, such as while giving a speech or while singing a song.
In that case, you can use regression to retrieve that specific feeling, and then you can help the client connect that feeling to a particular small movement. This is also called anchoring .
You then help people retrieve the feeling and then you have to be quick to get people to make a movement at the right time and to repeat it. So that during a performance or giving a speech, that movement triggers them to feel that emotion.
While giving a speech or performance, they can then use that small movement to ensure they feel the right emotion with a particular part of the music or speech.
Eliminate stage fright
In addition, you can be hired as a voice coach when someone first starts speaking somewhere. Like at an event, or even as a speech for a wedding. A person may then suffer from so-called stage fright. These kinds of fears can be easily eliminated with hypnosis[3].
For example, when it comes to Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD), also known as muscle tension dysphonia, a condition that affects the singing voice, hypnosis can certainly be used to remove that muscle tension.
With hypnosis, you then remove the underlying problem[4].
Hypnosis for neurological problems
Hypnosis can also be used for neurological problems that require people to relearn how to talk, for example. A study of voice coaches who had been trained in hypnosis found that they used hypnosis techniques most often with people with neurological problems and in making speaking more fluent.
Hypnosis was then mainly used to help the client with relaxation and to improve the client's self-confidence[5].
One reason hypnosis can help with neurological problems is because hypnosis helps create new connections in the brain. In fact, hypnosis can be used to strengthen the connection between the body and the brain, nerve signals and other physical processes can be influenced by hypnosis[6].
Motor control can be improved with hypnosis[7]. Ideal for people who have lost control due to an accident or stroke and need to regain it.
Hypnosis for stuttering
For stuttering , you can do many exercises and you can also combine them with hypnosis. For example, research shows that combining hypnosis with diaphragmatic exercises, for more control of the diaphragm, helps reduce stuttering.
In the study, participants had to work with weights and do certain speech exercises while lifting weights. They also had to do the exercises at home without the instructor.
In the study, hypnosis was used to improve self-confidence and motivation to perform exercises properly and to work on them at home. There was a group with hypnotic support and a group without. The group with hypnotic support had the best progress in terms of reducing stuttering[8].
In addition, hypnosis can be used to strengthen the ego and reduce anxiety in people who suffer from stuttering. Anchoring can also be used to evoke a calm emotion during stressful situations, and there are other unobtrusive self-hypnosis techniques that people can use during stress to prevent relapsing into stuttering behavior[9].
Post-hypnotic suggestions for the voice
In addition to techniques that are effective during hypnosis, you can also give post-hypnotic suggestions. These are suggestions that continue to work in the subconscious even after hypnosis.
For example, you can suggest that people start to notice that they are much more relaxed in their voices. Have a more normal voice volume and talk or sing more relaxed.
This ensures that they retain the effects of the therapy well after hypnotherapy.
You can also give them homework, just like the voice exercises or homework to get started with the LaxVox. For example, you can then give them the guided visualization for relaxing the neck as homework, so that that relaxation remains good throughout the day and so that one feels normal while they are blowing bubbles with the LaxVox.
Hypnosis is for all ages
In addition, hypnosis can be applied to all ages. Children , too, can be helped with hypnosis, but adapted to the child's level. With children, hypnosis is even easier because they are naturally closer to the hypnotic state or if they are very young are actually always already in that state.
Hypnosis for the voice coach
Whether you are a voice coach for giving presentations, singing, or helping with problems - such as stuttering or neurological problems with speech - knowledge of hypnosis is an incredibly valuable addition to your knowledge to help people be even better with their voice.
Want to learn more about what knowledge of hypnosis can do for you as a voice coach? Then come to the free online master class.
Or enroll in one of our training courses. Trainings are delivered live online from a professional studio and with plenty of assistance for 1-on-1 attention.
Sources:
