Sam Alty

Explore your gift of voicefulness and unleash the potential of your expressive creative power. Discover the nature of your voice and the voice of your nature.

"Sam's work is deeply connective and playful" - Rachel Sweeney, Program Leader for the MA in Movement Mind and Ecology at Schumacher College

“This is a time full of voice but not only. It's also a time of expressive freedom and play.”- Kasia Stankiewicz, workshop participant.

People come to V.E for different reasons. Some because they want to open their voice, some are interested in self-development and self-awareness, some because they love the soul nourishing opportunity to be with wonderful people away from the city and be in an intensive creative process, some from pure curiosity to try something new.

One common topic that we all encounter (sooner or later) is feeling limited in the ability to express fully. The little voices of self-doubt. It is very common for people to have negative-self-reinforcing belief  patterns. And these beliefs can potentially be keys to discovering something new and vital. But it takes courage and is challenging.

We can’t develop our voices because of the beliefs and the beliefs won’t change because we can’t develop our voice. Vicious circle.

I think that this is probably very common across people everywhere in every country, and not only in the case of using the voice or expression, but through many aspects of our life.

But what to do?

I deeply understand this because it was (and sometimes still is!) also true for me. Since I was a child, I’ve had music as an integral part of my life. I loved playing instruments and performing, but when I opened my mouth to sing and express myself, the happy supportive environment around me, dramatically changed. With all the best intentions, friends, family and teachers would kindly advise me that it would be better that I don’t waste my time with singing.

But I couldn’t give up.

I developed my own way of finding my voice. I learnt how to adapt insights and techniques from martial arts, theatre, improvised dance, meditation and learning musical instruments to ultimately develop my voice to the level where I now have songs played on the radio, on television, I perform regularly, I run voice workshops and I receive an immense satisfaction from being able to write that.

Because it wasn’t easy for me, because I wasn’t born with a beautiful voice, because learning to find my voice has been a deeply challenging, I have an intimate understanding and empathy for people who also want to explore and develop their voices.

In any learning process there are things we don’t know that we don’t know, and many times in my workshops I am able to support and create situations that help people discover things, that anticipate obstacles that if not treated properly can prevent someone from progressing.

Voice Ecology has developed for this. It is my belief and experience that self-expression and self-awareness are deeply connected. In the process of applying our attention to the ecology of our voice, and the voice of our ecology, we gain access to profound and boundless creative possibilities within ourselves. The limits of our voice are quite literally beyond what we imagine them to be