A Voice Apart

  Is your compromised voice your problem?  The Answer is... The Problem Is YOU!! How so, you, my reader, may ask? Let’s find out, shall we? Dear reader, due to the confidentiality code, we will not be disclosing the name of the person of interest the story of whom is described below: A week ago, in our studio here in Toronto, a female in her late 30’s/early 40’s walked in ready to embark onto our introductory/exploratory session, concerning her voice disorder. She revealed that (some time ago) she was diagnosed with what’s called Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD). I asked her to tell me her story in more detail.  And the more I spoke to her, the more I was amazed how this person could actually exist on this Earth and consider herself that her life was actually somewhat normal….?   To her credit though, (looking quite shy and introverted) she was somewhat open to tell me about herself revealing her shortcomings….(about her voice and her life patterns in general). She vo...

Yes, it could! I, my reader, would like to introduce you to some stories that we had come across. In the year 2014, I got an e-mail from a person who said that she had been diagnosed with Muscle Tension Dysphonia . In that e-mail, she said that her speaking voice was quite compromised and that she was seeking help in that regard.  As usual, I responded and asked her to give me a call so that I could hear her voice - and would know what I would potentially be dealing with in order to help her to the best of my knowledge. She had never called; thus it was left up in the air… In the year 2015, I got yet another e-mail from her, reminding me that we had already communicated (via e-mail) a year ago. In this e-mail, she was revealing that now, her Muscle Tension Dysphonia had turned into Spasmodic Dysphonia. She also warned me that her speaking voice got exponentially worse. I have an extremely good memory, and I could recall right away who she was. So right from ...

Ever since the Global pandemic took place, we (like everyone else) had to adapt to a new situation and thus make some adjustments with respect to how to continue helping people who are in need of our non-surgical voice repair services - and more so now than ever. The COVID 19 situation is very unusual for everyone. People who had their active lives all of a sudden got bound at home. Some of them had lost their jobs, others lost their (successful for many years) businesses… There is no doubt, this situation created a lot of mixed emotions. As I had written many times before, the thyroid gland, according to holistic teaching, represents suppressed emotions and it also could carry (in fact, for quite some time) a lot of hurts. In fact, the vocal box is located near the thyroid gland, and once the thyroid is affected by stuffed-up emotions, the voice gets stuck (so to speak) between the thyroid and the vocal anatomy. And as a result, the occurrence of the latter prevents the voice from wo...

Dealing with various voice disorders is my specialty. Over many years, I have attended to hundreds, if not thousands of people with different voice injuries of their speaking and/or singing voices. In general, they were all, one way or another, physically and, nevertheless, emotionally distraught. What was different about them was their reactional response to their voice disorder and its consequences. What was in common that all of them had lost their confidence, especially the singers. And even after the restoration of their voices, their physical demeanour has been expressing the tightness and fear, to say the least. And even after the voice sounded as good, or even better than before, the performance aspect has been significantly lost, as they could not bring themselves out of their shell and loosen themselves up in order to produce a required performance quality. In Russia, we have a saying: “The good dancers do not show their sweat”. Speaking of dancers, they work really hard a...

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...

Spasmodic Dysphonia is a very nasty voice disorder which is, conventionally speaking, not treatable, let alone curable. Via my observations of many years of practise, it looks like it happens more to women rather than to men. I think that men are less emotional, less loud and/or much less flamboyant in their nature. Interestingly enough, practically all of the women who came to me for treatment, before acquiring “SD” (according to them) were very active, very loud and yet very sensitive emotionally; and then… ”suddenly” they began to feel changes in their voice… It gradually began to deteriorate… Those women, naturally, were very-much surprised experiencing the latter; and thus not agreeing with the obvious fact of the above-mentioned matter. They began to push and pull their voice trying to bring it to the surface while, concurrently, doing further damage to their vocal anatomy… Needless to say, after producing these very damaging manipulations with their voice, one day, it may b...

