Carmela is a Singing teacher and Vocal Habilitation Professional. This qualification allows her to help her students healthily maintain the voice for optimal function - help increase vocal efficiency, decrease fatigue, reduce potential injuries, and restrengthen the voice after illness or trauma.
To “habilitate” is to make able, to help the out-of-sync voice user find synergy once more, and to work with clients in a way that realigns, builds and strengthens body, mind and voice. There are no quick fixes, this work is slow and steady.
As a Vocal Habilitation Professional I have the skills to understand and help voice users return to healthy function and maintain this. I have an understanding of how the complex interactions of lifestyle, environment and aspects of health, combine with the behaviours of our minds and bodies. All of this will impact our voice use.
Vocal Habilitation Professional Scope Of Practice
The Vocal Habilitation Professional will:
- Have demonstrated the ability to apply their knowledge of the biopsychosocial causes of voice problems, including: a range of working environments, the impact of psychological stressors on voice function, evaluating vocal loading, awareness of overall wellbeing and lifestyle factors
- Have demonstrated the ability to apply their knowledge of the impact of a range of musical genres and professional working environments on vocal health, for both professional and amateur singers
- Understand the changes to the voice over a lifetime, and be able to apply this knowledge to their interactions with a client
- Know and understand the role/s of the other professionals who are part of the rehabilitative team
Be able to follow on from work undertaken by a Vocal Rehabilitation Specialist with longer-term habilitative singing voice work, rebuilding healthy vocal function after injury or dysphonia - Be able to habilitate a singer with muscle tension dysphonia and no vocal fold pathology using vocal function exercises
- Know when to refer a singer for clinical assessment or help from a professional in another field
- Receive ongoing supervision and support from Vocal Health Education