BIOGRAPHY
With a Master’s Degree in Nursing and 13 years experience as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Margaret brings her health care background with knowledge of human anatomy and physiology to the knowledge of vocal cord function and sound production. She can teach you, as a performer, how to weather the storms of episodic acute and chronic conditions to keep you performing at your best. Or if you are interested in just singing as therapy in itself, she can guide you through the stages of emotions using your voice to reach your maximum healing potential. Margaret is experienced with a vocal technique that teaches relaxation of the muscles surrounding the larynx and the proper relaxation and utilization of other muscles as well, in a biofeedback-type process. This method facilitates the proper closure and resonating ability of the vocal cords, making singing as effortless as speaking. She has personally found that the sensation of just releasing sound rather than pushing it in and through the various resonant chambers from chest to head can bring on a tremendous sensation of well-being. This technique has been a perfect match for her interest in energy work. Singing becomes an enjoyable process that can facilitate a healthy release and expression of emotions that hold the key to obtaining the vital energy needed to facilitate life processes.
In the field of music therapy, professionals have long realized the therapeutic benefits of music. Diane Austin, adjunct associate professor of music therapy at New York University and executive director of the Music Psychotherapy Center in New York says, “Nothing accesses the inner world of feelings, sensations, memories, and associations as directly as music does”. “The voice is like a bridge from your heart to your head. Singing freely releases what’s locked up in your body.” A pilot study published in the British Journal of Nursing found that singing therapy could greatly reduce the anxiety and depression patients can experience following a major surgery. The effect was strong enough that the authors suggested doctors prescribe therapy before trying antidepressants.
And you don’t have to be a performer. In fact, other studies seem to indicate that people who were not performers reaped the greatest benefit. Maria Logis was one such person who experienced a tremendous desire to sing after being diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. She stated “I never had sung before. It was baffling.” After finding a singing teacher to work with who guided her to sing about her experiences with obtaining the diagnosis and her fears of doctors and of treatment, she experienced such a healing catharsis and metamorphosis that her cancer went into remission right before she was scheduled for chemotherapy. The earlier practice of many music therapists also suggest that singing may ease depression and control blood pressure.
Margaret has a passion to work with people who would like to gain confidence in using a skill they never thought they possessed and to reap the psychological and physical benefits of mastering such a skill. In addition, she is interested in vocal cord rehabilitation after injuries that result in vocal cord paralysis or that can result from using improper singing or speaking techniques causing vocal cord nodules. Or in the line of prevention she works with performers and those involved in professions that rely heavily on speaking engagements to utilize their voice in a way that releases energy rather strains the mind, body and the vocal cords.
EDUCATION
Master’s Degree and Family Nurse Practitioner Program: Graduated Suma Cum Laude from California State University, Long Beach.
Certified Massage Professional
Voice Training
•Long Beach City College (AA degree in Music)
•Claudia Kitka (CSUS)
•Daniel E. Hayes (Speech Level Singing Technique)
Margaret has studied with Daniel for two years at the Roseville Voice Training Studio.
•ShellyFranklin Rose (Speech Level Singing Technique)
•Jeffrey Skousan (Speech Level Singing Technique)
•Wendy Parr (Speech Level Singing Technique)
•Greg Rodriguez (Speech Level Singing Technique)
•Seth Riggs (Speech Level Singing Technique.
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