We were lucky to catch up with Heather Gross recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

That’s a great question! I am an integrative and holistic voice therapist and vocal coach. I specialize in gender affirming and trauma informed voice care. I help my clients find and love their voice, and live a more embodied and authentic life. I integrate various healing modalities into my vocal sessions in order to calm the nervous system, reduce inflammation, access the breath, and explore the voice. My desire to create an integrative and holistic method for singers and speakers inspired me to start my own business, so that I didn’t have to be limited in terms of the support I could provide to my soul aligned clients! The clients that have shared their voices with me are the reason I am doing what I do today.

The name “Live Vocally” appeared during a transformational coaching session in 2018. My coach and I were speaking about my mission and we came up with the name together! Living Vocally is a way of life and it means to align your inner voice with your physical voice, find authenticity, and speak your truth. To live = to be alive, vocal = relating to the human voice, ally = supporter, advocate, helper. Living Vocally is to share your voice with the world, through finding your breath, finding your joy, and finding yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As an integrative and holistic voice specialist, I help my clients access their authentic singing and speaking voice. My background as a vocal performer led me to start my vocal studio. Singing has always been my greatest passion! However, vocalizing has not always been easy for me. I have navigated singing and speaking through chronic pain and tension, autoimmune disease, and through post traumatic growth. For as long as I can remember, I struggled with upper body tension, which would impact my ability to express my voice authentically and make my voice heard by the audience. I would constantly push my voice out, only to experience more pain and tension. I had a lot of shame and fear around using my voice, even though it was what I loved most.

I worked with a voice teacher in high school who taught me to love and care for my voice, which was a completely different approach to thinking about voice. I learned about vocal hygiene, how to find my resonance, and the importance of connecting to my love and passion for singing, rather than worrying about how my voice will sound to others.

Helping people find their voice took on a whole new meaning for me when I had a traumatic experience where I wanted to voice the word “No,” and my voice would not turn on. This was the moment that Live Vocally was born, because in that moment, I decided that I would never lose my voice again. Through mind, body, and voice practices, my voice has transformed from a source of shame and confusion to a wellspring of joy, passion, and creativity. I help my clients identify that moment where their voice became silenced, and we work on releasing tension, pain, limiting beliefs, experiences, and societal expectations from their throat, and access their free, expressive, and true voice!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I aim to provide an affirming and positive space where my clients can be their true selves. I utilize a whole person approach and see the voice as a reflection of our innermost selves. My personal values carryover to my business. I believe that by being my authentic self, I attract soul aligned clients. I am forever grateful to my clients for trusting me on their courageous path.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It sounds cliche, but I had to unlearn imposter syndrome. It’s scary to start your own business, and limiting beliefs almost always come up, but I had a deep inner knowing that helping millions of people love their voice was my mission, and that I had to turn dreams into reality!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.livevocally.com
• Instagram: @live_vocally

Image Credits
Brett Roell Johnny Sage