Be the teacher you wish you’d had.
Give the advice you wish you’d known.
Recognise when to ask for help.
Boost your CV with this externally accredited course.
Fully accredited course
10 hours of film content
15 mins a day
for 6 weeks
LIVE online assessment
What is Vocal Health First Aid?
An understanding of vocal health and the factors that can affect vocal wellbeing.
Practical skills to spot the signs of a range of vocal dysfunction and imbalance.
Knowledge to help someone towards recovery by:
- Guiding them in self-management, or
- Passing them on to further support, whether that is specialist vocal rehabilitation coaching or clinical treatment
An understanding of how to prevent vocal health issues from occurring in the workplace.
What does a qualified Vocal Health First Aider do?
Listen & Look
Ask & Assess
Safely Suggest
Evaluate
Reassure & Refer
Where does a qualified Vocal Health First Aider work?
The VHFA will be integral to policy-making and scheduling, so that vocal health considerations are woven into the fabric of these organisations and institutions. Every touring company, conservatoire, theatre company, choral society or theatre school needs a Vocal Health First Aider, who will be the first port of call for any voice user with a problem.
Prioritise vocal health in your workplace by ensuring you have a Vocal Health First Aider on your team.
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Theatre Companies
Colleges & Conservatoires
Youth Choirs
Performance Training Colleges
Saturday Theatre Schools
Choral Societies
Community Choirs
Schools
GP Surgeries
Pricing and Information
Total cost of the CPD accredited (level 2 equivalent) Vocal Health First Aid course
£184.00
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How does the VHE qualification work?
When you sign into our online learning platform, you will be guided through 37 short films that make up 7 of the 8 units of the qualification. At the end of the course content, there are 7 multiple choice assessments relating to each unit of content. There are approximately 10 hours of learning content to watch in total
and these videos are able to be viewed as many times as needed. Additionally, we provide supporting material for Units 1-7 in the form of PDFs. These documents have all the slides shown in the films and are downloadable for your personal use only.
6 weeks to complete the multiple-choice questions
When you sign up, you have 6 weeks in which to complete Units 1-7 of the VHFA course, meaning that you can organise your learning experience around your work / life schedule.
How do I qualify as a Vocal Health First Aider?
In order to pass the online learning platform, ready for your final LIVE assessment with one of our specialists, you need to pass each of the first 7 units with 65%.
If you do not attain a 65% pass mark for one quiz unit, you will be given a second attempt. Once the assessment is in progress, you are unable to access the course content until the unit quiz has been completed. However, before your second attempt at the quiz you may return to the unit content to revise and look over any notes you have made.
If after your second attempt you do not reach a 65% pass mark, you will be required to resit that individual unit. This will be arranged with the VHFA Course Manager.
To resit any units that you didn’t reach the 65% pass mark on after the second attempt there will be a £25 administration fee. This fee will cover a single resit of each of Units 1-7 needing to be re-sat. This can be purchased from our website.
21 days to complete the 1-2-1 interview
Once Units 1-7 are successfully completed, you will have a 1-2-1 interview with an assessor to complete Unit 8 of the course. This is an opportunity to discuss your understanding of the course content alongside how you will implement your knowledge moving forward. You have 21 days after completion of Units 1-7 to complete Unit 8.
If you did not meet the assessment criteria for Unit 8 you will need to resit the interview. You will have 2 weeks to review the course material using your initial exam feedback to guide you toward the areas you need to revisit. You will then resit the 1-2-1 interview at the end of those 2 weeks. The fee to resit Unit 8 is £67.
When you have completed and passed all 8 units, you will be awarded your Certificate in Vocal Health First Aid; a fully CPD accredited level 2 course. The certificate is valid for three years, at the end of this time, you will be sent a reminder to re-register with Vocal Health Education.
What will I learn?
