NAOMI SELF
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  • What Is A Singing Circle?
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  • HOME
  • About
  • What Is A Singing Circle?
  • Offerings
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Benefits of Community Singing
  • Musings

My story

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Contact Naomi
“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.”   ~The Talmud~

Hi, Friend! Thank you for visiting.

I’m guessing that your life hasn’t been linear either.  I bet you, like me, have stories of transformation to tell. 

I grew up in Tennessee, surrounded by mountains and motivated by different perspectives than my own. My parents taught me how to grow my mind and open myself to the big, expansive world. My brother encouraged me to break free from toxic ideologies and systems. My mentors showed me how to balance integrity and vulnerability with a sense of wonder and delight.

Eventually, I would work for a fortune 500 company, teach English in Slovakia, become more of who I already am, and return to my roots where I would walk through the messy realities of profound growth that comes from taking risks and navigating uncertain outcomes as I continue to expand my horizons, my vocal range, and my own authentic self-expression.
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My life has been a series of melodies, and yes, some profound dissonance. It wasn’t until my first visit to the Omega Institute in New York that I realized what was missing from my story: the freedom to discover and express my authentic voice. 

One day, as I was wandering the grounds, I heard a mesmerizing sound coming from one of the buildings. I entered, walked up the stairs and was immediately inundated with song. Standing in a circle were 50 people of all ages moving and singing together. In that moment and in subsequent moments in Singing Circles over the years, I witnessed a microcosm of the world I longed to live in: A world where, through uncovering our individual tone and pitch, we find the strength to break down boxes and systems in order to create harmony, unity, and peace together. 
Once just a dream and now a reality, I started a business at the very intersection of my passion and my pain. I facilitate Singing Circles for all of us to show up together and encourage each other to be our truest, bravest, most courageous and wholehearted selves.

The process isn't pre-determined, nor is it a straight line.

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In a Singing Circle, you will be awed by the sound of your own music resonating with others. 

The rhythms, harmonies, melodies, dissonance, resolution, and magic moments of pause will reflect the reality of the rich palette of your unique lived experience. 

Songs to attend to a wide variety of topics and emotional realities will awaken your heart, voice, and body in new ways in these beautiful circles that I carefully curate and joyfully facilitate.

Using both songs passed on through oral tradition as well as improvisational opportunities, the access points are many for discovering and applying your voice in new ways as you sing in community.
Along the way you will develop tools to take care of yourself as you recognize your innate wisdom and purpose. 

Open your heart, mind, and diaphragm to the possibilities you will create in your own life. Your voice deserves to be heard however it shows up. 

Curious?

Let's connect
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Some of my qualifications

  • Member of the Ubuntu Choirs Network
  • Community Choir Leadership Training Graduate
  • 20+ years of musical education including piano, flute, and choral experience
  • 10 years of Community Singing Circle experience
  • Hundreds of hours of community songleading experience
  • Certified Officiant for Wedding, Funerals, and Baptisms
  • iPEC certified Life Coach
  • ELI-MP certified
  • Adult Sex Education Facilitator - Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum
  • Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certified
  • BA, English Literature & Humanities​
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