The Professional Voice Care Center

Welcome to the Professional Voice Care Center, where our mission is to create or restore excellent voices, both speaking and singing. Our Hicksville, N.Y. facility offers state-of-the-art care to service the unique needs of those who depend on their voices for their livelihood. Individuals in this category include performers (i.e. singers, actors, broadcasters, etc.), teachers, executives, attorneys, salespeople, lecturers, customer service representatives, and anyone else who uses his/her voice in a professional setting. Services include Voice Therapy, Singing Instruction, Audition Preparation, foreign and regional Accent Modification, and Executive Speech Training. Our unique Therapeutic Singing Lessons are custom-tailored to meet the needs of singers with voice problems. We offer services for Parkinson’s Voice, Gender-Affirming Voice Training, and Vocal Image Enhancement.  We focus on the prevention of vocal problems while improving voice skills through a customized program of vocal abuse reduction and vocal hygiene (i.e., vocal conservation, hydration, avoidance of over-drying medications and caffeine, establishment of anti-reflux regimens, etc.). If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today! Additionally, our staff of licensed and certified speech-language pathologists and myofunctional therapists offers evaluation and individualized treatment for a variety of communication disorders, including: Articulation, Fluency (Stuttering), and Tongue Thrust/Reverse Swallowing Pattern.  Many health insurance companies reimburse for covered speech, voice, and myofunctional therapy services. Our Center participates in numerous insurance plans. Click here to learn more about the health insurance plans we participate in. The Center serves clients throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Alternatively, we can provide you with a variety of online platforms for long-distance voice and singing training.  We’re happy to offer you singing lessons in the comfort of your Long Island home (depending on location). All services are available for children age 5 through adult. We look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your voice-oriented goals. If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

About the Director | Karen Sussman

Karen Sussman, M.A., CCC, celebrity voice trainer and vocologist, is the Director of the Professional Voice Care Center, located in Hicksville, NY. She has been a licensed speech pathologist, voice therapist, speech trainer, and singing specialist since 1981. Karen has trained thousands of performers, executives, teachers, attorneys, sales reps, and other professionals to achieve excellent speaking and/or singing voices and eliminate voice and speech problems.

If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

As a singer-actress, Karen has a special interest and expertise in professional voice/speech training. She has lectured extensively for hospital otolaryngology departments, voice and speech symposia, corporations, choirs, and continuing education programs. She has appeared on television and radio shows devoted to voice care and accent reduction. Karen authored a book chapter on voice care for performers and wrote a journal article on voice care for fitness instructors.

Karen is certified by, and a member of, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and holds New York and California State Licenses in Speech Pathology. She is a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), and VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association), as well as Long Island and New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Associations. Karen Sussman is a Voiceworks Associate Voice Instructor.

Karen is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Doctors’ Choice Awards DCA Top 100, the DCA City Winner in Hicksville NY, and the Distinguished Woman in Health Services from the Town of Oyster Bay Women of Distinction Awards. Her practice was selected as an Opencare Patients’ Choice Winner. She was also nominated for Best Speech-Language Pathologist by the Bethpage Best of Long Island contest.

Karen, a Hofstra University graduate (B.S. in Music/Voice Performance and M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology), lives on Long Island. When not working with clients or performing, Karen’s passions include hiking the great outdoors and long walks with her dogs.

If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

Gender-Affirming Voice Training

 

If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington , contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

The transgender individual, especially the trans woman, is often in need of voice modification. After all, use of testosterone by transgender men helps to make their voices deeper. However, estrogen taken by transgender women typically does not make their voices higher. Even if you opt to have laryngeal surgery, it has been found that voice training before and after surgery is more effective than just surgery alone.

Of course, pitch isn’t the only aspect of voice that determines if you sound masculine or feminine. Other factors include vocal resonance, volume, intonation, and voice quality.

But even beyond the voice itself, there are many factors that, if incongruent, can cause someone to be misgendered. These can include posture/alignment, how you walk and sit, use of gesture and facial expression, speech articulation, speech rhythm/flow, and use of certain vocabulary and grammatical constructs. If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington , contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

Could it be that some of these issues cause you not to pass in your desired gender presentation? In today’s sometimes-challenging society, a voice that doesn’t match your gender identity may even lead to harassment, discrimination, or safety issues. Clearly, achieving authenticity is an important goal, but it may seem overwhelming to have to deal with all the above-mentioned factors, along with the physical issues of hair restoration, facial feminization and gender-affirming surgeries. So, let a trained communication specialist guide you through this process.

At the Professional Voice Care Center, we offer gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington including a comprehensive holistic program that covers all aspects of feminine communication style. This includes voice pitch modification and development of more gender-appropriate inflection/intonation, articulation, gestures, facial expression, vocabulary and grammatical style. Posture/alignment, relaxation strategies, breath control, and reduction of voice-related muscle tension are also covered. (If you’ve tried to modify your voice on your own using YouTube or other DIY videos, you may have already encountered vocal strain. We fix that, too!).

Gender-Affirming Voice Training in Port Washington

We also support your psychosocial well-being. All our services are delivered in a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment here at our Center, or even using telepractice (i.e., online service delivery). Our goal: to help our transgender clients develop comfort and confidence using a new style of communication that conveys authenticity and congruence. Let us help you express your true self!