Unit 1: Introduction
- What is Vocal Health First Aid (Stephen King and Dr Jenevora Williams)
- The Bio-Psycho-Social Model (Stephen King)
- Considering the Whole Body (Line Hilton)
- Singers Are Human, Too! (Line Hilton)
Unit 2: The Mind/Body
- An Introduction to Mindfulness (Dr. Anne-Marie Czajkowski)
- Practical Mindfulness (Dr. Anne-Marie Czajkowski)
- Mind/Body 1 (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Mind/Body 2 (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Mind/Body 3 (Dr Jenevora Williams)
Unit 3: Functional Anatomy
- Anatomy 1 – Body Balance (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Anatomy 2 – Head and Neck (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Anatomy 3 – Breathing and Posture (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Anatomy 4 – The Vocal Tract (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Anatomy 5 – The Larynx (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Anatomy 6 – The Vocal Folds (Dr Jenevora Williams)
Unit 4: Assessment Methods
- Assessing Tension I (Stephen King)
- Assessing Tension II (Stephen King)
- Vocal Assessment Methods (Chris Johnson)
- Speaking Voice Assessment (Lydia Hart SLT)
- Grading the Voice (Lydia Hart SLT)
- Movement Series 1 (Chris Johnson)
- Movement Series 2 (Chris Johnson)
- Movement Series 3 (Chris Johnson)
- Building Intuition and Functional Listening Skills (Chris Johnson)
Unit 5: Pathology
- Joint Voice Clinic (Natalie Watson ENT)
- Pathology (Natalie Watson ENT)
- It’s All Connected (Line Hilton)
- Hydration and Reflux (Duncan Rock)
- The Holistic Approach (Line Hilton)
Unit 6: Hormones and Ageing
- Voice and The Ageing Process (Joanne Bozeman)
- Female Voice and The Hormonal Landscape I (Joanne Bozeman)
- Female Voice and The Hormonal Landscape II (Joanne Bozeman)
Unit 7: Practical Advice
- An Introduction to Straw Phonation (Oren Boder)
- Common Myths and Myth Busting (Duncan Rock)
- Exercise and the Voice (Duncan Rock)
- The Singer’s First Aid Kit (Dr Jenevora Williams)
- Course Summary (Eimear McCarthy Luddy)
Vocal Health First Aid Tutors
Duncan Rock – MMus, PGDip (nutritional science) – has an active international career as an operatic baritone. He has performed roles at The Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera, Teatro Real, Glyndebourne, English National Opera and many others. He is a Nutritionist and member of the Royal Society for Public Health. He owns and operates a private nutrition consultation – duncanrocknutrition.com – and works specifically on nutrition for singers and voice actors at the Voice Care Centre, London.
Lydia completed her four year BSc in Speech and Language Therapy in 2015, at the University of Reading. Lydia spent two years working with swallowing disorders, before undertaking comprehensive clinical training in Voice and Upper Airway disorders. Alongside her work at Voice Care Centre, Lydia provides NHS outpatient voice therapy as well as running the Joint Voice Clinic at Wexham Park Hospital, alongside renowned laryngologist Declan Costello. She is a trainer with the innovating Vocal Health Education and Vocal Massage Training UK. She has attended the Estill level 1 and 2 courses with The Voice Explained and has trained in Vocal Massage, Myofascial Release and further laryngeal manipulation, with Stephen King.
Chris is a highly experienced vocal coach who understands the demands on performers today, and the vital role voice training plays in developing and sustaining vocal range and strength, night after night. He has helped thousands of vocalists to be the best possible version of themselves through the highest level service and support.Trained in vocal manual therapy, massage and myofascial release. Major label contemporary artists, singer/songwriters, West End lead performers, and vocal coaches all trust him to take good care of their voices, develop their techniques, and bring out all of the style and artistry needed to take on THE career. Chris is also the co-founder of popular iTunes podcast for singers, The Naked Vocalist, an author and teacher trainer, and his unique teaching style is in demand from London to Los Angeles.
Line’s mission is to raise industry standards for vocal, mental and physical health and wellbeing in people who use their voice professionally. She takes a functional approach to training the voice, and a holistic approach to working with the performer. Drawing on a diverse pool of training, qualifications, experiences and skills her coaching also involves work around mindset freedom, health and wellbeing and resilience. As a singing teacher Line has been fortunate to work in a variety of settings from HE to running her own private practice where she has worked with a wide range of singers, artists and pro session singers including Andrew Roachford (Cuddly Toy), Sam Brown (Stop), Nate James (MOBO nominee), Anita Wardell (BBC Jazz Best Vocalist) , Crissie Rhodes (The Shires), Alesha Dixon, Andy Abraham (X Factor runner up), Katy Holmes-Smith (BV singer for Adele, Christina Aguilera, Professor Green, Olly Murs) and singer/songwriter Frances (Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, Jess Glynn). As well as running her private practice, Line is a singing teacher trainer for BAST Training, an industry speaker, BAPAM Educational Trainer and guest lecturer.
