Voice Therapy

Guided vocal exercises help rehabilitate the voice, improve breathing, reduce throat strain, and identify your optimal volume for strong and healthy speaking.

Targeted manual therapy performed by a speech pathologist can reduce excess muscle strain involved with voice use. Muscle strain often occurs alongside other voice issues because the muscles try to “help” and instead become too tight and overworked. Manual therapy may involve gentle stretching or massage in areas of the head, neck, and torso where muscle tension is present. People often experience dramatic relief of discomfort and throat strain after these treatments. You may also learn stretches and self-massage techniques to reduce strain and support relaxed, healthy voice use.

Your speech pathologist will offer guidance on strategies that support the health and function of your voice, such as improving hydration, reducing misuse or overuse of your voice, and avoiding throat clearing and coughing. To best optimize your vocal hygiene, it is also important to manage any medical factors that affect your throat and voice. Your laryngologist will work with you and your other providers to manage allergies, asthma, acid reflux, sleep apnea, or other medical conditions that contribute to your voice problem.

While voice rest is not the first-line treatment for most voice problems, it is beneficial in certain situations, such as acute laryngitis, right after voice surgery, or in the case of a vocal cord hemorrhage or bleed. There are times when voice rest is recommended to give the vocal cords (also known as vocal folds) a break so they can better heal from an injury. Your laryngologist may recommend a period of complete voice rest, usually about one week. During this time, you can communicate by writing, sending emails or texts, or using a text-to-speech app on your smartphone.

Vocal pacing refers to how much, how intensely, and in what situations you use your voice. Some people may need to increase voice use to optimize vocal conditioning, while others may experience increased hoarseness with voice use. Finding a balance between voice use and voice rest every day is important if you have a voice problem that worsens with overuse. This may mean not talking or singing for small amounts of time (10 to 15 minutes) at intervals throughout the day. Periodic rests allows your vocal cords to recover from vibration. If your profession requires you to use your voice a lot, it's also important to take longer periods of voice rest outside of work. Without these voice breaks, your vocal cords may be injured more quickly and heal slowly. Vocal pacing is challenging but sometimes necessary. Your speech pathologist will work with you to develop pacing strategies for success.

We work with singers of all levels, from those who sing for enjoyment to high-level performers who need immediate vocal health services. Singing voice therapy involves the practice of high-intensity vocal exercises designed to help improve vocal range, endurance, and voice quality. Our goal is to return you to your highest level of vocal performance, allowing you to continue singing and helping you avoid recurrence of the voice problem.