There are no grades in this program, and I strongly dislike vague or hidden benchmarks. Successful completion will consist of: making an effort to attend our sessions (and completing make-ups, as agreed), submitting assignments that are thoughtful and timely, communicating when you are having trouble meeting any of these expectations, and overall being a participating and considerate member of the cohort.

I run this program with a lot of spaciousness.

There are amazing models, systems, techniques, and exercises that I will share with you! (You have access to all of them in the prerequisite courses.) Yet though you will learn many things, I’m not going to dictate how you fold what I share with you into your teaching and/or personal practice, or how you combine them with other methodologies you’ve studied or developed yourself. While I’m sure you’ll learn new things in our container, more than anything else, I hope the Instructor Program gives you a space to integrate all that you’ve learned and continue to learn, and gives you confidence in your voice as a teacher.

To speak to all this from another angle, I’m an advocate for shedding our “shoulds.” For centuries, the Westernized approach to vocal training has been about having a voice that sounds “good” or “right.” I believe there is no one way that your voice should sound. There is no one way that your body should move. There is no one way you should hold space for others when you teach. Our group will be a space to explore with compassion and curiosity. This means that as a cohort, we will do our best to create an environment that is safe, comfortable, and connected. (This last sentence refers to a framework from Body-Mind Centering® that we will use at the beginning of our time together to craft our agreements for how we interact with each other.)

Essentially, I’m interested in de-throning the idea of expertise and experts.

Not in the sense that experts don’t exist, but in the sense that we are all our own greatest experts on ourselves.

The paradox of our container is that we will all hold the space together, and yet I will lead and facilitate. I take the responsibility of leadership very seriously. I will come with proposed agreements that we can build on together. I will be clear about guidelines and assignments. I will address breaches of our agreements, especially if our container becomes unsafe or uncomfortable for anyone. I ask that you come to me if you have a question or concern, and I commit that I will slow down to hear you, discuss, grow, and learn together. I also ask that you have grace for me as I venture into this big endeavor! I’m sure I will be imperfect. Room for imperfection will be part of what I encourage us all to grant to each other, and I will also invite us to come back to the table to converse and be accountable.

One thing that I’ve seen left out of many coaching programs is business training.

Especially, addressing the fact that we are trying to build a business or career teaching deep, powerful voice practices in a capitalist society. This is hard!! And we need to talk about it and the realities of how we structure our time and work, so we can support ourselves and our families. We will talk directly throughout the program about the realities of teaching in a profitable way. This will be addressed in group sessions, and it can also be a big part of what you bring up in your 1-1 coaching sessions with me.

 I, Elissa, have endeavored to write out some of the various paths of study I’ve followed over the 40 years of my life so far:

Theatre Voice Pedagogy, especially the work of:

  Catherine Fitzmaurice (I did my first voice certification in Fitzmaurice Voicework®)
  Knight-Thompson Speechwork
  Kristin Linklater
  Patsy Rodenburg (in Authentic Voice Academy, you’ll learn how much I love the Second Circle)
  Arthur Lessac
  Betty Moulton, my mentor at the University of Alberta
  Vibrant Voice Technique, another voice coaching business that I run with founder David Ley

Yoga asana practice (I took a 200-hour certification in Los Angeles in 2011 and have studied extensively since then, especially with Leslie Kaminoff)

Body-Mind Centering® (the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen). I completed the Somatic Movement Educator program with Mariko Tanabe in Montréal in 2022, and I plan next to enroll in the Infant Developmental Movement Education program. I have also studied with Bonnie directly. This is an incredible body of work I will refer to often.

Viewpoints, the movement work of Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, as taught to me by Alexandra Billings.

Vedic meditation and philosophy, largely as taught by Thom Knoles, Jeff Kober, Emily Fletcher, Arden Martin, Rick Little, and Derrick Yanford.

Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga, learned through a variety of practitioners, classes, and workshops.

Nervous system re-patterning and regulation practices, especially the work of:

  Deb Dana and Stephen Porges (PolyVagal Theory)
  Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing)

Somatic Abolitionism, the embodied anti-racism work of Resmaa Menakem.

Over the years, I have cross-trained and cross-pollinated with the clinical speech therapy world, including studies with Joanna Cazden and Ingo Titze and collaborations with Melanie Tapson and Reena Gupta (the latter two are, respectively, our resident SLP and laryngologist in the Release Your Voice course).

From 2016-2018, I ran a collective called Fembodiment, a national network of women’s circles promoting feminine embodiment and expression. This was largely based on my research on reproductive justice and women’s sexual education.

I have been studying Voice Journey expressive singing with Stephanie Rooker since 2018.

I have been studying classical Indian singing (Hindustani classical music) with my guru Priya Darshini since 2019.

As a child, adolescent, and young adult, I did many years of choir, a cappella, and musical theatre performing. I also studied dance - especially ballet, but also musical theatre, jazz, and tap.

Since 2022 I have been mentored by Orion Johnstone, who describes themselves as a Trans Faggot Witch, Theatremaker, Sex & Voice Coach, and Community Minister. This study has informed my teaching greatly, allowing me to bring principles of consent, shame-composting, queer liberation, and disability justice into my space-holding. All of which I am continuing to explore.