Using the voice to achieve goals
Vocal Cognitive Stimulation® (VCS®) is a branch of the Sarkissian Method® that uses the voice as a central tool to boost mental functions, clarify intentions and align vital energy with concrete objectives in work, creation and everyday life. Session after session, people report a clearer mind, improved emotional balance, easier effective decisions, and a renewed capacity to stay focused and work towards their goals, supported by a freer, stronger, more powerful and better‑placed voice.
Voices from VCS® practice
Short testimonials from people using Vocal Cognitive Stimulation® of the Sarkissian Method® to speak better, sing better and live better.
A singular way of using the voice to manage emotions, set and achieve goals, and boost effectiveness
VCS® brings together listening, focus, imagination and structured vocal and mental exercises in a coherent pedagogical framework. The aim is simple: to develop the technical and executive mechanisms that provide the best possible support for bringing creative ideas into material life. Far from abstract self‑help, VCS® turns precise bel canto principles into mental and vocal gestures that anyone can use.
Origins
The method grew out of Mariam Sarkissian’s long-term work with professional singers and actors, and from her own mental, physical and vocal reconstruction after a life-changing car accident.
She developed simple, playful exercises accessible to everyone, with no musical prerequisites.
VCS® is the name given to this dimension of the Sarkissian Method®: a stimulation of cognitive functions through the voice, which becomes richer and stronger thanks to the exercises, thereby improving verbal expression.
The central pedagogical tool
The Sarkissian Triangle®
At the heart of the method stands the Sarkissian Triangle®, a simple, trainable algorithm that represents the technical thought (a mental formula that trains executive mechanisms in order to create effective automatisms), which serves the creative thought (any imagined reality that seeks to become real).
Reaching the High position
By stabilising access to the vocal High position (through the breath conducted by the pure tone of the voice), where the realisation of "every vocal and musical idea is possible", practitioners learn to access an inner High position, where "everything is possible": a mental and energetic availability where choices, ideas and actions become coherent with our deepest aims.
Position of the voice, position of energy
In this approach, vocal position equals the position of vital energy: the way the voice is placed reflects how attention, imagination and inner resources are organised and can be redirected towards specific physical goals.
A holistic method for living and creating
VCS® offers a structured yet imaginative practice for living in an accelerated world shaped by AI, constant notifications and scattered attention. Rather than causing us to escape from reality, this method helps us to refocus and reconnect with ourselves and the present moment: the voice helps to align our body, mind and emotions with our true goals.
Voice as a key
Conscious control of vocal placement allows the voice to become a practical key to organise thought, stabilise inner rhythm, identify and reconnect intention with action – whether it’s to solve a problem, come up with a new idea, identify a personal or professional direction to take, speak in public, lead a team or see a creative project through to completion.
Holistic practice
Drawing on bel canto pedagogy, VCS® works simultaneously on body, imagination, attention, language, emotions, and vocal and verbal expression. It does not replace any medical or therapeutic process and does not make medical claims; it opens a concrete space to train what could be called “mental hygiene through the voice”.
Boosting mental functions
Through repeated, precise exercises, the method supports focus, mental organisation, flexibility and creativity. People often describe a “before/after” in the way they think, act, perceive their true goals, plan and make consistent decisions. They realise that the way to reconnect with themselves is always available: by training their own voice.
The ecosystem around the method
VCS® belongs to a larger body of work that includes the Sarkissian Method®, the Sarkissian Method Association, trained professors, books, recordings, online courses and a growing set of projects.
Mariam Sarkissian
Author of the Sarkissian Method® and creator of VCS®
Mariam Sarkissian is a French-Armenian mezzo-soprano, teacher, researcher and author. She oversees the artistic, educational and strategic development of the method and its various branches.
Sarkissian Method Association
Management, coordination and development
The association and its members set up projects, partnerships and the necessary logistics, organise and manage exchanges and contracts, and coordinate teachers trained in the method.
Certified teachers
Artistic vocal training and VCS®
The Sarkissian Method teachers work in private and state schools, colleges of music and drama, companies, care homes, centres for neurodivergent children, with choirs of adult amateurs.
Explore the sites around the method
VCS® is part of a wider ecosystem with French and English resources, artistic and pedagogical pages and dedicated presentation sites.
The Sarkissian Method® in French
The central French-language site of the Sarkissian Method®.
The Sarkissian Method® in English
The broader English-language introduction to the method.
Mariam Sarkissian’s site in English
Mariam Sarkissian’s artistic universe, recordings and projects. Website in English.
French VCS® page
The main French presentation of Vocal Cognitive Stimulation®.
French VCS® business page
The current French web page dedicated to VCS® for businesses.
Stay connected
For projects, information, collaborations or to explore how VCS® could serve your context (individual, artistic, institutional or corporate), contact the Sarkissian Method Association.