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Dr. Diane Austin, D.A., LCAT

Dr. Diane Austin, D.A., LCAT

Vocal Psychotherapist, In Depth Psychotherapist, Lecturer

For more information on training and referrals:

Contact: austinvocalpsychotherapy@gmail.com for New York based Training Programs


Contact: austinvocalpsychotherapyuk@gmail.com for information on England based Training Programs


For anything else contact: 

diane@dianeaustin.com

I was always surrounded by music, growing up listening to my father coaching singers. Eventually, I learned all the songs I heard them singing. As I got older, I would go to hear him play piano and often sat in with his Jazz quartet. Before I turned 20 I landed my first professional singing job. After moving to NYC, I began my singing career in cabarets and nightclubs. During that time, I also developed an interest in psychology and began Jungian analysis.

In 1982, I discovered music therapy and was thrilled to find a field that combined my two loves, music (singing) and psychotherapy! Through my studies and experiences at NYU, I came to the conclusion that the voice is our primary instrument and one doesn’t have to be a trained singer to gain the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits that sounding and singing provide. I graduated with a Master’s degree in music therapy in 1986 and continued to explore different schools of psychotherapy. I began seeing clients in private practice and within that setting, I developed the first voice-based model of music therapy, Vocal Psychotherapy.

Vocal Psychotherapy is the first voice based model of music therapy and was developed by Dr. Diane Austin, a licensed creative arts therapist. This model integrates the breath, natural sounds, vocal improvisation, songs and dialogue within a client therapist relationship to facilitate intrapsychic and interpersonal change and growth. It combines the ideas and theories of depth psychology with the practice of vocal music therapy. Austin Vocal Psychotherapy includes vocal holding techniques, free associative singing© and other methods that access conscious and unconscious feelings, memories and associations.

Example of Free Associative Singing

Austin Vocal Psychotherapy is very effective in trauma work.

Any experience that causes an infant or child unbearable psychic pain is traumatic, including the more cumulative traumas of unmet dependency needs, inadequate nurturing and interruptions of the attachment bond. Healing trauma involves reconnecting with the body and mending the splits between body, mind, and spirit. Deep breathing is crucial for connecting to bodily sensations and feelings. Singing and sounding support deep breathing, slow the heart rate, calm the nervous system, and foster a sense of groundedness.

 

The methods of Vocal Holding and Free Associative Singing help clients revisit developmental stages where there has been a rupture to the integrity of the self. These methods offer a chance for reparative experiences, allowing the client and the therapist to engage with dissociated parts of the self that were split off due to trauma. The vital energy within these parts can then be integrated into the present-day personality.

BIO

Dr. Diane Austin, DA, LCAT (she/her) is the Director of the Music Psychotherapy Center in NYC, NY, where she has maintained a private practice in Vocal Psychotherapy, in-depth psychotherapy, and supervision for more than 40 years. She is an adjunct associate professor at New York University in the graduate music therapy department. Dr. Austin developed the first voice based model of music therapy, Vocal Psychotherapy, and has taught post master’s distance training programs in vocal psychotherapy in Vancouver, B. C., Seoul, Korea, and now has an international distance training program in Austin Vocal Psychotherapy in Brighton, England and NYC. She has given workshops in countries throughout the world and has published numerous articles and book chapters on in depth music therapy and vocal psychotherapy. Her book, “The Theory and Practice of Vocal Psychotherapy: Songs of The Self” was published  by Jessica Kingsley and codified her model.

Me in Vancouver with group participants

VOCAL HOLDING

Vocal holding techniques involve the intentional use of two chords in combination with the therapist’s voice in order to create a consistent and stable musical environment that facilitates improvised singing within the client–therapist relationship. This method provides a reliable, safe structure for the client who is afraid or unused to improvising. In Sandy’s words, ‘As a classically trained singer it used to be hard for me to improvise and to not care about what came out or how it sounded when it came out.’

Vocal holding techniques also support a connection to self and other and can be used to promote a therapeutic regression in which unconscious feelings, sensations, memories and associations can be accessed, processed and integrated. These unconscious experiences are directly related to parts of the self that have been split off and suspended in time due to traumatic occurrences. When contacted and communicated with, these younger parts can be reunited with the ego and the vital energy they contain can be made available to the present day personality. Developmental arrests can be repaired and a more complete sense of self can be attained.

Unlike jazz or other forms of clinical improvisation where shifts in harmonic centers are to be expected, this improvisational structure is usually limited to two chords in order to establish a predictable, secure musical and psychological container that will enable clients to relinquish some of the mind’s control, sink down into their bodies and allow their spontaneous selves to emerge.

