When you meet me, I don’t have to be alone. Your presence is permission and invites me to accept myself as I am. I can open my mouth. I can speak my words. You take the place of my inner judge and the chemistry inside me changes. I’m not under the usual rules. Your presence gives me breathing room. And you contain the whole of me – I feel okay to bring in my dirty parts, my anger, my resentment. My grief. My longing. You hold me in your attention and your care, and my tensions can relax. In this more free state, my fragments can be re-connected.

You ask me to sing. Getting the first sound out is hard. It’s like I’m exposing my innards to you but if I can begin, this liquid stream of me is self-creating. My self at once impinges on the outside world and also fills colour into my inner spaces where it felt like there were only dotted lines a moment ago.

Like a ribbon a magician pulls out of his mouth, my story emerges – in much greater depth than I had imagined. There’s more feeling – more range, more subtlety – in the “unpacked” state. I didn’t know how sad that made me. Your hand on my chest is so comforting. I can feel you in a different way. More direct. My body knows you’re here with me and can relax more.

You work with me on timbre and letting my jaw relax. Deepening my breathing and inviting my legs and lower body to support my song. Your technique is very good. But it’s clear to me that it’s YOU who is travelling with me, and accompanying me now – and that makes all the difference in the world. Thank you – for helping me to come more alive.

Daryl Vineberg