What is Voice Therapy?

Voice Therapy is part of a group of treatments known as Language and Speech Therapy, which aims to treat a wide spectrum of communication disorders. The objective of voice therapy is to restore the patient’s voice to its functional ability to meet one’s daily speech and /or voice communication needs. A certified Speech Therapist provides this type of therapy to diagnose, treat, and prevent language, speech, and voice disorders in children and adults.

What happens during voice therapy?

During voice therapy, a Speech Therapist will prepare an exercise program specifically designed to address and rectify your voice disorder. With expert guidance from the therapist and constant practice at home, the goal may be achievable in s short time. During therapy, you will learn about techniques to rebalance the entire voice instrument – how to use your breath as you speak, how relaxing the throat can help produce sounds easily etc.

Voice therapy may help address the following problems or voice disorders –

• Spasmodic dysphonia
• Muscle tension dysphonia
• Vocal cord atrophy
• Vocal cord paralysis
• Vocal cysts, polyps, or nodules
• Traumatic vocal cord injury

Voice therapy programs typically take 4-10 sessions over 6-8 weeks, depending on the underlying causes, condition of the patient, diagnosis, and compliance with the program.

Types of Voice Therapy

Based on the techniques used, voice therapy can be categorized into the following types –

• Physiologic Voice Therapy – This is a holistic treatment approach, which aims to balance the three systems of voice production – resonance, respiration, and phonation.

Types of Physiologic voice therapy include –

• Accent method
• Expiratory muscle strength training
• Phonation resistance training exercise
• Resonant voice therapy
• Flow and stretch phonation

• Symptomatic Voice Therapy – This type of voice therapy focuses on modifying deviant vocal symptoms, such as high/low pitch, loud/soft voice etc.

This type of therapy uses a wide range of techniques, such as the following, to utilize direct symptom modification –

• Auditory masking
• Amplification
• Inhalation phonation
• Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises
• Glottal fry

What are the various elements of voice therapy?

The various elements of voice therapy include –

• Vocal exercises – These exercises can help improve breathing and reduce strain on the throat as you speak
• Myofascial release and Laryngeal massage – This refers to targeted massage therapy of the muscles of your voice box resulting in relief from discomfort and throat strain.
• Vocal hygiene – The Speech Therapist offers guidance on certain factors supporting your voice function and health, such as avoiding coughing, improving hydration, reducing the overuse or misuse of the voice, and coordinating with a specialist to manage specific medical conditions, like asthma, allergies, and acid reflux.
• Voice rest – This is often recommended to give your vocal cords rest from vibration so they can recover following an injury, a vocal cord haemorrhage or surgery.
• Voice pacing – Striking a balance between voice rest and voice use is particularly important if you suffer from voice disorders that deteriorate with overuse. Voice pacing involves taking short breaks in between talking throughout the day to allow the vocal cords to heal from vibration. A good therapist can help you come up with strategies for vocal spacing.

Voice problems and disorders can affect people at any stage of life. These are more common to people, who are in the profession of teaching, singing, etc. because those demand overuse of voice. In case you are suffering from a voice disorder, seek help from a Speech Therapist immediately.