NEW UPDATE: P.S., A couple of days ago, we had an inquiry from Detroit, Michigan USA. With Aubrie’s permission and encouragement, we submitted Aubrie’s phone number and e-mail address to the person who happened to be a singer with a quite-noticeable tremor on the bottom of her throat. That tremor was clearly on its way to becoming what’s known as the  Spasmodic Dysphonia  voice disorder… When we inquired with Aubrie whether or not the above-mentioned person contacted her, we have learnt that she never did. After conveying that back to Aubrie, we got a text from Aubrie stating: - “I know… Lord, she better get with it! But, no doubt, I’ll convince her of her ( honest to God ) last hope!!” _________ Aubrie M is ready and standing by to reassure you that coming to us in Toronto to fix her voice was the best thing that had happened to her. Not only that she acquired a healthy voice and had gotten rid of the constant sharp pain in her throat, but s...

“Just landed… I had a wonderful, encouraging time! I can not wait to come back. I will definitely be in contact soon!” - Aubrie M ___________________ For the first time, Aubrie arrived to us on Friday, November 1st, 2019 from the USA. Prior to her arrival, we have been in communication with her for a few months, as she had to pay off her 30-hour course and treatment in increments. We had already been very impressed with Aubrie throughout the process, as she told us that she was working (simultaneously) two jobs - totalling over 70 hours a week. That was her only way of being able to come to us to conquer her muscle tension dysphonia disorder Up until Aubrie had arrived to us, we had no idea that she was actually a young single mom with a young son on her hands. For the last three years, her dreams of becoming a professional singer had been, unfortunately, completely shattered. Apparently, nobody in her native city, (Pittsburgh) could help Aubrie to rectify her serious voice p...

Upon completion of 50 hours of instruction and treatment, we would like to bring to your attention a testimonial, provided to us by Tanya G - Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia voice disorder sufferer from New Zealand. This testimonial contains a dialogue between Diana Yampolsky and Tanya. - Please see below - Tanya: My name is Tanya G and I had been diagnosed with the Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia voice disorder.   I came all the way from New Zealand, which took 26 hours to fly to Toronto. As of today, I had done 50 hours of instruction for my voice recovery and the process of it has been very difficult, to say the least. But I have gotten the “tools” to go home with to work hard and bring my voice to where I want it to be. Diana: Was it worth the flight?   Tanya: Yes, it definitely was. Diana: - However, your expectations were for a full recovery within those 50 hours; as you understand now yourself, it was not possible to achieve the full voice re...

Please read below the synopsis of our present voice repair client and SD sufferer, Tanya G. We have just received a client suffering from the Spasmodic Dysphonia voice disorder . She came to us (just 4 days ago) from another side of the planet - New Zealand! We’ve learned that it took her over 22 hours to fly to us - to Toronto, Canada. To date, Tanya, under my thorough guidance, completed 20 hours of a very intense voice instruction coupled with a natural herbal treatment. In my estimate, our client’s Spasmodic Dysphonia disorder originally was determined to be between stage 1 and even possibly 2. In my previous blog about the same voice matter, I specified that in “my books”, this very nasty voice disorder possesses 4 stages, whereas the stage 3 and 4 could be somewhat treatable, but usually never curable (at least to my knowledge and experience). Tanya and I are working very hard, executing very detailed instructions (bringing it almost to forensic science)… The pr...

Recently, we received a very talented (musically and otherwise) student who has been offered a major record deal in the United States. Three years ago, this singer/songwriter/producer felt that he could no longer reach the high notes, which he could easily reach before. He experienced vocal fatigue and thus could sustain any sound only for a short period of time. He acquired fear and emotional distress, knowing that his singing voice is not working in full capacity as before. He decided to withhold embarking onto the record deal; And rightfully so, as he felt that he could've lost his voice altogether if he continued singing (and speaking for that matter) in the same fashion. Within our introductory/exploratory session, we explained to him that if he does not change the application of his speaking and singing voice, he may actually lose his voice to the point of no return. What could be a bigger fear and frustration for a talented up-and-coming singer then to lose the...

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 ...