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However with no experience of the genre of pop/rock how can you teach someone a style that is so opposite and alien to yours?

- I don't purport to teach students those styles & I say so right from the start. I'm not a pop/rock coach, I'm a singing teacher. I don't set out to change their style of singing except teaching them what works for the voice and what doesn't. I can give someone a good start in accessing their voice, learning how it works, giving them the tools to maintain it, giving them the tools to know what to do when they get into a problem. Then they can move on to someone coaching in those styles if they wish. While they're with me, they bring the music they wish to sing and we work on getting technique into the music without losing their natural qualities. I work with songwriters who want to perform/record their own stuff, too.

-That being said, I don't teach styles of singing. I teach people who CAN'T sing HOW TO SING and give them the basic tools and confidence to go and sing whatever they want to sing.

- my philosophy is that once you discover and release your natural sound you can use your developed voice to sing any kind of music you wish. And you won't sound like an opera singer because you will understand how to apply the tools of healthy singing to rock or pop or jazz or bluegrass. And you won't sound like an opera singer because it takes years and years and years of training to sound like an opera singer. I don't teach opera singing. I will get someone started in terms of releasing their voice, but I tell them after 6 months they will need to go to the conservatory.

-I think any method that deals with mechanics only and doesn't address the fact that the voice is part of our human identity, or the fact that our self-image is reflected in the sounds we create, is leaving out a very important aspect of singing. In other words, I believe that 'technique' and 'method' must also embrace, support, encourage, and reveal the artistry & spirit of the student. I believe it is unethical for a teacher to impose their method on a student. I believe it is a teachers job to LISTEN to the student with ALL of their senses and follow the lead of the voice & psyche present in the room. The teacher MUST adjust their approach to each individual student, and each individual voice. I tell my students, I work organically with the person in front of me in the present moment, in the now, helping them to build awareness of their tension / restrictions / holding backness, starting from exactly where they are. I tell them there are no promises... but that you cannot know what you are capable of unless you walk the path of discovery. I never thought I'd be a performing songwriter, never mind a singing teacher, and I never thought I'd be singing in an opera chorus, or with a bluegrass trio, and I never thought I'd be producing my own music & getting publishing deals for it. But if I hadn't had the tenacity to stick to my guns in the face of people telling me (like you did that young girl) that I didn't have what it takes... I wouldn't be where I am today. I'd still be working in an insurance company, wondering where all the music went.

-People work with me because they wish to grow beyond where they are, remove limitations, blossom into more than what they have been, progress beyond their current programming... and the method that we use to water that growth is called 'singing' but it is much more profound than that. I know, because I was healed through the creative process as I walked the path of discovering my own voice, which was hidden away under years of being put-down, stepped on, and abused. Through the healing journey of releasing my own voice and helping others release theirs, I came to feel that I have value as a human being. And if I can help my students believe in themselves the way my teachers helped me, then that will make my efforts worthwhile.

Just because someone does not follow or adopt your own musical standards, ethics and philosophy does not make them wrong or a bad person.
-Your post said that vocal coaches prey on the naivity of 'untalented' singers who have no hope of getting anywhere with it just to make money. In other words, you said vocal coaches rip off naive untalented students. And that generalization applies to me and all the wonderful people I have worked with over the past 17 years, who helped me go from a not-that-great shy singer to a confident singer people respect. So you can bet I'm going to step up and tell you that you are wrong.