Coaching testimonials

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Alison has helped me with both singing and speaking. I am a nervous speaker in front of an audience and even more terrified singer, and when I had the chance to face both my fears delivering a birthday speech for my partner, I turned to Alison for much needed help. I can say that, on the day, I did the speech and singing with confidence, happiness and, I am amazed to say, enjoyment after her coaching. She made the whole experience a joy.

Her enthusiasm for words and music is so inspiring and when those worrying moments came that I doubted my decision to embrace my fear, she was there with words of wisdom and encouragement. What really inspired me was her belief that I could do it...even when I had doubts - her confidence in voice work is such that what I thought was impossible, she knew could be achieved.

I really can never thank her enough and would recommend her to anyone.

Laura, Hertfordshire

Before my training exercises with Alison, planned as a one-day-unit, I constantly struggled in situations that are an essential part of my work as a hospice coordinator - situations in which I had to talk publicly, in front of people.

Triggered by an unknown inner impulse, I found myself rushing my words, inevitably getting nervous about the actual sentence to be spoken, as if it was increasingly mounting ahead of me. In moments like this I felt I was fading in front of the listeners, speeding up my tempo and getting harder to follow.

The day of work with Alison was a lucky break, and it was actually the first time I faced the root of my dilemma as a speaker: the lack of physical presence when speaking.

The very thought of it (something which I didn’t recognise until then) already marked a starting point and gave me an anchor to hold on to: the body as a ‘‘tool”, to get in touch with the concrete situation, whenever I felt it slipping out reach.

During a whole day of work, Alison helped me to become more sensitized towards this tool, using it to create a strength and an inner space, that, once it’s there, allows me to reach out to the listeners, creating confident communication.

The most enjoyable part of that day for me was experiencing the fruitfulness of the practical exercises, training the muscles of my tongue, lips, breathing techniques, always linked with the pronunciation of syllables, words, reciting poetry fragments, or improvised speeches. It was maybe the first time ever I got to the point of enjoying the fact that I was actually speaking, and sensing the effect it had on the dynamism, clarity und transparency of what I said.

This training unit of one day took place in 2017, and it’s still a constant part of my daily life. And I am so grateful to Alison for being the one who provided the breakthrough.

Guido Wilms, Germany

Alison is a true inspiration! Her knowledge, approach, understanding and passion for text is absolutely infectious. Alison and I had the pleasure of working together in 2008 and have kept in touch ever since. I loved every minute of our time in the rehearsal room and would do it again in a heartbeat!

I am not sure that she is aware of just how much of an effect she has had; even if I told her she would be too modest to fully accept it but, in brief, she has turned my thoughts around, provided constant inspiration and left an incredible imprint at the heart of all that I have gone on to do.

Alison is forging ahead: breathing fresh air in to all the text she touches, all the actors she works with and all the spaces those actors perform in. Her work is dynamic, engaging, rooted, revolutionary and wonderfully personable.

Bryn Holding, Actor