A Voice Apart

When yesterday I came home after a hard working day, I, as usual, tuned into CP24 - our most popular Toronto breaking news station.   For many years now, I established a habit to wake up with CP24 news and go to bed with the news update for the past day. I really like to know first what has been happening in my city and then embark on the international news. My husband, however, a native Torontonian, likes to know what’s happening in the world first and then maybe what’s happening in his city. Go figure! I guess, to each their own. Anyway, out of all the Mayors for the last 35 years that I have been living in this city, I precisely liked two of them, Mel Lastman and Rob Ford.   Both have been very useful for the city and also have had very entertaining personalities. Rob Ford in particular, has been “entertaining” Toronto, and nevertheless, the whole world at large for the last several years. I often felt really sorry for him, as the media really put him t

When somebody suddenly experiences difficulties with their speaking or singing voice, they usually get really concerned, but are still hoping that the problem will go away by itself. Weeks, and sometimes months, will pass and the voice problem not only hasn’t gone away, but has actually become worse. This person ends up trying to push their voice harder and harder to make it work the way it used to, not realizing that it is doing more harm than it’s worth. Eventually, after they seem to have tried everything, they end up getting a referral to an ENT specialist, hoping that the specialist will shed light on their problem and offer them a quick and “magical” fix.  And yes, after the diagnosis, especially with polyps, nodes, nodules, or cysts, the ENT specialist usually offers a quick laser or scalpel operation to remove the growth on their vocal cords or their throats. That operation seemed to also be offered to Joan Rivers, who evidently had some problems with her voc

What a beautiful article written about the legendary Joan Rivers! When I came to Canada almost 35 years ago I was trying to watch as much TV as I could to learn the language. Although I didn’t fully understand her humour at the time, I was impressed by comedian Joan Rivers. Joan had beautiful energy and a very animated personality, and she spoke very loudly with huge command and conviction in her voice. However, being a voice specialist, I immediately noted that she was using her voice incorrectly, as her voice was obviously coming out from the back of her neck and the very bottom of her throat.  In all honesty, I am amazed that her voice lasted as long as it did!  That said, it is evident that, genetically, she was a very strong woman with a very strong personality. In a general sense, no human voice could withstand such pressure applied onto the vocal box for a prolonged period of time. However, you could clearly hear in her performances in recent years that her voice

A lot of people, especially with speaking voice problems , who are coming to me for my services, are absolutely sure that the only problem they have is their voice problem. Little do they know! Evidently, they don’t perceive that the voice is the essential part of their anatomy and it is interconnected to their whole emotional, physical and mental being. Sometimes, the problem with the speaking voice could be an indication of something else happening in the physical body and their voice problem actually has been emotionally induced. Let’s take, for example, spasmodic dysphonia . This particular voice disorder has very little to do with the nasty symptoms like uncontrollable spasms of the voice and loss of control of the vocal box, as the problem, in this instance, is not in the voice. The problem has neurological nature which was most likely induced by highly emotional stress and then it manifested in the