Below are examples of workshops Megan has facilitated. Click here for a more complete listing of events. Contact Megan to learn more about hosting an event for your students, organization, or conference.

Holding a Compassionate Space for Messy Things: An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Voice Care
NATS Winter Workshop | January 2021

The symptoms of trauma—emotional dysregulation, numbness, hyper-vigilance, self-limiting beliefs, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, disassociation—live in the body and manifest physically. This can impact vocal function and inhibit the ability to communicate, create, and connect authentically. The paradox for voice professionals is that we are not psychotherapists, yet we work with people who hold trauma in their bodies. We frequently witness these symptoms in singers during lessons, clinical sessions, or performances. Recognizing the significant impact of trauma on the voice and the need for resiliency practices in the voice studio or clinic, trauma-informed voice care provides a collaborative, embodied approach to voice pedagogy. We prioritize the singer’s lived experience, honor the voice professional’s scope of practice, and empower individuals to more clearly identify their vocal agency.

Part One of this workshop will provide an overview of trauma’s impact on the body-mind-voice, and how to contextualize voice pedagogy within the trauma-informed concepts of safety, trust, choice, empowerment, boundaries, and equity/accessibility. Part Two will offer appropriate scope-of-practice tools for emotional and physical regulation. These practices—including breathwork, movement, embodied sound, and meditation—can be incorporated into lessons, clinical sessions, and performances.

Trauma-informed voice care holds space for messy, multiple realities about our bodies and our voices—I experience anxiety, and my voice is powerful; I have a vocal injury, and I sing from wholeness. We honor these complex truths and place each student/client at the center of their own individual experience. We affirm vocal dignity with the mantra: I have permission to take up physical and acoustic space.

Cultivating a Supportive Presence: Practices for Self and Community Resilience
CT-ACDA Fall Conference | November 2020

In times of stress, our emotional and physical capacity to manage ourselves, our families, and our students is challenged. Waves of anxiety, depression, and futility can make daily tasks seem overwhelming. As many of our performances and events are canceled, the effort required to constantly manage our expectations can keep us locked in patterns of survival rather than connection.

In these moments of distress and distrust, do you have access to inner resources—physical and emotional cues that ground you in the present moment? As we navigate the nervous system’s natural cycle of mobilization and rest, our body-mind-voice is amazingly resilient.

Drawing on aspects of trauma-informed voice care, this workshop will provide an overview of how the nervous system responds to stress, and offer accessible movement, breath, and sound practices that can help increase our capacity to sit with emotional intensity. Cultivating a supportive presence reframes our essential function in the classroom or rehearsal space from I am here to teach to I am here.

Exhaling with Sound: Yoga for the Choral Ensemble
ACDA Eastern Region Conference | March 2018

For many voice users, an overactive stress response in performance situations can lead to unnecessary muscle tension, which can significantly contribute to vocal difficulty. The body’s stress response is managed by the autonomic nervous system, which also controls the function of the digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Research suggests that practices like mindful breathing, yoga and chanting help to regulate the autonomic nervous system, effectively supporting the body’s response to intense emotional situations.

In order to maximize vocal potential, choral directors, and singers can become more aware of how the whole body, including the autonomic nervous system, impacts vocal production. This session will identify common areas where singers hold counterproductive muscle tension, illustrate how that tension affects the voice, and introduce elements of yoga as techniques to coordinate phonation. Participants will engage in accessible yoga movements and link them to specific ways they can be used to improve vocal production, mental focus, and the body’s response to chronic stress. 

Meeting the Mood: Transforming the Vocal Warm-Up
The Voice Foundation Annual Symposium | May 2018

In the voice studio, practice room, or performance settings, singers demonstrate a variety of moods. A range of emotions from frenzied to fatigued can impact how our voice feels and functions, often contributing to unncessary physical tension and anxiety. LifeForce Yoga offers evidence-based practices for greeting our ever-changing mood states. When incorporated into our singing practice, these techniques provide an effective tool for establishing focus, regulating breath, and maintaining sustainable phonation. This workshop will provide accessible movement, sound, and breathing practices for honoring our emotional states and supporting our voice during times of stress.

Whole Body Resonance: An Expansion of Resonant Voice Therapy, with Carly Bergey, CCC-SLP
The Voice Foundation Annual Symposium, May 2017

Lessac, Madsen, and Verdolini have pioneered our understanding of Resonant Voice Therapy and created the foundation for many voice professionals working to improve vocal production. Traditionally, oropharyngeal resonance is the primary sensory effect that patients are instructed to experience. For many professional voice users, the experience of whole body vibration, or, experiencing sound somewhere other than the traditional “mask resonance” is an empowering way to connect body, breath and sound. By combining traditional therapeutic modalities and voice pedagogy with chants associated with the physical and energetic centers in the body (known as the chakra system), this workshop will provide an introduction to whole body vibration exercises and practical methods for applying these techniques in the voice studio or clinic.