Gender Affirming Voice Training
Discover, develop and style your voice
Gender Affirming Voice Training may be right for you if you are looking for a safe and healthy way to explore, develop, or style your voice so it feels easy and sounds like you.
An Overview of Voice Training Phases
Foundation
Develop a healthy, strong voice foundation with advanced and therapeutic voice exercises for long-lasting voice use and flexibility.
Play
In the play phase, we’ll focus on building your vocal control and flexibility. We will specifically dig into playing with a wide variety of features and colours, and we will delve into learning about and demonstrating the voice pillars, including pitch, resonance, mass or weight, pocket boundaries and quality.
Blend
Once we’re able to demonstrate the voice pillars, we’ll focus our play on finding blends and combinations that are more aligned with your taste. Typically, we will be looking for “pretty good” level of achievement here. We’re not aiming for perfection here!
Build
Build stamina and control with your blend in reading and in-session conversation.
Extend
Begin extending practice and in-session targets into real-life situations, slowly and in a controlled and purposeful way. We'll make a plan for carry-over and we'll consider not only the duration of time in our target, but also additional variables such as the context (phone, in-person, work-related, social), your general feeling of safety with your listener, familiarity with the content you're speaking to, emotional charge (ordering a coffee, navigating conflict), pressure to perform (ordering a coffee alone, giving your pitch at an interview).
Optional Tune-Ups
Check-in to fine-tune, refresh training, re-optimize voice health, or advance to complex goals, such as preparing for presentations, podcasts or working on singing voice.
How long will it take and what will it look like?
How long - the big question! I suspect you may already know what I'm about to say: It's different for everyone. There are so many factors that may contribute to training duration, such as having a safe practice space, overall voice health, time resources, financial or insurance limitations, previous experience with voice training, and comfort exploring variations in voice. When starting with a healthy voice, building a usable base typically ranges anywhere from 8 to 16 session hours.
In the beginning, as we build a healthy foundation, play and blend, it makes for faster progress if we meet somewhat regularly (bi-weekly or weekly) for full length sessions. As we begin to build stamina and consistency, we reduce the meeting frequency and duration. Some people really excel with half hour sessions in these phases. As you become more independent throughout the extend phase, we reduce further,
Because there's so much variation, I usually recommend planning booking just a few at a time. We can always change our meeting schedule as long as there's at least 24 hours notice. After each session, we'll chat and decide together when we should meet next based on our progress. You'll have home practice and play after each session.
Upfront books and payments are never required. We can pause any time - in fact, sometimes planning for a pause between phases makes for the best progress!
Alyssa (she/her) is a registered Speech-Language Pathologist and Voice Therapist. She's a clinically-trained Gender Affirming Voice Coach and Singing Voice Specialist. She's also a classically-trained singer.
Alyssa draws on her extensive clinical voice training, voice teaching and performance experience. Alyssa uses a wide-array of tools to support adults and teens in their gender affirming voice journey, and has been proudly helped hundreds of folks in this area. As a cis woman, Alyssa prioritizes safety and support in her clinic. She is dedicated to continued learning from and supporting Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Queer or Non-conforming folks. She takes a person-centred approach across gender identities to help find and maintain a healthy, feel-good voice. Alyssa will work with you to learn your voice ideals and support you in practicing and building stamina and endurance.
Alyssa also provides Voice Therapy and Rehabilitation for those who are looking to heal or recover from a voice injury (e.g. vocal nodules, vocal polyps, muscle tension dysphonia) or surgery (e.g. voice feminization surgeries), as well as Gender Affirming Singing Voice Therapy for those who are looking to extend their affirming voice into singing.
About Alyssa, your gender affirming voice coach
Trans Voice Toronto
Trans Voice Toronto
Transgender Voice Toronto
More Gender Affirming Voice FAQ's
How do I know if Gender Affirming Voice Training is right for me?
Gender affirming voice training an option for folks of all genders who feel that their current voice is not representative of who they are, is not aligned with their gender, or is not as strong, complete and consistent as they'd like.
Is feedback available between sessions?
Yes! I have found great success with providing a bit of feedback on short voice play and practice clips between sessions. Voice comes with us everywhere, and especially with gender affirming voice training, it's unreasonable to assume that all folks will feel equipped and confident to continue to explore and play on their own without easy access to their coach.
I want my voice to be more femme sounding, but my pitch is really, really low. Is this a problem?
If the voice is healthy, and you have some ability (with support) to modify pitch, low starting pitch is usually not a problem! Some people choose to pair voice training with voice affirming surgery, particularly if they have difficulty matching pitch. And for those who do opt for voice feminization surgery, I tend to help with other features such as post-op rehabilitation, and shaping resonance, inflection, and other speech characteristics to help you achieve the voice you're looking for.
Will HRT alter the pitch of my voice?
Testosterone lowers the pitch of the voice. Estrogen, Estradiol, Spironolactone, etc. will not change the pitch of the voice.
What are your thoughts on Voice Feminization Surgeries?
Voice feminization surgeries can be especially useful for folks who cannot match pitch or if people are wanting a quick and immediate shift in voice. Most often, it's recommended to try voice training first before surgery. As a voice rehabilitative therapist, I help to get the voice in optimal shape before surgery to improve surgical outcomes, and after the surgery to recover quickly and safely. Since surgery impacts pitch only, post-surgical voice training is often required for additional training around resonance and other features.
I'm taking Testosterone, how could training help?
Some folks on or following T are dissatisfied with the timbre, tone, or stamina of the voice. Common goal areas include developing rich and resonant voice, working on projection and stability, or smoothing out the breaks in the voice, as well as building vocal endurance.
Will insurance cover this?
Since I am registered Speech-Language Pathologist, our sessions will be eligible for you to claim. Check with your insurance provider if you are unsure of budgets, as there's no way for me to know your plan's specifics. You must be an Ontario resident.
When can I start?
You can start whenever you feel ready. I do not require referrals. I am occasionally asked if I require completion of various transition-related items to begin - the answer is absolutely not! Come as you are. All I ask is that you, to the best of your ability, arrive with a flexible and creative mind, and patience. If you under the age of 18, guardian consent is recommended, but guardians are not required to participate or attend.
How do I start?
The first step is to book an Intake/Assessment session. Don't worry, it's nothing too formal! We'll get to know each other and set some voice goals. We'll also snap some recordings and complete some questionnaires for our baseline analysis. If you feel like you'd rather meet before jumping in, feel free to book an online complimentary meet-and-greet.