Safeguard your voice against vocal injury
Learn about safe voice use, and find techniques that will keep your voice healthy and in prime condition. I am a qualified vocal habilitation professional, and if you are recovering from vocal injury, I can work with your clinical team to help regain your vocal confidence and identity, and help you find the tools to safeguard your voice for the future.
Safeguard your voice against vocal injury
Learn about safe voice use, and find techniques that will keep your voice healthy and in prime condition. I am a qualified vocal habilitation professional, and if you are recovering from vocal injury, I can work with your clinical team to help regain your vocal confidence and identity, and help you find the tools to safeguard your voice for the future.
Trust your voice
Rebuild your confidence
Define your vocal identity
Find the pathway to full recovery
Rebuild a solid vocal technique by following an evidence-based, trusted pathway to full vocal recovery
Your voice is very much an extension of the self and identity. To have it fail can be devastating. The benefits and wellbeing brought about by a fully functioning and confident voice simply can’t be overstated. Once clinical rehab coaches have signed patients off, building up confidence can be a huge issue as technically they have ‘recovered’ but need to find a new, healthy voice and vocal identity with a trusted partner.
Rebuild a solid vocal technique by following an evidence-based, trusted pathway to full vocal recovery
Your voice is very much an extension of the self and identity. To have it fail can be devastating. The benefits and wellbeing brought about by a fully functioning and confident voice simply can’t be overstated. Once clinical rehab coaches have signed patients off, building up confidence can be a huge issue as technically they have ‘recovered’ but need to find a new, healthy voice and vocal identity with a trusted partner.
Rediscover the joy of singing
Feel buoyant, positive and excited by your vocal performance instead of stressed, anxious or unhappy. Rediscover the trust in your vocal production and focus on the story you are telling.
After diagnosis and initial treatment
Once diagnosed, treated and advised by ENT, your clinical and rehabilitation team can hand over to me to start the journey to help you regain your trust and faith in your voice.
Vocal ‘Prehab’
Do you often suffer from fatigue after singing? I can run through the sound tenets of safe vocal technique with reminders on breathing and alignment and a healthy, balanced phonation to prevent injury occurring in the first instance.
Evidence-based programme
All of your vocal training exercises will come from thoroughly researched vocal practices, with keen attention to the most up to date thinking about safe and healthy vocal use.
Expert connections
I have the contacts, experience and knowledge to tread the difficult vocal health path carefully, ethically and confidently, referring you to the right team if you need further investigation or diagnosis.
Safeguard your voice
If you sing in or represent a group that has a very intense period of vocal activity to manage, then I can help you to monitor your vocal health, and make the right decisions about vocal management during and after the event.
“I work with singers who have had vocal injury and who, after their clinical and rehabilitation interventions, are desperate to rebuild their confidence and vocal identity.”
“I work with singers who have had vocal injury and who, after their clinical and rehabilitation interventions, are desperate to rebuild their confidence and vocal identity.”
Experienced practitioner
There are few vocal specialists who really inhabit that ground between the clinically qualified and the ‘general’ singing teacher. Having studied and qualified in voice, anatomy and vocal health and habilitation, I can build on all of the work you have done with SLT and VRC experts, and guide you back to full vocal health. Through a trusting relationship and a well-informed, evidence-based, tailored programme of singing, I can bring back the joy in your voice and singing, and monitor your progress so you avoid relapsing.
Experienced practitioner
There are few vocal specialists who really inhabit that ground between the clinically qualified and the ‘general’ singing teacher.
Having studied and qualified in voice, anatomy and vocal health and habilitation, I can build on all of the work you have done with SLT and VRC experts, and guide you back to full vocal health.
Through a trusting relationship and a well-informed, evidence-based, tailored programme of singing, I can bring back the joy in your voice and singing, and monitor your progress so you avoid relapsing.
Our voice is one of our most precious communication assets
We need to look after our voice to keep it safe and functioning properly. However many people have to work in environments which put their voice at risk. I can help you protect your voice and feel confident.
Our voice is one of our most precious communication assets
We need to look after our voice to keep it safe and functioning properly. However many people have to work in environments which put their voice at risk. I can help you protect your voice and feel confident.
Voice injury is as common and as inevitable as physical injury is for an athlete
It should not be stigmatised or judged, and nearly all vocal functional problems can be resolved one way or another. Once suitable medical treatment has been sought, I can take over the reins and bring confidence and a long-term partnership to see the singer through to full performance again.
Voice injury is as common and as inevitable as physical injury is for an athlete
It should not be stigmatised or judged, and nearly all vocal functional problems can be resolved one way or another. Once suitable medical treatment has been sought, I can take over the reins and bring confidence and a long-term partnership to see the singer through to full performance again.
