Are you a transgender woman or trans feminine nonbinary person?
If so, I don’t need to explain the process to you.
If you’re like most of us, you spent many years researching everything about being transgender before you actually began your transition.
You’ve read enough about hormone replacement therapy to know whether it’s right for you.
You’ve figured out how laser hair removal works, and you know which clinic in town has the most effective option.
And you might have a list of the surgeries and treatments you want to get at some point down the road.
Another thing you might have on your list is transgender voice feminization training. And while there are voice feminization surgeries that can help as well, they can be extremely expensive and don’t always deliver the results you want anyway.
However, the good news is that transgender voice feminization training is effective, and our speech-language pathologists can help.
Read on more to find out how transgender voice feminization training works, and whether it’s right for you.
Gender Affirmation Comes First
It’s important to note that if you’re a transgender woman, transgender voice feminization training will not make you a woman, because you already are one.
Transgender voice feminization training is important for many trans women and trans femmes, but it does not have the power to actually change your gender. The goal, instead, is to help you feel more comfortable with yourself and in your own body.
If you’re happy with your voice the way it is, that’s wonderful – there’s nothing wrong with that. Our goal here at Sol Speech And Language Therapy is to provide only gender affirming treatments. If transgender voice feminization training is gender affirming to you, we can help. And if it’s not, that’s okay too.
Trans women who don’t do transgender voice feminization training or modulate their voice in any way are no less women than those who do. It’s very important for us to state that.
Much like speech therapy for accent modification and reduction, it’s a service that’s available, but you shouldn’t be made to feel like you have to pursue them.
However, if you are considering transgender voice feminization training, there are a few different commonly cited reasons. Let’s take a closer look at them.
1. To Feel Safer
You’ve read the statistics – there’s no need to reiterate them here.
It’s a heartbreaking reality that trans women are less safe than cis women. While the idea of “passing” is fraught with deeper issues, it’s true that trans women who pass are able to navigate the world more safely.
Trans visibility is important as well, of course. But that shouldn’t come at the price of your safety.
Makeup, clothes, and hormone replacement therapy can do a lot to help with this, but they don’t affect your voice. Transgender voice feminization therapy can help you feel a greater sense of safety and security in your daily life.
2. To Reduce Gender Dysphoria
Gender dysphoria is a burden that many trans people have to deal with, and it’s rarely a logical thing.
There are a thousand different reasons why trans women feel gender dysphoria, but voice can be a big one. And it’s not just the social ramifications of voice that can trigger your dysphoria.
Voices that are read as more masculine generally resonate in your chest, whereas voices that are read as feminine generally resonate in your head. As a result, you can feel the difference when you’re speaking even if you can’t hear it. That sensation itself can trigger dysphoria.
Transgender voice feminization training can help alleviate that.
3. To Improve Your Self Confidence
Here at Sol Speech And Language Therapy, we find that many speech disorders can trigger issues of self confidence. If you stutter, for example, you may be reluctant to use your voice. As a result, Austin stuttering speech therapy treatment focuses just as much on helping alleviate the anxiety you feel around speaking as it does techniques to manage your stutter.
The difference is that in most cases, it’s not possible to reverse a stuttering disorder in adult speech therapy. Transgender voice feminization training, however, can significantly feminize your voice to the point where you’re able to feel more confident.
If you feel like your voice is causing issues with confidence, transgender voice feminization training can help.
Frequently Asked Questions About Transgender Voice Training
When you go through testosterone driven puberty, a whole lot of different changes happen with your body. If you’re a man, that’s great. But if you’re reading this, that’s unlikely.
One of these changes is that your vocal folds will thicken and lengthen. This is what allows you to create deeper, darker sounds with your voice. However, while it might be disheartening and frustrating, there is hope.
By learning to manipulate the different parts of your speech, we can help you address your pitch, resonance, weight, pace, flow, and other gendered elements of speech.
Some coaches will focus heavily on pitch, while others will say it doesn’t matter at all. But we believe that while pitch does make a difference, it’s only a small one.
If it were only about pitch, you’d just need to speak in falsetto like an 80s hair metal singer and that would be it. But there’s more to it than that.
Your vocal resonance is where your voice vibrates within your body. More masculine voices resonate deeper in your chest, whereas more feminine voices resonate in your head. By training you to brighten your resonance, we can work toward creating a voice that’s not only read as more feminine, but makes you feel more comfortable.
In most cases, no.
If you’re fortunate to have begun your transition before testosterone had its way with your body, your vocal folds will develop in a way similar to how a cis woman’s would.
Our approach to transgender voice feminization training is to give you greater control over your voice and greater use of your range. When we do, it becomes easier for you to find a voice that better suits you within that range – whether that’s a voice that’s unmistakably feminine or one that’s more androgynous.
So yes, the process is the same, but the outcome will be different depending on what you’re hoping for.
Meet Your Transgender Voice Feminization Training Coach
Sophie Edwards is a professional transgender voice feminization training coach and a writer. More importantly, however, she is a transgender woman herself.
Having begun her transition in 2018, Sophie has worked hard to feminize her voice and now offers voice feminization coaching as a service.
Sophie is also the creator of We Have Always Existed, a YouTube video essay series that explores the rich tradition of transgender ancient history in the Mediterranean.
Book Your Appointment With Sol Speech And Language Therapy Today
If you’re a transgender woman or trans feminine nonbinary person and you’re not happy with your voice, we can help.
Before considering drastic measures like vocal feminization surgery, why not consider transgender voice feminization training?
It may be able to give you results that are just as satisfactory without having to worry about the potential complications (and the much higher cost).
To find out if transgender voice feminization training is right for you, book a free introductory session today. You’ll get a chance to chat with Sophie about your concerns. She’ll answer any questions you have and help you better understand the process.
Vocal dysphoria may have been a constant companion for you during your transition so far, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Book your appointment today.