How It Began...

From Robin
How A Woman's Voice got started

In 2001 I moved to the Pioneer Valley after a very painful ending of my marriage. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with the rest of my life, and I was shut down emotionally; numb and hyper-vigilant at the same time along with PTSD. While walking around Turners Falls one day, an industrial small town on the Connecticut river, I chanced to come upon The Women's Resource Center. I opened the door and stepped inside. The women were welcoming and asked me if I would like to join a writing group in process. Having nothing better to do that day, I sat down and began to write. Over the next few months, I healed some old wounds that had not been paid attention to but were festering and keeping me from stepping out of my old life and limiting beliefs into, as Tom Petty and I like to say "The Great Wide Open." I had already created Giving Youth A Voice and was teaching this songwriting/CD Recording workshop in the area. When the women heard about GYAV, they asked me if I could teach them to write songs. I thought...'WOW'.

Winter/spring of 2002 was when the first A Woman's Voice was held at The Turners Falls Women's Resource Center. It was such a success and so transforming and empowering on so many levels, for the women and myself, that the program took on a life of its own, and funding began rolling in. Well, perhaps not rolling in, but certainly interest grew as so many women were talking it up, raving about it everywhere they went.

Most of the women I work with are survivors of childhood and domestic abuse, violence, substance abuse, mental health issues, physical health issues. They are able to tell their story in song. Connection and community are built as we come together. Through the powerful combination of lyrics and music, these women begin to find their own voice and the key to their own healing capabilities. Now I am on a mission to transform lives through the art of songwriting.