A Psychologist's Perspective
Peter, I have always been struck by the way you see, embrace and respond to the unique individuality of every singer you teach. Even as you guide them in the use of their physical instrument, it is clear that you always see and are responding to the totality of THIS particular person with whom you are engaged. You seem to understand and respect their physical, intellectual and emotional experience. You have even expressed to me, your appreciation and even admiration of defensive measures the singers display, because you understand that this is how they have created a way to survive. Every singer I have seen you teach seems to feel your response and be liberated by it, for you too are fully present and, in your own way, just as open to the singer. I have watched this interaction develop into a waltz of mutual influence and in this context, you seem to recognize, and therefore make it possible for the singer to recognize, emergent possibilities that had not actually come into being before.
As someone who was drawn to and influenced by Intersubjectivity Theory almost from the time of its birth, I saw in your master classes a beautiful metaphor and therapeutic manifestation of what Robert Stolorow has called "the unbearable embeddedness of being."
As someone who was drawn to and influenced by Intersubjectivity Theory almost from the time of its birth, I saw in your master classes a beautiful metaphor and therapeutic manifestation of what Robert Stolorow has called "the unbearable embeddedness of being."
— Dorthy Levinson, LCSW psychotherapist
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