Gender-Affirming Voice

If you

• can't figure out what voice you want, 

• don't know how to change your voice,

• are too shy or scared to use your voice outside of the therapy room, or

• slip back into your old voice with people who knew you before you came out, 

I am here to help!

I help you to craft a voice that you love that reflects who you truly are inside. As someone with trans and nonbinary family and friends, I offer a deep understanding of the courage it takes to show the world who you really are.

I am a highly supportive clinician, and do everything I can to ensure that you feel safe. In the safety of my clinic, I help you to explore different voices. We work on vocal flexibility so that you can make the changes you want. We may work on pitch, resonance, intonation, or even word choice or body language - any aspect of communication that is holding you back. When you are ready, I help you to use your voice in different parts of your life.

My sessions start with a check-in for you to share as much about your life as you want to, since everything in your life affects your voice and vice versa. Sometimes we listen to other voices for inspiration. Then we play with different changes we can make to our voices. I encourage you to listen for changes that you love, and that resonate with who you are. Near the end of the session, I nudge you to choose what you will work on until your next session. 

I have taken a deep dive into voice care in the past few years, and more specifically gender-affirming voice care. I started by exploring my voice in singing lessons, then took Theatre Voice and Speech Training Methods for Working With Gender-Diverse People, an intensive Mentorship for Voice Professionals, the Gender Affirming Voice Training: A Course for Voice Clinicians (twice), and the Trans Voice Intensive.

Also, the years I spent supporting my trans and non-binary family and friends have contributed to my understanding of what a gift gender diversity is, while also making me painfully aware of how much courage it takes to live authentically. 

As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I started my career in the Franco-Manitoban School Division, where I saw a handful of people with voice disorders. When I started in private practice at Hello SpeechWorks, I was approached to do gender-affirming voice care. I wanted people to get exceptional care from a culturally-competent clinician with excellent voice skills. My foundation in voice from graduate school and my experience treating voice disorders weren't enough to convince me that I had excellent voice skills, so I referred people to clinicians who I thought had more to offer. 

One day I said to myself "I might not be a voice care professional, but I'm not dead yet! I can do this!" And with my great love of the trans community, I set out to learn all I could to become that SLP who could give them the best care. I took singing lessons to get a better understanding of my own voice, then took the Mentorship for Voice Professionals with Melanie Tapson, an SLP who works exclusively in voice care. I learned so much from her! I also took Gender Affirming Voice Training: A Course for Voice Clinicians (twice) and the Trans Voice Elective. I've taken lots of other little workshops and courses, but those are the biggies.

I am so happy I had the courage to learn something new! I love what I do!