NOTE TO THE READER
Note to the reader
Literature
In recent years, a great deal has been published about the vagus nerve and topics related to it. If you are interested, there are plenty of valuable explanations to be found in specialist literature and on the Internet. For this reason, I rarely address the vagus nerve in an anatomical or medical sense in my articles, unless it is in a necessary, vagusonar-related context.
What I miss in these numerous offerings, however, is the physical treatment of vocal production, be it in tones, humming, delayed exhalation, etc.
It is not well known that all exercises that aim to have a positive effect on the vagus nerve in a broader sense depend on the lower jaw being as inactive as possible during any sound production. Only under this condition can the resulting sound waves be guided to below the diaphragm and, as a result, connote the vagus nerve in its entire length and width.
The helplessly falling lower jaw is the open gate to the pelvic floor.
These requirements are most directly achieved through the classical, in a therapeutic context, vagusonar vocal approach.
In this context, it is difficult to understand why singing therapy plays such a subordinate role within established music psychotherapies and other body therapy approaches.
Bessel van der Kolk writes in his book The body keeps the score on page 393: [...]"To find our own voice, we need to be in our bodies - we need to be able to breathe deeply and get in touch with our inner feelings. This is the opposite of dissociation, of being outside of one's own body and making oneself disappear. And it is the opposite of depression, of sitting slumped in front of a screen that provides us with passive entertainment. Agency involves being able to use our bodies to take our place in life."
I couldn't describe it better or more up-to-date.
The vagusonar idea was born to open consciousness in dealing with this quintessence. Vagusonar-Therapy developed from this as an integrative supplementary tool for many forms of body therapy. It has the power to bring up trauma and all emotional life in a very short time and often in the moment of sound production. That is why it belongs in the hands of experienced therapists.
I love my job as a singing teacher, but I am not a therapist. I developed Vagusonar-Therapy exclusively as an offer for therapists, doctors, educational professionals and their clients.
When I resonate with my singers during the lesson, we simultaneously enter a space of mutual experience.
We feel the processes of vibrating tones and melodies on a transcendent yet physical level. Subtle and gross material enter into a dialogue and exchange between us. This means:
If I, as a lecturer, am not able to physically sense what my counterpart is thinking, I cannot use a type of coping mechanism to gently influence their tone. Physical sensations can be heard more clearly through sound waves transmitted during singing than through speaking. All of this happens invisibly and is difficult to prove.
In the future, it will be up to science and research to examine the validity and evidence of those experiences and findings from the field of classical singing in connection with the human psyche and physique.
Only in this way can – as van der Kolk puts it: “[…] the rigour of scientific methods be combined with the power of embodied intuition.” (The body keeps the score, p. 409)
The vagus nerve idea may play a role in this.
Van der Kolk, Bessel. Verkörperter Schrecken. Traumaspuren in Gehirn, Geist und Körper und wie man sie heilen kann. GP Probst, Lichtenau/Westfalen. (2016).
Dana, Deb. Arbeiten mit der Polyvagal-Theorie: Übungen zur Förderung von Sicherheit und Verbundenheit. Probst, GP Verlag. (2020).
Dana, Deb. Arbeiten mit der Polyvagal-Theorie: [FLIPCHART]
Levine, Peter A. Vom Trauma befreien: Wie Sie seelische und körperliche Blockaden lösen. Kösel-Verlag. (2012).
Fritzsche, Kai, and Woltemade Hartman. Einführung in die Ego-State-Therapie. Carl-Auer Verlag. (2023).
Eder, Ursula, and Franz J. Sperlich. Das Parasympathikus-Prinzip: Wie wir mit nur wenigen Atemzügen unseren inneren Arzt fit machen. Gräfe und Unzer. (2019).
Pittman, Catherine M., and Elizabeth M. Karle. Angst und Panik erfolgreich überwinden. Anaconda Verlag. (2020).
Weymann, Eckhard. Lexikon Musiktherapie. Ed. Hans-Helmut Decker-Voigt. Göttingen: Hogrefe. (2009).
Kölsch, Stefan. Good vibrations: die heilende Kraft der Musik. Ullstein Buchverlage. (2019).
Hüther, Gerald. Mit Freude lernen–ein Leben lang: Weshalb wir ein neues Verständnis vom Lernen brauchen. Sieben Thesen zu einem erweiterten Lernbegriff und eine Auswahl von Beiträgen zur Untermauerung. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. (2016).
Felber, Rosmarie. Musiktherapie und Gesangstherapie. Vol. 3. Urachhaus. (2000).
Werbeck-Svärdström, Valborg, and Stuttgart Goetheanum. Die Schule der Stimmenthüllung: ein Weg zur Katharsis in der Kunst des Singens. Verlag am Goetheanum. (2010).
Führmann, Maria. Die Praxis des Gesanges unter geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten. (1980).
Winter, Dina Soresi. Gesang und der ätherische Ton: Gracia Ricardos Gesangsmethode nach Angaben Rudolf Steiners. Verlag am Goetheanum. (1997).
Deighton, Hilda, Gina Palermo, and Dina Soresi Winter. Singing and the Etheric Tone: Gracia Ricardo's Approach to Singing, based on Her Work with Rudolf Steiner. SteinerBooks. (2006).
Moses, Paul J. Vocal elements of disturbed communication. ORL 19.4. (1957).
Henderson, Julie. Embodying well-being. Wie man sich trotz allem wohl fühlen kann. AJZ-Verlag, Bielefeld. (2010).
Henderson, Julie. Das Buch vom Summen. The Hum Book, 2003.
Rosen, M. The Rosen method of movement. North Atlantic Books. (1991).
Bohne, Michael. Klopfen gegen Lampenfieber. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg. (2008).
Pfeiffer, Antonia. Emotionale Erinnerung–Klopfen als Schlüssel für Lösungen: Neurowissenschaftliche Wirkhypothesen der Klopftechniken. Carl-Auer Verlag. (2023).
Seidner, Wolfram, and Jürgen Wendler. Die Sängerstimme: phoniatrische Grundlagen für den Gesangsausbildung. (No Title). (1997).
Husler, Frederick, and Yvonne Rodd-Marling. Singen. Die physische Natur des Stimmorganes. B. Schott's Sohne Mainz. (1965).
Sevenich, Joachim. Chakra-Vokal-Training: Chakras und die magische Kraft der Stimme. Vianova. (2005).
Frommhold, Jördis. LongCovid: die neue Volkskrankheit. Vol. 6469. CH Beck. (2022).
Internetquellen
www.understandingly.de/vagusnerv
Boisson, Ulrike. Gesang als therapeutisches Medium bei depressiv verstimmten Patienten. Diss. lmu, (2005).
[PDF] Saladin, Hubert Michael. Das freischwingende Zwerchfell – die freischwingende Stimme
Sendlmeier, Walter. Die psychologische Wirkung von Stimme und Sprechweise–Geschlecht, Alter, Persönlichkeit, Emotion und audiovisuelle Interaktion. Resonanz-Räume–Die Stimme und die Medien. (2012): 99-116.
Wan, Catherine Y., et al. The therapeutic effects of singing in neurological disorders. Music perception 27.4 (2010): 287-295.
[INTERVIEW] Serge Prengel & Raja Selvam (Begründer der Integralen Somatischen Psychologie)
For me, sources also mean all my students, pupils and friends who share their voices, experiences – but also fears and insecurities – with me in great trust. This togetherness is the basis of my profession.