The use of the voice in psychotherapy

Stress, tone, and their relation to meaning

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Words carry meaning — that’s obvious enough. But the sound of our words, what deserves to be called the voice, also carries meaning, and sometimes does so in a much more significant way.

This is clearly important for psychotherapists. We’re in the business of recognizing meanings — not just those communicated by our clients’ words, but also in their silences, body language, seemingly accidental slips, and so on. The voice stands out as one particularly impactful example of this.

This article serves as an introduction to the recognition of voice in psychotherapy. It will present two examples, one involving stress and the other involving tone, which show how the voice is used to convey meaning. It will be left for a future article to provide clinical examples, in order to further make the connection between voice and psychotherapy.

The role of stress: The ‘english teacher’

Stress refers to the placement of emphasis in our voice. It has clear importance in formal uses of language like poetry, but it also permeates the common production of language, too.

One example of how stress can influence our meaning comes from the term ‘an English teacher’. Now, imagine…