THE FACILITATOR
Connie Pike, SLP contracted SD. She was referred to me by a former SD client that I had helped regain her voice. As a result of my Optimal Breathing work, her SLP insights and her unbridled faith in her higher power, Connie regained a functional voice. Not a great voice but a functional one. All the way Connie and I created The Free to Speak Voice Therapy Clinic for Spasmodic Dysphonia and/or Muscle Tension Dysphonia.  (SD and MTD are both included as there is some disagreement about how to diagnose SD or MTD.)

I was the breathing component.  I have seen that breathing is the main issue for most of the SD people we worked with in the clinic. Many stated that. Everyone does NOT have to have vocal flaws. James Earl Jones was a chronic stutterer. The breathing needs to be spot on and correctly deep to be able to successfully over time duplicate proper pitch and volume and that is no small order for many SD people. Many voices were restored to adequate function while some 85% were significantly improved either immediately or over time IF they followed the suggested strategies and many did not as the strategies often did not have enough of the breathing component to support them.  There were several total failures and one stellar success (Ron Cox - One out of 100).

My frustration with incorrect breathing insights given to attendees and not  enough time with each attendee finally came to the surface and Connie then decided to eliminate me from "her" clinic that I co-created with her. My program now encompasses the more relevant to me breakthrough aspects of the clinic to be delivered in either private one on one training in Charlotte, NC and/or augmented via one on one Web cam sessions via Skype.  Due to my proprietary techniques that I have not trained anyone else to implement, your voice WILL greatly improve. Remember that even if it is but one degree off, a rocket ship gets farther and farther away from the originally targeted landing place as it travels onward in time. The voice is the same and the further out in time one travels the more that stress can damage vocal progress.

THE PROGRAM
How good the breathing and its over 50 breathing relevant aspects reflects or mirrors how good the voice is. Hold your breath and try to speak and you will get a better idea of what I say.

Breathing related vocal quality analysis and rehabilitation will be conducted by myself, the Optimal Breathing Coach. The complete 3 or 5 day 15-25 hour one on one in house program involves total emersion including individual work on breathing and voice assessment, visual and auditory aids and direct work on breathing mechanics and voice production. One learns to discover or enhance correct internal mechanics needed to improve the voice. Discussion on psychosocial dynamics which may be contributing to the disorder and strategies for stress management will be trained in but the breathing is the key for most.

VOICE AND BREATHING
For a person with SD (and stuttering) very similar overcompensation mechanisms arrive and simply never leave. Never that is, until the person has been physically worked on and retrained to use the breathing optimally and to allow one's effortless natural pitch production with resonant sound and even more relevant, what resonance feels like. Good breathing cannot be taught but it CAN be learned. It, like chocolate, it must be tasted (experienced) to be learned.  One feeling can be worth a million words and without that feeling or internalized functioning, one risks spending decades of fruitless searching for the ways of speaking freely and easily. Faith needs right action lest faith become the seat of delusion.

Speaking is a somatic thing. Without a body and breathing we could not speak.  I have observed that preset physical vulnerabilities such as posture, vocal tract compression, trauma or local infection plus stress add up to most of what is diagnosed as SD or stuttering. The SD or stuttering cases that I have been presented with at the clinic and in my Charlotte NC office are NOT permanent. I have seen that they can and will be improved or eliminated given reasonable effort and/or simple day to day breathing and stress management factors. 

SINGING
Many believe they can not sing. This is simply not true. I use breathing to support singing as a part of my approach.  Many teach that speaking comes from different places in the body. To me  speaking and singing mechanisms come from the same place in the body. The popular music industry is highly competitive, which in itself is stressful, creating tension patterns and habits that readily induce or contribute to a disturbance of the breathing mechanism.

Many classical and/or popular singers do not have adequate breathing training, and consequently experience problems such as voice fatigue in later years. They think they are getting too old to sing but it is more about the way they manage their breathing and shape their vocal tract. Without adequate and precise control of breathing vital to support the voice, they endeavor to adapt the laryngeal and articulating mechanisms to sustain the performance, inevitably stressing the vocal system. My work has added years to their vocal articulation, strength and range.