I had my first transgender voice therapy appointment earlier this week and it went decently. I was pretty excited about the appointment, I have been trying to get one for a while, but I also didn’t know what to expect. There is not a lot of information online about what to expect from these kinds of appointments. Most websites only offer vague references to the components of a voice and don’t discuss the concrete exercises and activities during an appointment. As such, I went into this appointment fairly blind.
It was probably for the best that I had so few expectations for the first appointment because I would have been disappointed. First, the appointment was incredibly short. It only lasted about half an hour, which felt short for an initial appointment. It felt like we got through the intake questions only for the appointment to end. There was probably a total of 10 minutes of actual speech therapy before the session was ended for time. This would be less of an issue if my next appointment wasn’t an entire month away (Scheduling issues, it should be weekly after the next appointment). After waiting so long to get an appointment, it is disappointing to have to wait again.
As for the actual speech therapy, what I did get was good. The doctor was knowledgeable about speech and seemed to be generally educated about transgender issues (which I find to be embarrassingly rare, even among physicians treating trans people). More importantly, they were able to provide good feedback on the exercises they had me perform. I was always frustrated with my voice training because I could never tell If I was doing it right or why it didn’t sound right. Having someone to correct me in the moment and explain what needed to be done differently was incredibly helpful.
While I was disappointed about the length of the appointment, I am still quite excited to be getting voice therapy. The doctor was knowledgeable and having someone to provide guidance was amazing. They estimate that it will only take 7-9 appointments to finish the speech therapy, which seems quite quick to me. However, I am probably not the best judge of my own voice and how long it will take.
Natalie's Transition Diary 