Date Confirmed for Student Observation Day

Course dates:Friday 9th August 2019 at 1pm-5pm Location:         1st floor, 4 Paddington Street, London, W1U 5QE ( Baker St. Tube) Course fees:    £10 per person FURTHER INFORMATION An opportunity for students keen to learn about about speech and language therapy and working as a voice specialist. There will be opportunities for questions and insights from a least two … Read More

The Highs and the Lows: The Issue of Puberphonia

Generally speaking, cases of puberphonia do not present frequently at the Voice clinician’s door. When they do, our interventions tend to be short and satisfying for both patient and clinician as successful outcomes often come quickly.  What is puberphonia? Puberphonia occurs in males whose voices remain high after they have gone through the other physiological changes associated with puberty. The condition … Read More

Farewell Rhiannon

Nearly two and a half years ago, a new graduate SLT called Rhiannon Grebert approached me after attending my Vital Voice course. She was interested in any work opportunities i could offer her. Following a period of observation, training and supervision, Rhiannon came to work at my practice part-time. Rhiannon’s specific interest was working with transgender Voice. She has worked … Read More

Diamond Group Session – April 2019

In typical springlike weather, the Diamond April group session blew into action. This is my longest established voice group and is named Diamond because of its endurance. I’ve run many other more formatted groups both within the NHS (first in 2002) and in private practice and new groups are currently planned for the future but the diamond group is worth … Read More

Courses, Presentations and Research

The first quarter of 2019 was characterised by busy clinic practice and delivering varied teaching and presentations. During an unusually sunny February, I taught two courses at my treatment rooms and gave a presentation at University College London (UCL) :  2 day Vital Voice Course  2 day Working With Transgender Voice Course (one free place given to a very newly … Read More

Seeing the Vocal Light: A Case of Laryngeal Papillomatosis

What is laryngeal papillomatosis? The diagnosis of vocal cord papilloma can prove to be one of the most challenging voice conditions for sufferers . For voice therapists, our interventions are often limited and restricted to pre and post surgery assessment and advice. Papillomatosis is a rare condition in which small benign tumours caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) infect the … Read More

You’re As Young As Your Voice

Voice Matters- Whatever Your Age Whether I’m assisting a performer or a retired person back to vocal health , their voice matters  to them- and to me. Loss of voice function can be debilitating and socially and professionally limiting  sometimes, it can cause huge financial loss. The Professor and The Conference One day I was contacted by a polite 86 yr old gentleman … Read More

ELVIS & CHER: From Fernando to Walking In Memphis

The Loss of a King The 16th August sees the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. I’m a lifelong fan. It started from early childhood I think because my parents had so many albums and I was a kid that listened to singers and played albums – a lot. Just like people of a certain age remember where they … Read More

The Girl With No Voice

10 year old Mary had not voiced for over 3 months. Not one vocalisation related to speech had ensued from her vocal tract in that time. She had already seen two ENTs and one speech therapist with no return of Voice. The second ENT, referred Mary to me. Both ENTs had assessed Mary’s laryngeal anatomy as normal with no evident … Read More

Mind the Gap: The Breathy Singer

Mind the Gap: The Breathy Singer

There’s a place for breathy voice quality. In singing, it can feature for stylistic reasons or as part of falsetto range. In the spoken voice though, it might best be limited to an intimate bedroom setting. A spoken voice that’s too heavily populated with breathy voice quality is usually a voice that’s in trouble – either the vocal cords aren’t … Read More