Resilience and healing take a witness.
Healing is not fixing and in the text below I choose to refer to healing as to its linguistic root meaning “wholeness” : this idea that we attain a healed state when we can reunify our different inner parts and reconcile with our past, in order to feel more peaceful in the present moment. I will also refer from time to time to recovery from addiction but I think this can resonate with all kind of sufferings, primilarly because we are all addicted to useless suffering created by our inner judgements.
For those who may find hard to focus to read the whole text, here’s a cartography of the main elements of the process I describe. This is not an overnight thing but rather an continuous and spiraling up process that helps us to grow with more peace in our body and mind by witnessing our Voice blossoming as well as being witnessed :
Just as we are not born alone but at least under the gaze of our mother, our rebirth from suffering has to be assisted, if not guided.
The presence of another human being attests that we have crossed over. This is part of a ritual in which we become aware of what we are recovering from exactly. And this has an individual, animistic meaning for each one of us. We know that craving comes with a sense of dissatisfaction and anger, and may be rooted in trauma or emotional wounds. But our soul also knows there is a specific lesson to learn upon this journey, one that no one — including experts — can really name. It is our duty and our mission to help ourselves put into words the unveiled meaning of it. By no means am I saying that our pain was predetermined and had to happen. This would reinforce the idea of some inner guilt or fault that would have to be punished by the suffering of addiction.
I just want to remind you that your soul is there to help you overcome this experience by teaching you what it has revealed of your higher self. Again, this doesn’t mean that without this part of your story, you wouldn’t have been able to thrive and shine from your highest self. It is more a lesson that life could have been very hard on your perception, and yet your soul remains intact. Your soul has the capacity to bring you back to a more peaceful existence where you can be yourself without clinging to any thought or harmful behavior.
Why Emotional Healing Needs a Witness
This is often a long journey, and yet you can access inner freedom through small steps throughout your inner healing. Pain is a product of the mind. Emotions are real. Liberation is always on its way to you. You can meet it anytime. As you experience those tiny moments of inner peace and letting go, your mind grows familiar with this new state.
So the path is also called the middle way because it’s not linear: pain can come back and go again, and so can relief. Having someone to witness your healing journey can help you navigate relapses, but also rejoice with you when things are going better. Someone who knows where you are coming from and who has experienced the same pain. Someone who knows exactly the courage it takes to follow the path of self-liberation when your brain is slowly reshaping itself from addiction toward inner security and self-contentment.
Being reborn with a witness allows you to share your vulnerable moments, to measure your growth, and to keep going.
The Voice as a Healing Tool: A Safe Space to Be Yourself
Of course, this process needs to feel safe for us to truly unfold and thrive without concerns about judgment or rejection.
The Voice is an ally of choice and a holistic medium through which to realize this transformation.
Why?
Because it’s deeply intimate. What you share through your Voice truly speaks your truth. You can’t fake it. That is why most people are afraid of singing with their true voice. Singing other people’s songs or working on covers is great, but when you improvise and share from your heart, this is another level — deeper and healing.
Because it can’t hurt you. By this I mean that the Voice is a safe way to grow at your own pace without having to force yourself. No exposure that you wouldn’t want to face, no artificial rhythm made for others. This is a place where you reconnect with your own needs and pace — one that is uniquely yours, so that it helps you regulate your nervous system as well as enhance your creativity naturally. During the Bodyvoice Flow sessions, we don’t work on vocal technique, but I may approach it through different games or exercises to refine your sensations and help you master your vocal instrument. Technique is only a tool to help you get to know your voice better, so as not to hurt yourself or exhaust yourself by trying to make sounds that don’t fit your vocal signature.
How Voice Healing Works Beyond Words: The Power of Non-Verbal Expression
This is the somatic part of it.
Because it’s non-verbal. Most of the time, when we improvise together or through the online programs, I invite you to play with sounds, gestures, movements, tones — all things that are by nature playful and not attached to a literal meaning. The thing with words is that while we sometimes really need to verbalize things, we can then become more triggered and stuck in a narrative tied to our past. Talking to someone about what your life has been or what you want to live is certainly helpful in some ways. The Bodyvoice Flow is not a therapy, but it can significantly help us improve our resilience by playing with the formless form of our inner language. This means that creating a vocal pattern by yourself — previously guided by my invitations — is a way to release what is stuck inside your body and mind without having to say anything about yourself. This is fundamental for people who are afraid of being read by others, or who carry heavy memories. The creative approach here allows us to reinvent ourselves by literally sublimating our emotions and feelings. By doing this, we free up energy and become able to move forward. This is not something that will definitively end our ruminations or our suffering. It is an ongoing and continuous process in which we spiral upward at our own pace.
Finding Your True Voice: How Bodyvoice Flow Helps You Reconnect with Yourself
Because it nourishes a felt sense of belonging. Most of the time, people practicing with the Bodyvoice Flow tell me they feel freer, lighter, more playful — and are surprised by the fact that they stop feeling the need to prove themselves. This is a whole process in itself and I won’t detail it here, but in a nutshell, what happens is this: my role is mainly to give you permission to fully be yourself and to show up as that. You don’t have to fake it, or perform the perfect student, artist, vocalist, or whatever. Because playing and exploring is not a performance but a search. You appear in front of me — and in front of yourself — as you truly are when you let go of what you think you should be. We slowly decondition ourselves from our rigid ego as we practice. This becomes a place where you can be whoever you want, for fun or in earnest. The very fact that you do it with me gives you a chance to dissolve the illusion of separation between who you are and how you appear in contact with others. The very fact that you can feel, hear, and see yourself move, sing, and speak freely in new ways offers you proof that everything is possible — and that you can choose your self-expression without fear.
Witnessing yourself growing and thriving is surely a rewarding feeling for the heart and the gut. As I often say at the end of a session, we might feel our cells smiling and singing with us!
What is your experience with this? Have you ever witnessed your Voice becoming freer, unconditioned from what you think you should sound like? Would you like to truly feel that you are the same person when you are with others as when you are by yourself?