Clinician » Curricular Design for the McClosky Institute
While voice teachers and speech pathologists both know a great deal about the workings of the voice, our training is so different that we barely have enough terms in common to speak to each other about it. It is generally agreed that an interdisciplinary approach to voice care is most effective for singers who encounter voice problems.

In the early 1990s NATS (the National Association of Teaches of Singing) and ASHA (The American Speech and Hearing Association) appointed a committee to examine cross-training to rectify this situation. Their findings can be viewed at (link). This activity coincided with the McClosky Institute’s decision to initiate training of new CMVT’s. I was given the task of designing this curriculum, with help from Lin Wallin Schuller, CMVT, who had directed the Voice Therapy Clinic at MEEI during the 1980’s, and Janet Alcorn, CMVT, then Associate Professor at Iowa State University.

Certification Course:
We designed a 120-hour course which is offered over two summers. It is designed to fulfill the recommendations of the the NATS/ASHA committee as well as to provide intensive training in the McClosky technique. Its components are both informational and practical. The informational units include anatomy, physiology, principal voice disorders, ethics and professionalism. The practicum is different each year: in Year I it involves observation of CMVTS, in Year II the practicum consists supervised teaching. This course was originally given in 1996-7 at Illinois State University and has since been offered at Emory University (GA), Bentley College (MA), Emmanuel College (MA), and Marquette University (WI). It yields up to 8 graduate credit hours. For a sample schedule and full description of the course, go to the McClosky website (link).

Other Courses:
During this period the McClosky Institute stabilized its workshop format, which is a more general introduction to the McClosky techniques as well as anatomy and vocal hygiene, and offered it through Illinois State university as a one-hour graduate course. The McClosky website has information about this short course, which is offered in several locations around the United States each summer.