Voice Coaching with Imogen
Hypermobility (hEDS) Specialist - Researcher
Hello and welcome, I'm Imogen, a voice coach from London who loves to help people find deeper connection to their voice, breath and body.
A personal history of chronic illness steered me to research hypermobility (Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) and the voice in 2020. Now, I specialise in voice and breath work for chronic conditions including:
Hypermobility (hEDS) and EDS
Nervous system dysfunction (Dysautonomia)
MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome)
Long Covid
PoTS
Chronic anxiety and panic
and other autoimmune and chronic pain issues.
A citizen artist you say?
"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable"
Cesar A. Cruz
While performance training has traditionally been reserved for a small percentage of the population, I believe the power of the voice, story and expression should be for everybody...and EVERY BODY.
Informed by a lifetime in my own chronically pained body, I specialise in voice and the nervous system: the body's first response. Embarking on the first research into expressive voice and breath work for patients with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in 2020 I presented my research to EDS Support UK in a 2023 webinar and teach workshops to help people manage their voice and breath symptoms.
A lifelong performer, I began voice training from a very young age as a classical singer from ArtsEd to Royal Central School of Speech & Drama before studying Shakespeare with Kristin Linklater at KLVC in the wilds of Orkney. In 2015 I moved to New York to attend the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, training intensively in voice and speech, Adler technique and movement.
Then came teaching...Over the past decade I have taught anywhere that would let me:
From jails and prisons in London and NYC offering acting, voice and writing workshops to uplift and amplify voices who are often spoken for.
(Work places include Drama Club NYC, New York Dept of Correction Fine Arts Division, Rikers Island, Stella Adler Outreach, HMP Holloway, HMP Wandsworth.)
More traditional settings I have taught in include, Central's MA Advanced Theatre Practice course, Trinity Laban Musical Theatre BA, Synergy Theatre Company, London Studio Centre Musical BA, Mountview MA. Other teaching highlights have been co-leading London's Park Theatre's Act and Play Youth Company, and co-leading Cornwall's Minack Shakespeare Festival.
In 2020, as the world shut down, I went to Central School of Speech and Drama to complete a Masters degree in Voice, both the research and degree were awarded distinction and have focused on my chronically ill community every since then.
I deliver voice workshops tailored to any level, both in person and remotely and travel for work (with a bit of notice!) and coach for productions so feel free to get in touch below.
Voice Coaching
1:2:1 in-person
Work one-on-one with me in-person in London.
Sessions are tailored to all skill levels and all bodies. Learn how to connect with or re-connect with your voice, breath and nervous system with a private session.
Online coaching
Experience flexible learning with online coaching sessions via Zoom.
Find increased awareness and ease around your voice and breath, from your own room.
Production coaching
Need a voice coach who understands access? Or a chronic pain consultant?
Musical and non-musical shows, experience working on
productions of all sizes with a mix of professional and non-professionals, and disabled and non-disabled actors.
What Clients Say
"I have had a fear of public speaking since I was a girl - and now have a job where I use my voice to speak to the public.
Imogen was able to help teach me how to be confident through the power of voice. I have learnt the importance of breathing - and have used the techniques in my everyday life to help me with stressful situations as well as my day to day job.
The sessions were both incredibly relaxing and uplifting - and I felt five inches taller after! Imogen is a very patient, understanding and knowledgable teacher - who makes the experience incredibly comfortable. I very much look forward to the next sessions post-lockdown!"
N.C
"Following some respiratory problems, I have been working with Imogen on regaining my voice.
She is knowledgeable, mindful of what I can and can’t do, but at the same time astute and challenging, which is just what I need."
A.J
"Imogen is an incredibly insightful and empathetic tutor who taught me new ways of approaching Shakespeare as well as contemporary text. Both technical, and intuitive.
She helped me awaken my body and explore my performance using embodied and voice reflexes, some of which I didn't even know existed.
She never hesitated to encourage me to grow in my acting, but also treat mty cultural diversity as an asset rather than a handicap in performance.
This experience was so much more than coaching!"
A.S
