Celebrating One Year of LOUD for LIFE® at VC Speech Therapy
From one person to a growing community
In September 2025, I took a bit of a leap and launched the first LOUD for LIFE class at VC Speech Therapy. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to create: somewhere for people to come back to after completing LSVT LOUD, to keep practising their skills, stay motivated and, importantly, feel part of a community. I believed in the idea, but I'll admit I was also a little nervous about whether it would work.
One of the people who gave me the confidence to just go for it was my beautiful friend Angela Halpern, Chief Clinical Officer, LSVT LOUD at LSVT Global. Angela has been incredibly supportive of me, both professionally and personally, and is always generous with her time, encouragement and advice as I continue to grow my practice and look for ways to help more people living with Parkinson's.
When I was worrying about whether enough people would actually come to a class, Angela put it very simply: “If you have two people, you have a group, right?”
She had a point.
So I set a date and opened the bookings. Three people signed up for that very first class and I thought, great — I have a group! Then, as sometimes happens, plans changed and on the day just one person was able to attend.
We could have cancelled. Instead, we did the class and I’m so glad we did! It gave me a chance to try the technology and my session plan and we had a lot of fun.
By the second session, three people were there, and from those very small beginnings something started to grow.
A year later, we've had 161 attendances at our LOUD for LIFE classes and now have a lovely community of around 13 regular participants. What began as a fortnightly class has grown into a weekly one, and we've grown our clinical team too, enabling us to offer that consistency every week.
Of course, the numbers make me smile — particularly when I worked out that we've probably produced somewhere in the region of 1,288 LOUD “ah”s between us! But that's not really what this first year has been about.
It's been about people showing up for themselves. It's been about keeping up the practice even when motivation isn't always easy, encouraging one another, sharing experiences and having an awful lot of laughs along the way.
That is the community I hoped we could create when I started.
Life with Parkinson's doesn't always go to plan
One of the reasons I wanted to establish LOUD for LIFE at VC Speech Therapy was because I know that completing LSVT LOUD is only part of the journey.
People finish their intensive treatment with every intention of continuing to practise regularly. But I also understand that life with Parkinson's isn't always an easy journey. There are appointments, changing symptoms, tiredness, good days and difficult days — alongside all the ordinary demands of everyday life. Even with the very best intentions, daily voice practice doesn't always happen.
And that's exactly why I think having something regular to come back to can be so valuable.
Knowing that there's a class in the diary gives people something to aim for. It provides a reason to practise, an opportunity to revisit the techniques they learned during LSVT LOUD and, sometimes, just the little bit of motivation needed to get back on track.
I am incredibly proud of the people who keep showing up. Not because they've practised perfectly every day, but because they continue to make their communication a priority and keep coming back to it.
And somewhere along the way, the classes have become about much more than practising a LOUD voice. There's encouragement, conversation, challenge, friendship and a lot of laughter. People support one another, celebrate each other's successes and understand something of the journey that has brought everyone into that Zoom room in the first place.
For me, that's where the community really matters.
There is clinical skill behind the fun
Although we laugh a lot — and I wouldn't have it any other way — LOUD for LIFE isn't simply an informal voice practice group.
LOUD for LIFE is an LSVT Global maintenance programme for people who have completed LSVT LOUD. Clinicians undertake additional LOUD for LIFE training and certification, on top of their LSVT LOUD certification, before delivering the classes.
That's important because leading a group brings different clinical demands. As clinicians, we need to model the exercises effectively, monitor several people at once, listen carefully to individual performance, provide feedback and continually reinforce the principles people learned during their LSVT LOUD treatment.
At the same time, I don't want our classes to feel like another hour of therapy!
We use different themes, cognitive challenges, conversation, games and functional activities to give everyone plenty of opportunities to use their LOUD voice. Every person gets the chance to speak, and while we're working hard, we have plenty of fun doing it.
One of the things I'm particularly proud of this year is growing the team at VC Speech Therapy so that another of our clinicians has completed the additional training needed to deliver LOUD for LIFE. That has helped us move from running classes fortnightly to being able to offer them every week.
The vision doesn't stop here
When I started that first class with one person on the screen, my vision wasn't simply to fill a Zoom class.
I wanted to build a community.
I wanted people who had worked incredibly hard through their LSVT LOUD treatment to have somewhere they could come back to afterwards — somewhere that would help them stay motivated, keep using what they'd learned and know that they weren't doing it alone.
A year later, that vision is beginning to become what I'd hoped it could be, but I would love to take it further.
As VC Speech Therapy continues to grow, I'd like to be able to offer more LOUD for LIFE classes across the week, giving people greater choice about when they attend and more opportunities to get the support and motivation they need to keep practising.
I'd also love to grow the community enough that, over time, we can make attending regularly even more affordable. I want these classes to be something people feel able to keep as part of their lives for the long term, rather than something they only do for a few weeks or months.
And because the classes are online, that community doesn't have to stop at the UK border. If you've completed LSVT LOUD with a certified clinician, wherever you received your treatment, there is the potential to join us and continue practising alongside others who understand why keeping that LOUD voice going matters.
So, one year on, I'm very glad I listened to Angela and started.
Even when my group of three became a group of one!
To everyone who has logged on, practised an “ah”, tackled one of my challenges, encouraged somebody else, made us laugh or simply turned up on a day when turning up wasn't easy — thank you for being part of our first year.
Here's to continuing to grow, continuing to support one another and, of course, staying LOUD.
Interested in joining our LOUD for LIFE community?
If you've completed LSVT LOUD®, we'd love to welcome you to one of our weekly online classes. Whether you completed your treatment recently or some time ago, our classes offer a friendly, supportive environment to keep practising and stay motivated.
Your first class is free, so why not come along and see what we're all about?
Or contact us using this contact form and we will get back to you with more information.
We would love to work with you to support you or your loved one.