Talks and warm-ups
Online or in-person
Talks and warm-ups for groups and individuals, concentrating on healthy breathing and alignment. Information for choirs, school singing ensembles and individuals who want to safeguard their voices against fatigue and injury in busy periods.
Singing and Confidence Lessons
Online or in-person
One-to-one singing lessons or confidence rebuilding for those who are recovering from vocal injuries or setbacks (on the condition they have already seen the relevant clinical professionals for diagnosis and initial therapeutic work, which may include a clinically trained specialist Vocal Rehabilitation Coach).
Vocal Health Workshops
Online or in-person
Choral or group workshops focused on safeguarding the voice during busy or high intensity vocal periods. I can take your choir through the steps they need to take to stay as fresh as possible, with purpose-built warm-up and cool-down strategies designed to fit the project in question, and with presentations on the most up-to-date thinking on best vocal practice.
“After working with Nicki my voice is now back to full capacity.”
“After my vocal problems, I really struggled with my confidence in performing and my voice as a whole but now, seven months later, not only is my voice back to full capacity, and better, my confidence is increasing with every lesson. Nicki is and has always been hugely supportive and reassuring which has helped almost as much as her expertise.”
Laura Callander
“Nicki is an expert at managing vocal behaviour and gaining trust and confidence.”
“I worked on collaboration with Nicki and a child who had benign acquired vocal nodules. It is notoriously difficult working with young children with this condition as direct work is often not possible and it’s mainly about adapting the environment, adjusting expectations and managing vocal behaviour. In all of these areas Nicki was expert. She gained the trust and confidence of both the mother and child and so the child made progress.”
Cathy Maclennan – Speech and Language Therapist
Still unsure that I can help you?
Here are some of the questions you may have…
Still unsure that I can help you?
Here are some of the questions you may have…
I have had all of my speech therapy after my vocal injury but feel really nervous about returning to singing. I don’t think I should be having singing lessons yet.
If you have had your speech therapy sessions and your consultant is happy for you to return to singing, then you do need to be with someone who can give you confidence. You need to have lessons with someone who understands what a path to safe singing looks like.
I have a very good working knowledge of vocal pathology and muscle tension dysphonia, and whilst I am not clinically trained, I am happy and confident to take over the reins once a recognised vocal rehabilitation consultant has given you the tools to rebuild your singing.
I can hold your hand through the gradual process of regaining true belief and faith in your instrument.
I live in constant fear of relapsing and am quite paranoid about damaging my voice. It would be better for me to concentrate on other hobbies.
The psychological scar of vocal injury can be very off-putting. But with encouragement and positivity, I can really help you get back to the love of singing.
You need to be able to trust that the teacher you are working with is really on the same page as your SLT and vocal rehabilitation coach and I am very happy to be in contact with any of the other practitioners who have helped you, so that we can take the work forwards and have you back to the activity you love.
I have found my voice so much less reliable as I have reached a certain age. It feels weak and wobbly and I find it really depressing. But I can’t imagine that much can be done about this. It’s just the menopause!
It’s true that hormones make a difference to our vocal health but really good work on breathing and vocal hygiene can make a big difference to how you handle those changes.
You should be able to enjoy singing and speaking and find ways to minimise the deterioration that can come with age. I can really make a difference here, with evidence-based practice that can help you overcome the physiological changes that occur with age.
My child/I has/have nodules. She/I has/have worked with SLT and her therapist has suggested singing lessons to help breathing. But she/I really can’t sing much as her/my voice is constantly hoarse.
If your child’s speech and language therapist feels the time is right to resume singing lessons, I am happy to work alongside the therapist and gradually take over the reins, building your child’s confidence in their singing once again. It should be noted that this sort of work needs to be undertaken alongside a clinical specialist.
I just have a naturally husky voice. I don’t want to change that.
That’s fine, if your voice is healthy but has an individual quality that you want to keep! I wouldn’t want to change that. However, if the huskiness is caused by any kind of pathology or vocal health issue then I would certainly recommend that you work with the right professionals to achieve a more healthy vocal production so that your voice lasts and doesn’t let you down.
I can help build confidence and get your voice to function more reliably once you have finished any SLT or clinical courses and will work with you to find the healthy tone quality that is still you!
Fine-tune your voice and performance so that you can communicate with a confidence and passion that makes your audience sit up and listen. Nicki Kennedy is an energetic and enthusiastic communicator. She is a skilled diagnostician with much knowledge and experience, which she uses with commitment and vitality to help executives, young professional and aspiring professional singers and youngsters to develop their vocal technique and performance skills. > Find out more
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