Last month, PhysioFirst’s In Touch Journal, a clinical journal for physiotherapists working in private practice, published a special issue dedicated to performing arts medicine. It featured articles on how physiotherapy can help dancers, musicians, circus artists, and actors maintain health and remain injury-free. The issue also included an article authored by BAPAM assessing clinicians Lucie Rayner and Genevieve Tawiah, highlighting the role of physiotherapy in supporting voice performers.
Singers and actors are elite professional voice users or ‘vocal athletes’ as they need to consistently produce high-quality and technically demanding speech or song, often under difficult environmental conditions. Unfortunately, research shows that a high percentage of voice performers will experience a voice problem during their career. Vocal rehabilitation aims to restore voice function and often requires a multi-disciplinary team led by a laryngologist or speech & language therapist. The team may also include a singing teacher, a psychologist, and, increasingly, a physiotherapist. Vocal physiotherapy is an emerging speciality within the profession, and research has highlighted its effectiveness when supporting professional voice users with their vocal health or recovery from a voice injury.
What is Vocal Physiotherapy?
Voice production relies on several interconnecting systems to function effectively. Physiotherapists specialise in optimising physical function and can use their skills and knowledge in the following areas when supporting a voice performer:
- Manual therapy: to help reduce tension, pain, and restriction in key areas. This can include direct manipulation of the larynx and other more global structures and regions throughout the body.
- Exercise therapy: to help address muscle imbalance, postural problems, and strength or stability issues by providing tailored exercises and guidance.
- Respiratory support: to help promote optimal breathing for voice by supporting ease of movement in the spine/rib cage, healthy posture and efficient abdominal muscle support.
- Health promotion: to support the performer with healthy lifestyle practices integral to voice health, such as physical warm-ups, nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress management, and general fitness.
Physiotherapists can also help facilitate referral to a specialist voice clinic or other health professionals where appropriate. They are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), ensuring standards for education, training and practice.
You can read BAPAM Physiotherapists, Genevieve Tawiah and Lucie Rayner’s article in full here: InTouch: Vocal Physiotherapy.
We are grateful to PhysioFirst In Touch Journal for their kind permission to reproduce the article, which was first published in InTouch191, Spring 2026.
Find a Vocal Physiotherapist or Osteopath on the BAPAM Directory
The BAPAM Practitioner Directory includes physiotherapists with expertise in performing arts medicine. If they are trained in vocal physiotherapy, this will be indicated in the practitioner’s biography. In addition, there are Osteopaths with expertise in voice on the Directory who work in a similarly holistic way and are regulated by the General Osteopathic Council.
If you are experiencing any vocal symptom lasting more than 2-3 weeks or persisting for more than two weeks after the resolution of an upper respiratory tract infection, you should seek professional help. Contact the BAPAM helpline to arrange a clinical assessment with one of our voice specialist assessing clinicians.
References:
Tawiah, G., & Rayner, L. (2026). Getting the word out: vocal physiotherapy. InTouch: Spring Edition: 191. p: 14-19.
Tawiah, G., & Rayner, L. (2025). The role of physiotherapy as part of a multidisciplinary team approach to vocal rehabilitation and care of the professional voice. Physiotherapy, 126, Article 101497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2025.101497.