Episode 33: Preparing voice clinicians to support speakers across the gender spectrum with Christie Block, MA, MS, CCC-SLP, Leah B. Helou, PhD, CCC-SLP, & Sandy Hirsch, MS, CCC-SLP
The topic of this episode is the development and evolution of a three day course on Transgender voice and communication taught by the presenters Christie Block, Leah Helou and Sandy Hirsch. They will be discussing course content and development as well as the changes that they make annually to the course in order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing gender environment. The podcast will underscore the importance of anyone serving the gender diverse community to not only hone and maintain their clinical skills in voice, but to develop and be sensitive to not just cultural competence, but the broader meaning of cultural humility.
Dig deeper with the following resources:
Speakers
Christie Block, MA, MS, CCC-SLP: New York Speech & Voice Lab
Leah Helou, PhD, CCC-SLP: Helou Laboratory for Vocal Systems Anatomy and Physiology Research: Overview; Research Members
Sandy Hirsch, MS, CCC-SLP: Give Voice
Upcoming Workshop, April 3-5, 2020 Chicago
Sandy Hirsch, MS CCC-SLP; Leah Helou, PhD, CCC-SLP; Christie Block, MA, MS CCC-SLP: Supporting Gender Diverse Speakers: A Course for Voice Clinicians. https://tgvoicetraining2020.eventbrite.com/ Registration is now open.
Organizations and Resources
World Professional Association for Transgender Health: WPATH
Recommended readings from WPATH.
The Standards of Care 7 by WPATH.
The companion document about voice to the Standards of Care 7.
USPATH https://www.wpath.org/uspath
GLAAD https://www.glaad.org/
Ingersoll Gender Center 2019 Gender Affirming Healthcare Access Report
Moving Trans History Forward 2020: join community activists, academics, artists, and allies from around the globe for the fourth Moving Trans History Forward conference -- among the largest of its kind in Canada -- held at the Victoria Conference Centre, BC, Canada.
Gender Odyssey: Gender Odyssey is an international conference focused on the needs and interests of transgender and gender diverse children of all ages, their families and supporters, and the professionals who serve them.
Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference: The Largest Free Trans-Specific Conference in the World
Literature
Shelagh Davies, Viktória G. Papp & Christella Antoni (2015) Voice and Communication Change for Gender Nonconforming Individuals: Giving Voice to the Person Inside, International Journal of Transgenderism, 16:3, 117-159.
Erickson-Schroth, E. (2014). Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK.
Hancock, A. & Siegfried, L. (2019). Transforming Voice and Communication with Transgender and Gender Diverse People. Plural Publishing, San Diego, CA.
Olszewski, A.; Sullivan, S. Cabral, A. (2019). Here’s How to Teach Voice and Communication Skills to Transgender Women. Plural Publishing, San Diego, CA.
Numerous articles on myriad transgender related topics are on the ASHA Perspectives SIG 3 and SIG 10 sites:
International Journal of Transgenderism
*A Huge thanks to Sandy, Leah, & Christie for providing the links and additional resources to learn more about this topic.
Christie Block
Christie Block, MA, MS, CCC-SLP is a licensed and board-certified speech-language pathologist and owner of New York Speech & Voice Lab in New York City. She has over 25 years as an oral communications specialist across a variety of areas. In her early career, her work was centered in theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and TESOL, including research on Mandarin Chinese anaphora, and teaching language and gender studies, ESL, EFL, and TESOL methods. Since becoming a speech-language pathologist in 2002, she has turned towards clinical work, developing additional expertise in voice disorders, professional voice, stuttering, neurological disorders, upper airway disorders, and swallowing disorders, with a particular focus on vocal rehabilitation. She currently collaborates with laryngologists and head and neck surgeons, including side-by-side clinical visits with patients at ENT and Allergy Associates and Jordan Stern PC. She conducts state-of-the-art instrumental testing, including videostroboscopy, acoustic analysis, and flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing. Christie is mostly known for her work as a voice trainer for gender diverse individuals, her most cherished area of interest. As a committed cisgender ally to the transgender community, she is an active invited speaker, contributing writer, direct service provider, and clinician educator. Her work has been featured in academic publications, community conferences, and the press. Some include: Voice and Communication Therapy for the Transgender/Gender Diverse Client, Trans Bodies Trans Selves, Exercises for Voice Therapy, Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference, The Guardian, and National Public Radio. Christie has been recruited as a trainer of voice and other trans wellness providers by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) as part of their Global Education Initiative for the WPATH Voice and Communication Course in Buenos Aires in November 2018, the WPATH Live Surgery Training Course in NYC in March 2019, and the USPATH Foundations Course in Washington DC in September 2019.
