diff --git a/changelog/3435.fixed.md b/changelog/3435.fixed.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a4482c328
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/3435.fixed.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Fixed `LLMContext.create_audio_message()` by correcting an internal helper that was incorrectly declared async while being run in `asyncio.to_thread()`.
diff --git a/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_context.py b/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_context.py
index 205d55269..4b0e95aa7 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_context.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_context.py
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ class LLMContext:
         """
         content = [{"type": "text", "text": text}]
 
-        async def encode_audio():
+        def encode_audio():
             sample_rate = audio_frames[0].sample_rate
             num_channels = audio_frames[0].num_channels