Transgender Kiwis find their voice
Sophia Healey struggled with people assuming she was a man over the phone, but now, writes Melanie Earley, speech therapy has helped her sound more feminine.
Sophia Healey transitioned to living as a woman in 2020, but found many people assumed she was a man over the phone.
The 50-year-old from Hobsonville had to make a lot of calls to update her details once she officially changed her name – and it didn’t always go well.
‘‘I had some bad experiences on the phone, because my voice still sounded quite male,’’ she said.
‘‘It made me feel as though I had to explain my gender identity to people whenever I spoke to them on the phone.’’
Healey said she realised she was different as a teenager, but at that stage the world wasn’t so educated or open about transgender issues.
‘‘I kept it private and struggled with those feelings until I was in my 40s, but now, letting it out, I feel so much better.’’
Auckland-based speech therapist Jennifer Holmes, who started ReVoice Clinic during lockdown last year, helps people like Healey find their voice.
Holmes trains clients on how they can use different parts of their voice and become used to speaking differently without damaging their vocal cords.
There have been multiple times when a client has come to Holmes after increasing their vocal pitch in an unhealthy way, resulting in vocal strain, reduced vocal power, or a squeaky, unnatural-sounding voice.
Many of her clients are gender-diverse, and through vocal exercises she helps them use different parts of their voices to sound how they want.
Holmes said transgender clients usually reached out to her during their transition, before they resorted to surgery to change their vocal cords.
‘‘I work with a lot of transgender women who may get misgendered in their everyday lives and want to have a voice that better fits their gender identity.’’
She had many more transgender female clients than transgender males, as hormone therapy for transgender males lowered the voice naturally. ‘‘For transgender women, their voice isn’t changed by hormone therapy, and not having a higher-pitched voice can cause them dysphoria.’’
Holmes said she would often ask her clients to observe conversations they heard during the day.
Breathing exercises were important, as it took more breath to speak at a higher pitch without straining the voice.
She suggested they used an acoustic feedback app on their phones, to see what level their voice was at. ‘‘Along with that we do exercises, including blowing on tissues and through straws, lip trills and humming. ‘‘Once the client is happy with the pitch, we move on to practising sentences and phrases.’’
When it came to feminising a voice, Holmes said, there were also subtleties to work on such as the speech rate, sentence structure and articulation patterns. Healey said she first heard of Holmes when she asked her GP if there were any services out there to help make her voice sound more feminine.
‘‘I was recommended Jen, and I’ve had two sessions with her so far. The sessions have made me feel more confident within myself.’’
Fellow client Andie Morton, from Kohimarama, who identifies as non-binary, has had seven or eight sessions of speech therapy.
Morton wanted to work on their intonation, speed and pitch to sound more gender-neutral.
‘‘The sessions really helped me build more confidence and stop being misgendered by others,’’ Morton said.
Speech therapy for transgender people was a relatively new concept, Holmes said, with research on it dating back only a few decades.
‘‘I decided I wanted to specialise with transgender clients because I want more people to have a voice and be seen and heard.
‘‘Everyone has a right to express themselves freely, and I love seeing people overcome that dysphoria with their voice.’’
She hoped to expand her business and begin holding group therapy sessions for transgender and non-binary communities.
‘‘I want to keep walking clients through their journey of finding their authentic voice. A lot of people come to me very distressed, and by helping to strengthen their voice they get a huge reduction in anxiety.
‘‘Speech therapy allows them to stand tall and proud.’’