Sarah Warwick
Category: Voicework

Songwriting for Healing and Transformation

Singing and songwriting has been a deep and wondrous passion of mine for most of my life. It haslead me on many adventures, through the dizzying heights of pop success in the 90’s, to discoveringthe healing power of sound and a passion for helping other’s find their voice and innate creativity. Ihave been facilitating courses, events, and choirs in singing songwriting and healing sound all overthe world for the last 18 years, and have discovered everyone has songs inside them; words andmelody, hopes and dreams, and stories to tell. Many people think they cannot sing, and thatsongwriting is a gift bestowed on a talented few. However, this is a limiting belief and simply nottrue. Singing is natural for human beings, as is creativity, but somewhere along the way many havestopped participating, and sit passively watching others do it, and whilst this is also beautiful, theymiss out in the process! All human beings are creative, whether we know it or not. Creativity is atthe core of every cell of our being. It is the nature of life itself. To sing is a deeply participatory andcreative experience. And to create a song, a song of meaning, a song that expresses who we are, orwhere we are in our lives, or some aspect of it, wether it is sad or funny or poignant or wise, is one ofthe most healing, natural, and beautiful things we can do.

To access our deepest truth, to hone it into the essence of what is longing to be expressed, can beboth revealing to ourselves, and deeply nourishing. To then add melody is to give wings to ourtruth, to the unsung parts of ourselves. To take the next step and dare to share it with others allowsour life-stories to flow freely into the world, touching others as it goes. We can say things in songthat may be difficult if not impossible to say in any other way. When our song is heard andwitnessed by others it can be truly transformative and affirming. We may discover that our personalstories and deep held truths are so often shared by others and that which is most personal seems alsoto be trans-personal.

Singing, especially in groups, has of late become ever more popular. It is an ancient art form, amarking of life. We sing to celebrate, to mourn, to work, and like a heartbeat it connects useffortlessly to ourselves and each other, to deeply held feelings of joy and sorrow, and brings us backto the core of who we are. Research has shown that singing improves our health, happiness andimmune function. Professor Clift from Canterbury University writes that “Just as walking is nowprescribed, the benefits of singing for health are slowly being rediscovered by health practitioners.” There is an African proverb that says “If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing”and I would add: “If you can sing, you can write a song!”

I have been writing songs since childhood. My young dream was to be a pop singer, on Top of The Pops, and living “the life”. It took many years, but I eventually achieved this, and had three numberone dance hits, two of which were my own songs “Heaven” and “Everything” co-written withproducer Tom Frederikse. It was fun. It was a big learning curve. I started out as a shy youngwoman with a dream, barely able to say hello on stage, and became someone who could hold anaudience of thousands, solo, with confidence. However, it was a life fraught with enormous stress,which eventually took it’s toll on my health. I needed something else. Something more meaningful, and something that would bring me back to health and wholeness, to well-being, to an inner peace.It was then that I discovered the world of healing sound. This was a revelation to me, to discoverand experience the purity of conscious sound, and how it touches and heals at the deepest level.

I began to write songs not for my manager, or my producer, or the record company, or the public. Ibegan to write from and for my heart, for my healing, for my soul. I found this process sonourishing, so transformative, and began to sing my songs to others, and discovered the healingbenefits were far-reaching.

It was a natural step to want to facilitate and teach this wonderful healing tool. And through theworkshops that I have been running for the last 18 years I find over and over that everyone canwrite songs, even absolute beginners, and benefit from the deep transformation they bring.“Liberate Your Voice and Sing Your Song” is a year long, one day a month course, culminating in arecording retreat at a professional studio where everyone gets to record their song with a producerand musician, followed a few weeks later by a song-sharing concert for family and friends. In thiscourse I teach simple yet profound creative practice and guidance in natural vocal technique,improvisation, creative writing, and melody making, and as we weave the songs naturally emerge.Songs that mean something, that rock our world, that make us laugh, that take us into the heart,into the very soul of us. Songs that touch and connect us to our true nature, to our humanity, andultimately, to the infinite love inside us all.This I know beyond any doubt. Music and song is one of the most healing forces in the Universe,available to us all.

Liberate Your Voice; Sing Your Song! begins on May 13th 2018. To find out more about this andother courses I offer, or to listen to my music, please go to

Testimonials from participants:

"This is undoubtedly the best investment in myself that I have ever made.  It has been an incrediblejourney and I can't believe what we all achieved thanks to the brilliant Sarah Warwick and the friendships that have developed in this very supportive and nurturing environment.  I'm totally hooked!"  Yvonne

"I cannot recommend this course highly enough.  Nearly all the people who took part had neverwritten a song before, some could not play any instruments or read music.  This did not make any difference because under Sarah Warwick's caring and expert guidance everyone ended up with theirown professionally studio recorded song"  Andrew

"It's not only a terrific musical experience, but also spiritually uplifting and full of laughter and goodcompanionship"  Martyn  

"No experience necessary! Warning - may cause excessive laughter, feelings of well-being, a love ofsinging, and lasting friendships..."; Allison

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