Vocally Speaking… Reality Check! (Based on True Stories)!

How The Suppressed Emotions, Lack of Talking in the Childhood Years (Due To Strict Upbringing), And Enormous Stress, Can Effect Your Speaking Voice Down The Road To Your Adulthood?

Due to my profession and extensive practice, I meet all kinds of people; all heights and weights, all colours and cultures and (in general) people from all walks of life.

Being situated in Canada for over 36 years and running my Professional Vocal School for nearly 33 years, surprisingly enough (and especially lately) my business took a different turn and became at least 95% international. Our primary market for voice repairs happens to be American.

Quite recently, I completed two voice repair projects, one of which was from Seattle, US, and the other from the State of Minnesota.  Needless to say, both of those adults (nevertheless with speech/voice disorders) very-much-so succeeded in their voice recovery with intense implementation of the Vocal Science technique. They had different voice disorders, but what they had in common was that both were very soft spoken; and as they revealed to me, they have spoken in that manner even before their voices ceased.

In order to help these people (or anybody else for that matter) I usually ask them questions about their childhood and upbringing.

Both revealed that they were deprived of desired love and care from their parents and loved ones. They had strong curfews on every level, but especially, they were practically restricted of their speech and self expression. They (for the most time) were not allowed to speak in front of their parents presence or, if they were, they had to speak very quietly and very softly.

Unfortunately, they carried it all to their adulthood. They grew up to be very suppressed emotionally and vocally. They also grew up being very sensitive to any imperfections in life, as they were brought up to be told that they were never good enough and that they had to achieve the absolute perfection in anything they were doing.

Naturally, their confidence (in life in general) was pretty shut down and, nevertheless, their spirit (I.e., their voice) was quite shut down as well.
However, to their credit, they were trying to compensate the lack of communication and the lack of self expression in the past by acquiring good jobs which required a lot of communication, and also, lots of friends, which were compensating for the lack of closeness with their families.

Now they went all out… so to speak. They spoke at all given times; and spoke loud (without boarders).

And then suddenly, they have noticed that their voices becoming, again, soft and softer… Their voices started to crack, became hoarse and raspy and the male voice started braking into soprano tone. They were devastated, because, finally, now when they could freely express themselves, their voices were not cooperating with their inner desires, unfortunately.

The above stories are pretty sad, however, both had a happy ending. I was able to help them to recover their voice and rejuvenate their spirits. Now, everything what they feel became congruent with their vocal expression!

The mission has been accomplished and two more lives were salvaged, saved and nurtured to the greater success in their adulthood years yet to come.