Leah B. Helou, PhD, CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor of Communication Science & Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Helou aims to ask questions and solve problems related to the neural and psychological pathways that underpin healthy and disordered voice and speech production. She maintains several distinct yet intertwined lines of research that converge on the broad theme of “mind-voice pathways.” Using gold standard neuroanatomy techniques, Dr. Helou identifies the neural substrates underlying cortical control of vocalization in non-human primates. In addition, engaging a variety of psychophysiological techniques in humans, she probes the relationship between stress responses, communication behaviors, and various facets of personality and identity. This research in humans is highly relevant to (and some it has focused on) the voice and communication of transgender and nonbinary individuals. Dr. Helou also has a strong clinical and instructional background in voice-specialized care. Her clinical areas of interest (which are complementary to her research) pertain to so-called “functional” voice and laryngeal breathing disorders, as well as voice and communication along the gender spectrum. Dr. Helou established the Transgender Voice and Communication Program at the University of Pittsburgh Voice Center in 2011 and directed it until 2018. She co-founded the Gender Spectrum Voice & Communication Facebook group in 2013, and has since moderated this forum for speech-language pathologists, voice therapists, laryngologists, and professionals in related fields to discuss voice and communication along the gender spectrum. She also established and maintains the only dedicated referral database for “transgender voice” practitioners. For this and other contributions to this arena of her field, Dr. Helou is a recent recipient (2018) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Certificate of Recognition for Special Contributions in Multicultural Affairs.
Leah Helou
Sandy Hirsch
Sandy Hirsch, MS CCC/SLP is a licensed and board certified speech-language pathologist with 30 years of experience as a clinician, trainer and educator. She received her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology in 1989 from the University of Washington, and holds a B.A. in French and Classics (1981) with a minor focus in music from the University of Lancaster in England. She was formerly an actress and has maintained a passion for singing. Ms. Hirsch is a Certified Member of the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), the Washington Speech Language Hearing Association (WSLHA), The Voice Foundation, The Northwest Voice Foundation and The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). She is a certified Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) clinician, as well as a trained Lessac-Madsen Resonant Voice Therapy (LMRVT) clinician and Compton P-ESL accent modification trainer. She has maintained an expertise in voice throughout her 30 year career. During this time she has worked in her private practice Give Voice, hospital, clinic, home health, hospice and school settings, working with multiple neurological and functional diagnoses that include swallowing, voice, speech, language and cognition. She has over 25 years of experience working with transgender and gender non-conforming people. Ms. Hirsch has made this a focus of her practice and is internationally considered an expert in the field. As such she has co-edited and contributed to the three editions of the seminal text on voice and communication training for transgender and gender diverse clients: Adler, R. ; Hirsch, S.; and Pickering J. (eds) (2019). Voice and Communication Training for the Transgender/Gender Diverse Client: A Comprehensive Clinical Guide. (previously Ader, Hirsch and Mordaunt). She is an active member of the Seattle area Ingersoll Gender Center consult group. Ms. Hirsch has worked with many hundreds of transgender and gender non-conforming people to help them find and develop a voice congruent with their gender identity and individual communication goals. She has presented and taught at multiple conferences and workshops on the subject of transgender and gender non-conforming voice and communication. In addition to her focus, Ms. Hirsch’s practice serves a wide range of voice and communication areas including training for public speakers, those preparing for interviews and job promotion, and people who speak English as a second language. A marriage of theatre, singing, clinical voice expertise, and languages (French and German) gives Ms. Hirsch a rich perspective on communication training, as well as a deep understanding of diverse cultures and personalities.
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