Anne-Marie became a singing teacher and performer after leaving post-graduate vocal studies at the Royal College of Music. Since then she has become a mindfulness practitioner, completed level one MBCT training with the British Mindfulness Institute, and gained her PhD studies in the field of Applied Psychology of Music at the University of Leeds studying the effects of mindfulness on singers and instrumentalists in more depth.
Anne-Marie also has 20+ years vocal teaching experience from nervous beginners and those with learning difficulties up to University first study and Diploma standard students. She currently runs a lively private singing teaching practice at Leeds Conservatoire and Garforth Academy and has recently been appointed as a Teaching Fellow in both the Music Psychology and Music Performance Departments at Leeds University.
Anne-Marie has also recently published the following peer-reviewed journal article reporting the results from the Mindfulness for Singers study she did for her PhD: Czajkowski, A.-M. L., Greasley, A. E., & Allis, M. (2021). Mindfulness for Singers: A mixed methods replication study. Music & Science, 4.
Voice users from all over the world trust Stephen with their vocal recovery and rehabilitation. He has personally worked with Hollywood A-listers right through to World Champion Beatboxers, and owns the multidisciplinary VOICE CARE CENTRE in London’s West End. Passionate about professional development, Stephen has acquired a breadth of knowledge from his qualifications in Advanced Clinical Massage, Medical Acupuncture, Manual Maxillofacial Therapy, Spinal Manipulation, Anatomy (including human dissection) and Voice Pedagogy, and is now continuing his studies into Psychotherapy. As an advocate of health and wellbeing, Stephen co-founded the not for profit Vocal Health Education with Dr Jenevora Williams, seeking to educate every single voice user around the world on the subject of Vocal Health.
Oren is an award winning singing teacher, voice researcher, entrepreneur, and inventor of the SOVT Singing Straw, and is proudly supported by both the Prince’s Trust and Virgin Startup. Oren believes in enriching lives through the arts, and through the pursuit of meaningful science, develops innovative tools and resources to help singers enhance and improve their vocal development, health, and wellbeing, whilst also having an impact on the universe.
Dr. Jenevora Williams is a leading exponent in the field of vocal health and singing teaching. After a successful career in Opera, Jenevora turned her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function. The combination of academic study and practical experience has resulted in a unique perception for understanding the human voice. She was the first singing teacher to be awarded a PhD in voice science in the UK, and won the 2010 BVA Van Lawrence Prize for her outstanding contribution to voice research. Her book, Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults, has been enormously popular with singing teachers throughout the world. She is well-known for her imaginative and rigorous training courses for singing teachers in the UK, the US and Europe. As a teacher of singing, she works with professional singers of all ages, as well as training teachers in rehabilitation for Vocal Health Education and BAPAM.
Natalie Watson is a Laryngology Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust with a passion for laryngology and singing. She has a Masters in Clinical Education, for which she was awarded a distinction from King’s College London. Natalie qualified with two distinctions from Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School and was awarded the prestigious Jelf medal. She obtained an intercalated Honours BSc in Neuroscience having received the Health Foundation Student Research Fellowship. Currently, she is in the PERFORM working group looking at respirable particles emitted during singing, woodwind and brass instruments, exercise, speech and language therapy exercises and inputting this data into computational fluid dynamic modelling. This project is funded by an EPSRC Grant, sponsored by Public Health England and results directly communicated to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Joanne Bozeman, co-author of Singing Through Change, Women’s Voices in Midlife, Menopause, and Beyond (2020, StudioBos Media), is Emerita Instructor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin USA, where she taught studio voice and voice - related courses. For many years, she was an active soloist in recital, concert and oratorio. Her students have gone on to excellent graduate programs and pursued careers as performers, teachers, conductors and voice care professionals. Joanne’s interests are in vocal pedagogy, voice and women’s health, and the relationship of reproductive hormones to female voice throughout life. She is a frequent presenter on women’s voice, a member of the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and maintains an independent voice studio.
Essential Courses
Further Training
Scope of Practice
