Anne M. Brownell

ANNE M. BROWNELL, MA, LMHC, VMT-R (USA) is Director of the Norma G. Canner Foundation for Voice Movement Therapy and teaches and supervises on the Foundation Training in Voice Movement Therapy: The Voice Unchained. After studying and working in the Expressive Therapies with pioneer dance therapist Norma Canner and noted clinician and author Penny Lewis. Anne's search for the vocal component for a movement oriented therapy led her to be the first American to train in VMT with founder Paul Newham in London; to teach and supervise with him on trainings in both England and America; and to establish her own training program in the United States (5 trainings), and then in South Africa (2 trainings) where she carries on supervision.

Anne has also acted as a VMT consultant for schools, working with children experiencing developmental and language delays; taught the first for-credit graduate course in VMT, for Castleton College, Vermont; conducted a private practive and supervision; and presented at conferences here and abroad. Prior experience includes working in Early Intervention programs, supervising graduate students in Dance Therapy on the therapeutic use of the voice, and conducting music and movement groups for previously homeless and substance abused people with HIV and AIDS. Anne has served as Scriptwriter and Executive Producer on several films about the Expressive Therapies, most notably A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner, and Going to the Source: A Study of Group Process in the Natural World. Her CD, A Journey in Song, illustrates the range of possibilities inherent in a single human voice, and she delights in performing songs in different genres and sounds. With Penny Bernstein Lewis, she contributed a chapter to the book, The Kestenburg Movement Profile: Past, Present and Future Directions, and also articles to the The American Journal of Dance Therapy and the Practitioners of Voice Movement Therapy Journal. She is the lead editor of the book, Singing the Psyche: Uniting Thought and Feeling through the Voice, released 10/18/23. She loves to kayak and spend time in Nature.