By Michelle McLemore, Photos by Jessica Smith
When you first see Kimberly Joy Rieli, you may be smitten with her fairy queen appearance. The long flowing hair, her lithe frame, and doe-eyes only add to the emanating aura of kindness and peace. Yet to limit your understanding to just the visual sense would sorely miss the depth of her very real healing gifts.
As a singer, musician, vocal empowerment coach, and holistic sound healer, Rieli has helped clients in over 15 countries. She cultivates vocal, breathing, and mental techniques to discover and empower their authentic voice. Vocal clients range from those who use their voices professionally, like speakers, teachers, and salespeople, to those who are in the music industry, as well as for those who struggle with anxiety or confidence at a personal level. However, in regard to her sound healing, clients with physical, mental, and emotional dis-ease also find relief.
Rieli has been recognized five times as the Winner of Best Performance Arts Business and also earned Best Voice Lessons in Santa Monica, CA by an independent company. She was also featured in Yoga Journal.
Growing up in Wyoming, Reili was surrounded by a musical family. She earned a BA in Music at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and went on to Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver where she earned a MA in Vocal Performance. Additional studies led her to work with singer and vocal technician Phyllis Curtin along with William Hanrahan, Per Bristow, and Melissa Cross. She gained experience at the Wesley Balk Opera/Music Theater Institute, Tanglewood music festival, and Spoleto, Italy Vocal Arts Symposium. She performed in orchestral ensembles and in title roles in various opera and musical theater productions. Her diverse music interests led her to even co-found a Renaissance ensemble performing Josquin music .
Despite Rieli’s vast musical experiences, she has faced ongoing anxiety since middle school. As she aged, the anxiety worsened and led to additional health problems and near crippling performance anxiety as a young adult. “The health problems and past traumas were straining both my inner and outer voice, robbing me of joy,” Rieli explained. “As a result, I was launched into an extended existential crisis.”
Rieli continued, “All of this led me on a mission to heal myself through the deep exploration of sound, holistic health, mindfulness, and spirituality. And as I healed, I was called to help others do the same. Because of my experiences, I also have a particular passion for helping women heal and reclaim their voices from trauma.”
Read related article: Reflections on the Power of Music as Support and Healing for Teenagers
While in California seeking holistic ways to heal, she chanced upon an insightful teacher—“A Zen Buddhist voice teacher—at least that’s how it felt. He wasn’t Buddhist but his approach felt Buddhist in nature. It started me on the path of feeling into my body. I knew music was healing but had never been exposed to how healing it could be. So, I started that path.”
As Rieli explored sound as a healing agent for herself, her findings rolled over into the vocal classes she began teaching around age 27. Workshops led to one-on-one clients. “People were drawn to me because I used a different, holistic approach to sound rather than simply the traditional scales, songs, and technical coaching I had learned through my collegiate training. Singing is much more than that and our voices are so much more!” Rieli’s voice rang with passion. “It [traditional teaching methods] leaves out the soul and physiological part. Using only the formal teaching method often produces anxiety in new-to-music students. They feel they cannot live up to the classic expectation.”
“The Western approach to singing is to sing to impress versus sing to express or to experience—that is the difference.” [That is a big difference.] “When we experience and express, it takes the focus off of sounding and looking good. It allows the nervous system to calm down. When we focus on singing to impress it often activates the fight or flight nervous system response which is not good for singing.”
Rieli’s personal healing journey led to opening up and trusting her inner voice which allowed healing of her outer voice. This led to learning how to tone the vagus nerve which creates a peaceful, better quality of life and ability to breathe deeper. She explained, “Similar to eastern practices, where we put our intention and attention makes a world of difference internally and externally.”
Around 2017, Rieli completed Usui Reiki levels 1 & 2 with Austeen Freeman, owner of Free to Be Yoga and Massage in Adrian, MI. “I feel when I’m working with people, there is an energetic attunement happening. It is part of the work even if it is not spoken. I also will do a hands-on Reiki attunement in combination with sound healing. It feels like I’m doing Reiki through sound—though I was never “taught” that in a formal sense.”
Rieli also studied yoga since she was 20 years old and completed her yoga teacher training in 2019-2020 at One Tribe Yoga in Brooklyn, MI. “Yoga helps us to access our breath. Movement is also a huge part of our own vocal exploration. I work with clients on it quite a bit. A common issue for the modern person is hunched posture. [Modern] society hasn’t placed much emphasis on how to use the body well which creates trends of shallow breath and anxieties that affect our ability to make sound. We are subtly taught to use our body as armoring, afraid to make sound, because its suggested there are only certain ways you can ‘sound good.’”
In Rieli’s business, Singing for Your Soul, she offers her clients multiple ways to interact, begin healing, and nurture their own authentic voice. She shared, “Through my own vocal empowerment journey and many years of teaching voice to others, I’ve seen time and again that our voices are powerful sources for healing our pain, transforming our lives, and experiencing true joy. I’ve seen that reclaiming our voices is not only healing – it’s essential for our own well-being and the future of our planet.”
For someone not familiar with a sound healing session, Rieli explained, “it’s important to note that sessions never look the same. There is always a different combination for what an individual client resonates with. If someone has an interest in spirituality, then that opens certain doors. Or do they want to open up their creativity? If they have anxiety and they are open to mantras, I might recommend ones that I have personal experience with and know their effectiveness.”
And in addition to the voice, she has other sound tools that may be used. Rieli plays the harp, a medicine drum, the piano, and Tibetan singing bowls among others. However, she also occasionally uses tuning forks, wind chimes, or any number of instruments that produce the desired frequency needed to interrupt energy blocks or guide energy within the body.
“Just as there are different ways to prepare the body for a massage, with sound healing you don’t just go in right away deep. I warm up the muscles with gentle sound movement. The harp, crystal bowls, and gentle singing are all ways to open up a more meditative healing state,” Rieli informed. “When I’m preparing the body it’s like a shamanic journey which drumming evokes.”
During a session, “spiraling sound in and out of the body with focused intention on location occurs. Sound waves penetrate the tissue, some sounds more deeply. I do not consciously make the sounds I make during deep healing. It is very guided. Learning this came from a deep spiritual path of discovery.”
The impact of sound healing goes further than the client simply feeling relief from pain or tension. The day following a particular healing, one of Rieli’s clients saw a homeopathic doctor and had a blood draw for analysis to look for changes. The live blood analysis showed the debris that had been in the blood pre-sound session was cleaned up. Cells had literally reorganized into healthier patterns!
One of the most frequent comments Rieli hears after a session is, “Oh my God! I can’t believe how good that felt and how it helped my mind stopped racing!” She reiterated, “Sound is an incredible way for us to step into a calmer, more meditative, more spiritually open space—that’s why it’s been used since ancient times.
Rieli lives in the Jackson, MI area with her husband Marvin (musician, singer, songwriter) and cats Gandalf (the Grey) and Marmalade, “an orange fluff ball.” Husband and wife also have a band called Forge the Day, formed in 2019. You can find their music video and first album links from their Facebook page. Rieli enjoys gardening, journaling, and traveling in addition to helping others through sound. “I love to encourage people to use their voice in some way—to listen to their calling. That inner voice of intuition is guiding them toward some greater sense of well-being and connection with themselves.”
Kimberly Rieli is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and The Sound Healers Association. For more information, peruse Rieli’s website singingforyoursoul.com or follow her Facebook group at facebook.com/SingingForYourSoul. Also keep an eye out for her doing sound baths, yoga and meditation accompaniment, and retreats around the state.
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