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Spasmodic Dysphonia Exercises and Background
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My Links
Don't let the fact that Roger primarily works with singers deter you. I can't sing worth a hoot!
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since 3-26-03
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Disclaimer: The following is based on personal opinion and personal experience only. It is not meant to be a professional opinion. It is not meant to be medical advice. You should consult with a medical professional before executing these or any other exercises.
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Update December 2004: My voice is still strong, in fact better than ever! I think the links in my website are fixed now. Best wishes!
My name is Jessica. Sometime during 1995, I began having voice problems. I began to experience breaks in my voice while speaking, tremulous speech and extremely tight throat muscles causing me to squeeze my words out. This was a gradual onset of symptoms. It took about 6 months before my problem hit it's peak. No one could diagnose me and I was misdiagnosed with a broad range of medical problems. Finally, thanks to taking matters into my own hands and with a lot of help from the Internet, I discovered Spasmodic Dysphonia.
I thought there was no hope. I was growing depressed and hadn't convinced myself that I was ready for Botox. Then in 1998, thanks to a fellow SD sufferer, I was introduced to a local speech pathologist named Susan Rhulin. She told me on my first visit that she would be able to get my voice back. That was all I needed to hear! For about 8 months I experienced a lot of ups and downs, before finally nearing an end. At that point, I had found my near-perfect voice. This happened as a result of her exercises and a lot of hard work. I still had catches in my voice from time to time, but at least I now knew how to correct it faster.
I had had many weeks during my 8 months of therapy where I felt and said, "This isn't working! I'm not improving at all!" And almost always within the same down week, I'd experience a conversation or a phone call or even a full day of a normal voice. Not just a better voice, but also a normal voice! Then it would go away and I'd be back to strangling. This was very frustrating. But it made me realize my voice was in there somewhere. And my speech pathologist would say, "You just aren't at that point yet. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. It will just come one of these days." And that is how it happened. I'd have a day here and there of a normal voice. And finally I was able to maintain a normal voice. I was so excited and yet afraid at the same time. I kept waiting for it to get bad again. But at least I now knew what I was capable of.
Some of you may be saying, she must not have been that bad. But I was! There were times when it would wear me out completely to try and speak to someone sitting right next to me. And even with my newly found good voice, my throat was still very tight and achy. But I think because of the speech therapy and the lifestyle changes I made, it was slowly working itself out. I had to remember I'd spoken this way and had a tight throat for 4 years. So the problems wouldn't disappear overnight. My philosophy about speech therapy is, if you are going to speak in your poor voice all day, you might as well give yourself one hour a week to practice good techniques with a qualified clinician. What do you have to lose? And look at what you can possibly gain. One crucial point is to find a clinician who has worked with SD. Some will say they've heard of it. But that isn't good enough! They need to have studied it or had experience with it. Otherwise they will be stabbing in the dark with their exercises. And be leary of anyone claiming to be the only one able to cure you or the only one doing what they do for SD. There are people out there like that too.
Now to bring you up to date on how things are today. Since 1999, I've had 2 pretty significant setbacks in my voice. I stopped practicing the exercises, picked up hours at my job that required me to strain my voice, and got back into my poor breathing habits. Mostly what I noticed is that my stomach was always tense which led to poor breath flow. I came across the name of a fellow SDer who had also experienced relief from his SD symptoms through the use of speech therapy. He had worked over the phone with a vocal coach in LA named Roger Love. He was speaking normal after 4 sessions with Roger and credited his quick recovery to Roger's techniques. He suggested I purchase Roger's book Set Your Voice Free. This book comes with a practice CD. The exercises are primarily singing exercises, but they are also meant to help people with speech difficulties. I also decided to give Roger a call and work with him over the phone. The very first day I worked with him, I was speaking better than I had in months. He completely pulled my good voice back out of me. Of course, nothing is that magical and I had to have more sessions. I probably worked with Roger 10 times altogether. After I decided I had reached a plateau, I stopped working with him and decided to go it alone. I still didn't have the consistently good voice I'd hoped for, but I continued to do Roger's exercises. I didn't go back to Susan's exercises that I have listed below because the techniques are so different. I didn't want to confuse my voice! After about 2 months of consistent exercising, my voice was back to normal. At first I had a profoundly better voice and now my voice sounds very normal. I still experience small struggles from time to time. Mostly when trying to say the number 8 or the letter A by itself, or E words. But if I stop and repeat them after the struggle, I can usually get it out without a problem. I really believe Roger is a miracle worker. He truly understands voices and has an ear for all sorts of problems. Now I know there are skeptics who think if speech therapy has cured you, then you didn't have SD to begin with. That may very well be true. But keep in mind; several doctors and therapists diagnosed me with SD. I sounded like I had SD. I didn't have it as long as some people, so it probably didn't reach the level it has in some people. But my point is, being that doctors told me I had SD, I could have just as easily accepted it and not tried speech therapy. Most of what I'd heard up to that point was that speech therapy wouldn't help me. If I hadn't tried, I wouldn't be writing this today. I will agree that speech therapy may not help everyone. I'm not saying if you only try it and practice religiously it will work eventually. It may never work for you. But are you willing to not try and be left to wonder? And not every speech therapist knows what they are doing. I'm not knocking the profession. But it is like anything else; there are good practitioners and bad ones. And some are good at correcting some problems and not others. I went through several therapists before I found one who helped. I just wasn't willing to give up. For those of you who are willing to try one more thing, I HIGHLY recommend you get Roger's book. Try his techniques. And I believe if any of you spoke to him he could tell you in one conversation whether he could help you or not. Roger has a website at www.RogerLove.com. His book is there or you can get it from Amazon.com. If you think you'd like to contact him, you might try his email link on that website. His rates aren't cheap, but he is definitely worth it! Definitely do your research. Choose a method that works for you. Try anything and everything if you must.
After Susan's exercises below, I've added all my old notes, which I felt were important. You can take all this in and do what works for you. Just know that I have almost completely recovered and I feel good about my voice. I want everyone afflicted with this to feel the same.
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