Vocal Psychotherapy International Distance Training Program in Brighton, England (2024-2026)

Vocal Psychotherapy International Distance Training Program in Brighton, England
(2024-2026)

FREE ASSOCIATIVE SINGING

‘Free associative singing’ is the term I use to describe a technique that can be implemented when words enter the vocal holding process. It is similar to Freud’s (1938) technique of free association in that clients are encouraged to verbalize whatever comes into their head with the expectation that, by doing so, they will come into contact with unconscious images, memories and asso- ciated feelings. It differs from Freud’s technique in that the client is singing instead of speaking, but more significantly, the therapist is also singing and contributing to the musical stream of consciousness by making active verbal and musical interventions. The accompaniment (two-chord holding pattern or repetitive riff ) and my singing continue to contain the client’s process, but the emphasis now is not only on ‘holding’ the client’s emerging self and psychic contents but on creating momentum through the music and the lyrics that will propel the improvisation and the therapeutic process forward.

In its simplest form, free associative singing involves clients singing a word or phrase and my mirroring or repeating the words and melody back to them. As the improvisation deepens, I make critical decisions about when, how and what to sing with the client. This is especially true when I move beyond simply mirroring the client’s lyrics and music and begin to vocally provide empathic reflection, make gentle interpretations by singing thoughts and feelings clients may be having but are not yet voicing, and use repetition to emphasize important words and help the clients digest the meaning in the words.​ Essential to the effectiveness of this method is the use of the ‘double’ (Moreno 1994).

The Theory and Practice of Vocal Psychotherapy: Songs of the Self

AUSTIN  VOCAL PSYCHOTHERAPY DISTANCE TRAINING PROGRAMS

This program is a 2-year postmaster’s training course taught by Dr. Diane Austin, available to qualified music therapists. It results in a certificate in vocal psychotherapy from the Music Psychotherapy Center in New York City, USA. The certification includes authorization to use the credentials AVPT (Austin Vocal Psychotherapist).

 

The program structure consists of two 5-day experiential trainings each year. During these sessions, participants will engage in a variety of sound, singing, and movement improvisations, individual and group songs, deep breathing techniques, and psychodrama warm-ups. The core methods of this model are vocal holding and free associative singing. Each group member will have an individual session with the group leader to explore each method. Members will learn from their participation, as well as from observing and discussing vocal interventions used during the therapeutic process. In the second year, members will have clients and receive both individual and group supervision.

 

The group will meet online monthly to discuss readings on trauma, object relations theory, and Jungian psychology. In the second year, the monthly meetings will focus on group supervision.

New York Trainers

Diane Austin
Jenny Hoi Yan Fu
Allison Reynolds

U.K. Trainers

Diane Austin
Tina Warnock (trainer in training)
Nele Fiers (trainer in training)

NEWS

Diane Austin

Voice Study Centre, England

January 5th, 2025

Webinar: Introduction to Austin Vocal Psychotherapy

 

Tina Warnock

Music Therapy Charity Research Conference 

Cambridge Institute of Music Therapy Research

January 17 & 18, 2025

An international survey to investigate the impact of austin vocal psychotherapy training                                                         

Diane Austin

Italian Music Therapy Association

January 18, 2025

Webinar: Vocal Holding and Free Associative Singing

 

Joy Willenbrink-Conte

Great Lakes Region of AMTA

Columbus, Ohio

March 14, 2025

Workshop: Austin Vocal Psychotherapy

 

Jay DeRosa

SER-AMTA Regional Conference

Birmingham, Alabama

March 20-22, 2025

Reclaiming the Voice: Resourcing Through Austin Vocal Psychotherapy

Sabrina Vanpoucke

Artevelde University for Applied Sciences

Ghent, Belgium

March 21, 2025

Dance Therapy and Austin Vocal Psychotherapy Workshop

 

Diane Austin

New England Region of AMTA

Portland, Maine

April 3-5, 2025

Songs of the Self: Introduction to Austin Vocal Psychotherapy

 

Tina Warnock & Sarah Gummett-Hart

Brighton, England

April 26-27, 2025

Introduction to Austin Vocal Psychotherapy

Diane Austin

Lisbon, Portugal

June 5-8, 2025

Austin Vocal Psychotherapy Workshop

Diane Austin

Brighton, England

August 18-25, 2025

International Training Program in Vocal Psychotherapy 2024-2026

© 2025 by Dr. Diane Austin, DA, LCAT. All rights reserved. New York, NY, Design by Tara Grey

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