A Voice Apart

Let’s find out more about Vocal Paralysis… Can this very serious and complicated voice disorder be treated Non-Surgically? Every human being, at some point in their lives, experiences a change when it comes to their voice. Some of those changes are natural & some changes are abnormal. Sometimes, those abnormal changes are so severe, they may even warrant an investigation with respect to finding out where the underline cause lies. This leads to the discovery of voice problems and what they signify with regards to one’s health.  In this article, we will focus on a particular voice disorder known as vocal cord paralysis; its causes, symptoms and the options that are available in order to effectively treat it. Introduction Vocal paralysis is a condition where one or both vocal cords are unable to move due to various factors – most of which derive from nerve damage (specifically, the nerves that activate the muscles within the vocal cords). In some cases, the above happens to stroke...

Every human, at some point in their lives, experiences a change when it comes to their voice. Some of those changes are natural & some changes are abnormal. Sometimes, those abnormal changes are so severe, they may even warrant an investigation with respect to finding out where the underline cause lies. This leads to the discovery of voice problems and what they signify with regards to one’s health. In this article, we will focus on a particular voice disorder known as vocal cord paralysis; it’s causes, symptoms and the options that are available in order to effectively treat it.   Introduction Vocal paralysis is a condition where one or both vocal cords are unable to move due to various factors – most of which derive from nerve damage (specifically, the nerves that activate the muscles within the vocal cords). In some cases, the above happens to stroke victims, throat cancer victims/survivors, brain cancer victims/survivors & to those who have other ...

For many years, we have been attending to various people with speech problems, who were possessing some voice disorders like: Muscle Tension Dysphonia Spasmodic Dysphonia Polyps on the vocal cords Nodules on the vocal cords Cysts and lesions on the vocal cords Acid reflux & simply… strained vocal cords My answer to a question of "What do we mean by 'Speakaholics'?" would be to go ahead and beat all the bad vocal habits; and once it’s done, keep practicing (ongoing) the new adapted skills (instructed), the new adapted application of the speaking/singing voice, the new acquired diet/nutrition, newly acquired proper posture,  and  physical fitness in general. All of the above listed voice issues would cause the sufferer (to say the least) a hoarse and raspy voice, unclear enunciation and pronunciation and could even cause partial or total voice loss… Given all of the above described, these (listed above) and other voice problems suff...

For the last 2 and a half decades, we are more and more treating voice problems and also, sometimes, quite serious speech problems – the identification of which is  speech impediment. What is the difference between the two described above, you, my reader, may ask? There is definitely a difference between speaking voice problems (which are usually much easier to correct, as they are caused by a wrong application of one’s voice), and a speech impediment.  The former may cause voice disorders like: • Muscle Tension Dysphonia • Spasmodic Dysphonia • Vocal Cord Nodules, Polyps, Lesions, etc. As for a speech impediment, it is usually either some kind of a birth defect, (which directly effects the manner of the person’s speaking) or it is a consequence of some other diseases; like for example, stroke (pre or post condition) ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) or the aftermath of any kind of accident occurrence. In the latter, the speech center of one’s brain ma...

My business, “ The Royans Professional Vocal School  and The Royans Institute for Non-Surgical Voice Repair ” use to be located in a quite prestigious area in the northeast part of Toronto, Canada. However, in the building where my studio was located, the washrooms were not kept up to standards, and the toilets, quite often, were backed up. To serve our clients better and provide them with safe and clean facilities, we had to contact the management of the building more often than we would have liked to. They fixed it…, and then, the saga began all over again... For the last 4 decades, I have been mostly specialising in Non-Surgical Voice Repair for speakers and singers. Quite a few of them had been coming into that very studio with shut-down voices and quite often, with, so to speak, shut-down bodies.  The memory brings one of my voice repair client's case: The person came from the US with a very low-drawn, hardly understandable, speaking voice...

We truly love to transform lives and put people back into their “vocal shoes”, (like one of our clients from the past professed to us). We work with regular people with speech problems and with those who want to turn their speaking voice into their profession. We also work with people who just simply want to learn how to sing better. And, respectively, we work with professional singers who either want to prevent their voice from damage, or who already had damaged it. And are now in need of non-surgical voice repair. If we are talking about any voice repair cases at all, we are talking about a very complex approach to treatment, which, first of all, includes psychological counseling, and thus helps to identify the actual cause of ones’ vocal trauma. Sometimes, their vocal (and other related) problems have very deep roots lying beneath. And thus, from my side, it requires a lot of skillful experience, as well as true desire and passion to really get to the bott...

Lately, I’m dealing with a lot of clients (young and old) with the voice/speech problems. Most of them spent months or even years with speech therapists and speech pathologists. Some of them have gone to the regular check-ups with their ENT specialists and (in the final analysis) had not accomplished anything with respect to a resolution to their voice problem(s). How frustrating could that be?  It is extremely sad for them and their relatives, not to mention that the majority of those poor people, understandably, keep coming in and out of depression. Some of them lost their professions and their hobbies for that matter, like singing, for example, or playing some sports. Sometimes even watching some sport or concert events (in their case) could become a big challenge. It is usually quite noisy in those venues, and those with voice problems feel even more silenced as they cannot compete with the screaming crowd. Some of them have lost hope, some of them are still researc...