If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today!

Call Us to Schedule Today!

(516) 433-1822

If you want more information about any of our services, either at our Center or via Skype, feel free to fill out the form below. A Voice Care Coordinator will get back to you as soon as possible.

Gender-Affirming Voice Training

If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, then contact Karen Sussman at the Professional Voice Care Center!

Gender-affirming voice training involves using non-surgical techniques to train a voice to either sound more feminine or more masculine by modifying your voice. Often, trans people do not feel fully able to pass their desired presentation of gender without their voice being modified. If you are transgender, you may want to change the way your voice sounds. With the right vocal training, you can healthily change your voice. Without a voice therapist, you may damage your voice by making it raspier or possibly losing your voice. Many people look to using YouTube or DIY videos to train their voice but end up further damaging it.

Often, a trans woman is in more need of voice modification than a trans male. This is because estrogen taken by a transgender woman does not help modify the voice as testosterone helps with the voice of transgender men. With gender-affirming voice training, they will specifically listen to your pitch and the way you use your voice to help closer match your voice with how you choose to identify yourself. With gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, Karen Sussman covers all aspects of gender-affirming voice training to best help you!

What Do Gender-Affirming Voice Training Specifically Work On?

At the Professional Voice Care Center, we take a holistic approach that covers all feminine communication style aspects. Yes, there are surgical options for altering their voice but are proven not to be as effective as voice training therapy. Our gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington includes:

• Voice Pitch Modification
• Articulation
• Gestures/Facial Expression
• Vocabulary/Grammatical Style
• Posture/Alignment
• Relaxation strategies and breath control
• Reduction of Voice Related Muscle Tension

Gender-Affirming Voice Training in Port Washington

We focus on more than just the pitch of your voice. We help work on all aspects of the voice such as resonance, volume, intonation, and voice quality. At the Professional Voice Care Center, we are here to support you every step of the way in helping you express your true self. Our services are in a safe and supportive environment that is also offered in the comfort of your own home through skype. Make an appointment to receive gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington and take the next step to your voice training today!

Accent Modification

If you find that a foreign or regional accent has become a hindrance in your professional or personal life, then you may wish to participate in an Accent Modification Program. The Center offers the Compton P-ESL Foreign Accent Improvement Program, recognized as one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind. You will receive an in-depth, individualized evaluation and phonetic analysis of your recorded speech. Your take-home materials include customized practice CDs, pronunciation handouts with target sounds, words, and sentences, and personalized vocabulary that you select from your personal or professional life. All evaluation and training programs for foreign accent modification are conducted by a speech-language pathologist who has been trained by the Institute of Language and Phonology to offer the Compton P-ESL Foreign Accent Improvement Program. If you are searching for gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, contact the Professional Voice Care Center today! If you wish to reduce a regional accent such as a New York or Long Island accent, our customized Regional Accent Improvement Program can help you as well. (For “Noo Yawkuhs,” we offer our very own “Tawk of Lawng Island” accent modification program, featured in Newsday). With training and practice, we can all learn to speak with the “No-Accent” accent!

The Science Behind Gender-Affirming Voice Therapy

If you or someone you know is seeking gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, the experienced Karen Sussman at the Professional Voice Care Center is here to help you have a seamless transition. Contact our office today to learn more about how we can help. 

The Importance of Gender-Affirming Voice Training in Port Washington

Our voice is a huge part of who we are. Through our voices, we cannot only communicate and express ourselves, but it is also a huge part of how we channel our personalities and gender identifications. Often certain people don’t think about the way our voice signifies us as people, and how much it can mean to how we identify. Yet having a voice that doesn’t match how you feel as a person can take a large toll on you. This problem is especially seen in the transgender community. For many transgender people having a voice that doesn’t identify with their gender can lead to stress, anxiety, or even depression. There have even been cases where some transgender people go mute, due to how uncomfortable they feel about their voices. At Professional Voice Care Center, we understand how important it is to have a voice that makes you feel confident and comfortable to be the person that you are. Our mission is to “ create and restore excellent voices”, and we do this by working closely with each of our clients to provide them with voices, and vocal tips dedicated just to them. We work with anyone from singers to teachers, and also offer gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington. 

How Voice Therapy Helps to Develop Your Voice:

Though many people try to change their voices on their own, it is not a very good idea at all. This is because you can either hurt your voice or in the worst-case scenarios even end up losing it. Going to voice therapy is always a better option because we can teach you how to adjust your voice without damaging it. At the Professional Voice Care Center’s gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington you can expect to work on: 

• Resonance: This is the quality of sound that your voice produces such as being deep, and full.
• Pitch: How high or low you would like your voice to sound.
• Volume: How loud you speak
• Rate: This involves working on how fast or slow you speak
• At voice training, you can also work communication skills such as the words you use, how clearly you say things and social rules of communication. 

Gender-Affirming Voice Training in Port Washington

With over 30 years of experience, Karen Sussman has helped train over 12,000 professional and amateur vocalists to reach their goals. A newly transitioned voice starts with professional assistance from a vocal expert like Karen Sussman. If you or someone you may know is interested in gender-affirming voice training in Port Washington, then feel free to visit us at our website to get in to contact with us, or learn more information about Professional Voice Care Center. We look forward to treating you!