Voice therapy teaches clients to produce sound volume through resonance, including performing techniques designed to encourage an abducted laryngeal posture that has been shown to reduce nodules, polyps, reflux symptoms while at the same time decreasing phonotraumatic injury (Verdolini 2000).
Therapists guide patients through an introspection and observation process using tools like scan-gel-show-tell to find their optimal representation.
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Lessac Madsen Resonant Voice Therapy (LMRVT) is a physiologic approach to treating laryngeal disorders, emphasizing an abducted/adducted laryngeal posture to protect vocal mechanism health while treating various vocal conditions. LMRVT was named in honor of Arthur Lessac and Mark Madsen – its pioneering developers.
LMRVT emphasizes experiential sensory processing, in which patients use their senses to gain an understanding of resonant voice. It also helps ensure compliance with therapy, and avoid verbal, mechanical explanations of its technique that could present obstacles. LMRVT employs exercises that promote full-body introspection and observation to assist patients in recognizing sensations associated with resonant voices. The clinician guides patients through a process known as scan-gel-show-tell, with the goal of helping each one reach his or her ideal representation of resonant voice quality. Vibratory sensations at the anterior alveolar ridge indicate resonance while ease during phonation are other indications that resonance exists in one’s voice.
Practice of the resonant voice is then undertaken by the patient to establish it in everyday speech. Bridging exercises gradually introduce more complex voicing patterns and challenging situations such as louder phonation until accessing it in everyday life becomes possible. At the final stage of the program, clinicians encourage patients to apply the resonant voice across as many speech sounds as possible so it truly becomes part of life for themselves.
LMRVT programs typically involve 30-45 minute sessions held once or twice every week for 30 to 45 minutes each time, unlike many other voice therapies used to treat similar disorders. The short sessions allow patients to participate with minimal disruption to their daily lives and also lower risk of vocal damage; something which is particularly significant for individuals suffering from chronic voice disorders.
Lessac Kinesensic Training
Lessac Kinesensic Training provides a holistic approach to voice and body strength, power, expressiveness and connection. This method has become popular with actors, performers and teachers worldwide as a method to develop voice strength, power, expressiveness and connection in themselves and others. Therapy applications of Lessac Kinesensic Training have included helping those suffering from hoarseness, vocal cord damage, croup, laryngeal neuromas, laryngeal spasms as well as its principles also applicable to athletes as physical/speech pathologists alike.
Perform Voice uses performing voice techniques to encourage resonant vocal production that can be varied through prosody and accent to cover all vocal registers. Furthermore, it uses sensory methods of instruction rather than mechanical ones, helping students avoid injury while improving articulation and resonance; additionally it also teaches how to reduce phonotraumatic behaviors while balancing respiration, phonation and resonance in one approach.
The program involves a series of 30 to 45-minute sessions held once or twice each week, usually in person or over the phone, that focus on reeducating muscles and ligaments that support vocal folds (subglottic and arytenoid cartilages), in order to relieve any tension caused by overuse or misuse of voice.
With the reeducation process, an instructor identifies any areas of vocal fold tension and guides the student through exercises designed to release it. These exercises may also be done in group settings with both instructor and students working together towards this end goal.
Lessac practitioners are teachers that have completed the institute’s two-year study program, including clinical training as well as practical experience using Lessac’s method. A Lessac practitioner may assist speech-language pathologists in administering LMRVT therapy to patients suffering from various vocal disorders.
Arthur Lessac founded his institute in the late 1950s and it has grown over time into an organization with numerous certified Lessac trainers worldwide. Their website includes information on Lessac technique as well as seminars to attend and lists of Lessac-trained trainers worldwide.
Vocal Straw Exercises
Singers commonly incorporate straw exercises into their vocal practice to boost performance and protect the voice, as well as prevent and treat some common vocal conditions. It is best to follow instructions given by a qualified speech-language pathologist (SLP) or vocal coach for maximum benefit from this form of training.
Vocal Straw Exercises or “straw phonation” is an evidence-based voice therapy technique which involves singing or speaking into a partially blocked straw to create back pressure on the vocal folds, unloading them without strain and tension and allowing them to vibrate more freely without excess strain and tension. SOVTEs such as this technique have been proven to improve breath control, resonance/articulation improvement and reduce voice stress significantly.
When practicing vocalization through a straw, it’s essential that you select an appropriately short and wide straw that enables you to produce soft sounds without exertion. Furthermore, avoid exerting too much pressure on your mouth and throat by creating an airtight lip seal and keeping air from hissing out the sides. When beginning vocalization exercises with straws it is wise to start out slowly before gradually increasing complexity as proficiency grows.
Straw exercises not only promote efficient airflow and improve resonance, they can also help with articulation. Speaking through a straw requires increased articulation which encourages tongue and lip movements more precisely; this leads to clearer and more intelligible sound production and an expanded range of tonal qualities and timbres which may increase vocal projection.
Though learning to sing through a straw may appear challenging at first, most people find the process relatively straightforward and simple. The hardest part about singing through a straw lies in finding one with sufficient resistance for your voice; most likely this means finding one short and thin enough. Resistance levels can also be adjusted easily in order to increase or decrease difficulty of exercises performed with this instrument. Finally, keep in mind that you can perform these exercises anytime of day and without exertion from physical labor alone!
Voice Function Exercises
Resonant voice therapy has proven its efficacy for treating various vocal disorders, such as nodules and polyps, muscle tension dysphonia, aphonia, recurrent laryngitis and self-reported professional voice use disorders. Resonant voice therapy also reduces surgical treatment needs for glottic paralysis (vocal fold cord paralysis) by postponing surgical reconstruction while speeding recovery post-phonosurgical voice rehabilitation. Resonant voice therapy‘s combination of nonspeech exploratory exercises and speech articulation training promotes vocal function recovery and reverses damage caused by trauma.
Initial treatments of resonant voice therapy typically consist of nonspeech exploration exercises and speech articulation training using simple phonemes. Nonspeech exploration helps the patient identify sensations associated with healthy, functional resonant voices – particularly useful if having trouble visualizing one. In subsequent sessions, clinicians may provide physical manipulation, demonstration and verbal instruction in order to help the patient produce one (Verdolini & Titze 2004).
After the patient has established a good representation of resonant voice, the clinician utilizes bridging exercises to introduce more complex voicing patterns into the basic training gesture (BTG). Special care must be taken in producing resonant voices at both word and phrase levels; this ensures it can be utilized across various conversational situations.
Resonant voice therapy should only be undertaken under the guidance of a licensed therapist or doctor, to avoid unwittingly using it outside this context. One potential downside may be that inspired patients may attempt to apply it before their clinician has assessed that they are ready, leading to increased rates of vocal injury that require further investigation.
