#132. Opening the Door to Collegiality and Community with Dr. Jenevora Williams

Our guest this week on A Voice and Beyond is Dr. Jenevora Williams, who returns to the show to speak candidly about her teaching career, from her early teaching days and the journey that has led to where she is presently in her role as the Co-Founder of Vocal Health Education. She has earned the respect of our voice community as a leading exponent in the field of vocal health and singing teaching. After a successful career in Opera, she turned her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function. The combination of academic study and practical experience has resulted in her unique perception of understanding the human voice.

In this interview, Jenevora shares her career journey, the many battles she provoked and endured along the way, and the harsh lessons learned both personally and professionally. This discussion is focused around the importance of collegiality, compassion, and understanding in our singing voice community and how leading in this way can have positive outcomes for our students.

Jenevora is an advocate for student-centred learning and the teacher training that she has co-created as part of Vocal Health Education endorses a person-centred philosophy. She explains the importance of this philosophy, the barriers she is trying to breakdown through this work, and how VHE has been developed for all teachers, irrespective of age, stage of development, or experience. This is a truly honest and rare look into her career and I appreciate her willingness to so openly share her stories and thoughts on the show. I felt honoured to hold space for this discussion with Dr. Jenevora Williams and I am sure you will love hearing her story.

In this Episode

1:15 – Introduction

5:36 – Philosophy based on Person Centered interactions

25:57 – The people who chose to work with Dr. Jenevora

26:47 –Fear-based barrier or a defense 

38:04 – How social media has exacerbated the problem of bias

53:57 – Vocal Health Education is coming to Australia

1:02:42 – Vocal Health First Aid training 

Find Dr. Jenevora Online

Websites:

https://jenevorawilliams.com/

https://www.vocalhealth.co.uk/

https://www.evolvingvoice.co.uk/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/JenevoraWilliamsEvolvingVoice

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jwevolvingvoice/   Upcoming Australian Tour:

www.vocalhealth.co.uk/australian-tour

For more, go to https://drmarisaleenaismith.com/132.

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