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my story

I’m a Sonic Embodiment voice coach, vocalist and sound practitioner who weaves music, movement, and sound arts to create experiences that awaken compassion and connectivity. Whether working with large groups or individuals, young children or the elderly, on a college campus or yoga studio, with a cancer patient or corporate team, my prayer is to facilitate heart-centered connection to self, community, and Spirit through deep listening and the re-awakening of wonder.

What brings us together makes us stronger.


A singer and performing artist since my early years, and a yogi since 2001, sound healing brought together my life’s creative and healing through-lines. As a yoga teacher, I would often sing to my students while they rested in Savasana – usually free-form vocalizations of wordless sounds or Sanskrit mantras. Students frequently shared with me after class that my voice allowed them to reach a deeper state of rest than they’d experienced before. This ignited my curiousity. How could I harness the healing power of my voice, and how did sound provide access to meditative, and even altered states?

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Around this time, several influences showed up in my life that forever changed my relationship with my voice. A singer from a young age, I had strived for what was deemed a ‘good voice’, the one that would earn me applause. By delving into the vast palette of sounds that lived inside (and perhaps even beyond) me, I experienced transcendence – the Universe sounding through me – and a far deeper connection to my voice than ever before. This work made clear to me that our voice is the manifestation, the outward expression, of our soul. And that every one of us, singer or not, can tap into that boundless well.

Deeper studies in sound healing took me to the Open Center’s year-long sound practitioner training, where I met artist and teacher Silvia Nakkach, and fell in love with classical North Indian singing. After several years of mentorship under Silvia’s direction, I graduated from the Yoga of the Voice International Certificate of the Vox Mundi School in 2019. Passionate about sound as a path towards a more compassionate world, I’ve offered hundreds of sound baths and workshops, and led over a dozen sound immersions and retreats, giving hundreds of students a foundation for accessing their powers of listening, sounding, and self-healing.

Over the past several years, I’ve also refined my approach to working with the voice as a tool for self- transformation, a practice I call Sonic Embodiment, which is a fusion of the tools and teachings that awakened the connection between my body, voice, and soul. Among these influences are years of study and practice in sound healing, yoga, meditation, North Indian classical singing, my Jewish roots, and indigenous ceremony. I’m also currently in training to become a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and am bringing those somatic tools into all of my work.


A lover of collaborations, in 2016, I released online audio meditation series SoundMind, a co-creation with yoga/meditation teacher Ally Bogard.

I’m a Reiki practitioner (initiated by Pamela Miles), and draw inspiration from Mother Earth, my family and community, and my husband and daughter. I bow with deep gratitude to the many teachers who have walked me to this moment.

 
 
 
My experience has revealed sound to be a great connector, and a key to returning ourselves, both individually and collectively, to our innate wholeness.
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Professional Bio

Jessica Caplan is a Hudson Valley-based sound therapist, vocalist, and vocal embodiment coach, known for her voice-infused sound experiences and accessible, open- hearted approach to embodying the voice (Sonic Embodiment). Jessica leads immersive workshops, retreats, and trainings in the art of therapeutic voice and sound in the Hudson Valley, New York City, and around the world, as well as one-on-one voice programs and sound mentorships.

A graduate of the Open Center’s Sound and Music Institute and Grammy award- nominated artist Silvia Nakkach’s Yoga of the Voice certificate, Jessica has guided over 150 students in over a dozen sound immersions at Maha Rose in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley (Sound School), and Pure Yoga in NYC (Sound Yoga Therapy for Prema Yoga Therapeutics). She’s a regular guest teacher for Abby Paloma’s Restorative Yoga teacher trainings at Yoga Vida and Sky Ting Yoga in NYC, and has facilitated hundreds of sound baths at yoga studios, retreat centers, festivals, organizations, and for private events. Among them are the Jewish Theological Seminary, CUNY Graduate School, Montessorri elementary school, The Rubin Museum, Envision Festival in Costa Rica, and Unifier Festival in the Berkshires. In 2019, she curated and hosted a sound therapy series at Brooklyn non-profit arts center Pioneer Works.

You can find her sound on online meditation series SoundMind, a co-creation with yoga/meditation teacher Ally Bogard, and in the tech/wellness startup Sanctuary in Seattle. Her work has been covered in the New York Times, the Observer, Vogue, and on CBS news. She is a Reiki practitioner, long time yogini, and continues her studies and practices of classical Indian music, Native traditions, and shamanic practices as inspiration for her work. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and daughter. You can find her recorded music online under her alias Jessonica.