A half-day retreat for women to slow down, tune out the noise, and reconnect to their own voice.

Saturday, October 24th, 2026

1-5 pm

Verdant Center • Joelton, TN

Leave the notifications, to-do lists, and demands of the outside world behind for an afternoon.

It’s time to trust your voice.

What if you trusted your own voice as much as you trust everyone else’s?

I know what it’s like to know what you want, what you feel, and what you think…and still talk yourself out of it.

I’ve always had a pretty good sense of what I want, how I feel, what I think, and when something feels like a HELL YES or a HELL NO. But for most of my life, I didn’t give those things the same weight I gave everyone else’s.

I asked everyone else what they thought before I trusted my inner voice…and often ended up going against what I actually wanted. I’d get stuck in research mode, thinking surely there was no way my idea was good enough on its own. I held back jokes, stories, art, and opinions because I was already imagining how I might be judged or rejected. I stayed in friendships and relationships that hurt me because I was more concerned with how my honesty might make someone else feel than with what staying quiet was doing to me.

It’s not that I didn’t have a voice. I just kept giving everyone else’s voice more authority than my own. And I didn’t realize how much of my power was tied up in that.

Then I heard something in my own voice that changed everything.

A few years ago, while training to become a Vocal Psychotherapist, I experienced my voice in a way I never had before. 

I closed my eyes, turned inward, and took the “right words” out of the equation. There was nothing to explain, no perfect thing to say, and nothing to get right. I simply breathed, trusted the sounds that wanted to come out of me, and listened. (And trust me, at the time, I wasn’t comfortable going “off script” and letting sounds just come out of my mouth).

But when I made that space for myself, something happened. 

I felt my own power for the first time.

I heard my voice do things I didn’t know it could do. I heard strength, emotion, vulnerability, playfulness.

I heard me. Clearly. 

And what helped even more? I was being witnessed by the women around me. I wasn’t performing. I wasn’t trying to get it right. I was simply being heard.

Something in me changed that day.

From there, I slowly started speaking up more. Asking for what I needed. Having honest conversations in my relationships. Setting boundaries. Exploring emotions that had felt too scary to show other people. Feeling more connected to my body. And, little by little, becoming more visible.

I didn’t become someone with a voice. I didn’t finally “find my voice.” I started trusting what was already there. 

Trust Your Voice is an afternoon devoted to practicing what it feels like to trust yourself a little more.

Not by giving you another framework or teaching you how to be more confident or outspoken. 

But by creating space to listen to yourself, experience your own voice, and practice self-trust in community.

Time to slow down and reconnect with yourself in a beautiful setting

Leave the notifications, to-do lists, and demands of the outside world behind for an afternoon.

You’ll spend time at Verdant Center in Joelton, TN. An intimate setting intentionally designed for slowing down, tuning out the noise, and reconnecting with your own voice.

An embodied experience

This isn’t a workshop where you sit in a chair and listen to someone talk at you for three hours.

You’ll be invited to breathe, move, make sound, reflect, write, listen, and notice.

You don’t have to be a “singer.” You don’t even have to like the sound of your own voice. Through sound and vocal practices, we’ll take the pressure to find the “right” words out of the equation so you can notice what happens when you simply let yourself make sound, express, and be heard.

Sometimes, getting out of your head and into sound gives you access to parts of yourself that are harder to reach through words alone. You might surprise yourself with what comes out, what you feel, or just how much is already there.

No pressure to perform

You won’t be asked to sing a solo. You won’t be forced to share. You won’t need to have a breakthrough. You simply have to be willing to be curious.

A small, supportive group

With only 10 women, there is room for connection, reflection, and individual attention.

And a few extras…

Settle in with cozy blankets, coffee, tea, water, snacks, a guided journal to take home, and a few surprises along the way.

We’ll explore your relationship with your own voice.

What happens when you hear yourself speak? 

What do you notice? What do you want to change? Do you hear yourself differently depending on who’s listening?

We’ll use your voice as a doorway into a deeper awareness of yourself.

We’ll notice your “inner editor.”

The part that says: Don’t say that. They won’t get it. It’s not good enough. She’s way smarter than me at this.

You’ll begin to notice when that voice takes over…and what happens when you acknowledge it without automatically listening to it.

We’ll practice letting your voice be heard.

Through sound, movement, breath, and guided vocal experiences, you’ll have opportunities to notice what happens when you don’t hold yourself back. Because there’s something powerful about actually experiencing yourself being heard.

We’ll make space to hear yourself.

You’ll have time to slow down and notice what you think, feel, want, and have to say, not what others think you should think, feel, want, or say.

Through reflection and guided experiences, you’ll practice giving your own voice a little more room.

What does it mean to trust your voice?

Trusting your voice isn’t about always knowing the right answer or never having moments of doubt. It’s about being willing to listen to yourself and take the next step, even when you don’t have all the answers yet.

It shows up in what can seem like little things: noticing your feelings before talking yourself out of them, allowing yourself to want what you want, making a choice that differs from everyone else’s, sharing your opinion, and saying what you actually mean.

It’s knowing that you can listen to yourself, respond to what you need, and figure things out, even when things feel uncertain.

Why sound and voice?

Because your voice can show you a lot about your relationship with yourself, your emotions, and the people around you.

Do I actually say what I mean?

Do I trust what I’m feeling, or do I talk myself out of it?

Why is it so much easier to speak up with some people than others?

Can I disagree with someone without immediately questioning myself?

What would I say or do if I wasn’t so worried about what others think?

Can I let something be true for me even if it doesn’t make sense to someone else? 

This isn’t vocal coaching or singing lessons. This is a way to connect to yourself. 

Your voice has layers.

There’s your inner voice: the thoughts, feelings, instincts, and opinions that only you hear.

There’s your outer voice: how you express yourself through written and spoken words. This can change depending on who you’re with, what you’re feeling, or how safe you feel being fully yourself.

Then there’s sound: using your breath, body, and voice without needing to communicate a particular message at all.

This is where vocal practices can become especially powerful.

When we take the pressure to find the “right” thing to say out of the equation, we can experience our voice differently. Sound and singing can help us step outside of the part of ourselves that is constantly thinking, editing, and evaluating.

Instead of asking, “Am I saying this the right way?” we get to notice: 

What happens when I let myself make a sound?
What happens when I take up more space?
What happens when I let myself be heard?
What do I discover when I stop trying to control what comes out?

You don’t have to know what any of it means right away. You get to experience it first.

Your voice becomes a place to practice something much bigger: self-trust.

 

What makes Trust Your Voice different?

Most workshops on communication and the voice focus on external tools: 

What should I say?
How should I say it?
How do I sound more confident?
How do I get people to listen? 

Trust Your Voice starts with you.

Through breath, movement, sound, reflection, and guided vocal experiences, you’ll have space to explore what happens when you stop trying to figure out the “right” way to say something and start listening to what’s already there: the opinions, desires, boundaries, ideas, questions, instincts, and wisdom.

You don’t need to find your voice. It’s been there all along. This afternoon is about getting a little more comfortable listening to it.

About Your Facilitator

Allyson Rodgers, MMT, MT-BC, AVPT is a Board-Certified Music Therapist and Vocal Psychotherapist whose work focuses on the connection between voice, identity, relationships, self-trust, and personal authority. Through vocal and other creative practices, she helps people hear themselves more clearly, express themselves more fully, and reconnect with their own power.