SYNOPSIS

Your best performance isn't something you push for — it's something you allow. But when your nervous system is stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, your body is working against you. You over-push, you pull back, you go blank, or you people-please your way through a direction that doesn't feel right — and none of it sounds authentic. This workshop brings the principles of Somatic Experiencing into the voiceover studio, giving you a body-based framework to recognize your own survival responses, work with your nervous system rather than against it, and unlock the kind of grounded, spontaneous, fully-present performance that no amount of technique alone can produce.

Actors will learn to:

• Recognize your survival patterns. Identify whether you tend toward fight, flight, freeze, or fawn in auditions and sessions, and understand how those responses affect your performance.
• Release tension before it takes over. Learn practical somatic techniques to discharge stress held in the jaw, throat, chest, and diaphragm so you can enter the booth relaxed, present, and ready.
• Move from freeze or fawn into creative flow — When you go blank, flatten out, or find yourself mirroring what you think the director wants, your nervous system has taken the wheel. You'll learn to gently interrupt that response at the body level — where it starts — and find your way back to genuine presence and creative spontaneity.
• Access authentic emotion through the body. Instead of manufacturing emotion or relying solely on analysis, learn to use physical felt sense as a pathway to genuine, nuanced expression that's immediately perceptible to the ear.
• Build a sustainable performance practice. Leave with a personalized set of Somatic tools to navigate auditions, demanding recording sessions, creative slumps, and the everyday pressures of a professional voiceover career with greater resilience and ease.  and return to your full creative range consistently, not just on a good day.

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Ashley Curiel

Dr. Ashley Curiel is a clinical psychologist and certified intimacy coordinator for film and television whose work centers on psychological safety, consent, and sustainable creative practice. Drawing from advanced training in neuropsychology, EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing therapy, as well as a background in performance, production, post-production, and Alexander Technique (where she is a teacher-trainee), she brings a trauma-trained, whole-person approach to both private practice therapy and on-set performance support. In her clinical therapy work, she helps clients build resilience and integration, while as an intimacy coordinator she partners with directors, actors, and production teams to create clear, ethical, and supportive environments - empowering performers to engage fully with challenging material while maintaining agency and well-being.

Bicoastal and passionate about Broadway theatre and television, Dr. Ashley draws inspiration from the vibrancy of creative communities from New York City to Los Angeles. By bridging clinical psychology, intimacy coordination, and performance, she equips creative professionals with the tools to foster trust, authenticity, and sustainable artistic expression across rehearsal rooms and production sets.

REQUIREMENTS

If your are interested in attending this class and only the Waitlist is available, please add your name to the Waitlist. You may be moved from the Waitlist to the RSVP list.  The Waitlist works!

Voiceover Lab eligibility is not required to attend this class.

This class will be in person.

Attendees must be present for the entire class (see Duration above).

Know the Cancellation Deadline (see above0.

This is a  small group class format with 16  participants maximum.