Today, during a presentation at McGill University in Montreal, A., soprano, presented herself as a volunteer, reporting changes in her voice that occurred about 4 years ago. A., a full-time professional singer has lost his fullness of sound since after menopause.
At her assessment, her larynx was extremely high and the root of her tongue very stiff. She could not sustain the upper passage notes due to the position of the larynx, which was associated with a dysfunction of the base of the skull.
The first thing you A. reported was that she had an enormous feeling that she had lost her voice completely. In fact, during the presentation she underwent osteopathic treatment and before and after this, a speech therapist made an evaluation of the vocal box and measured her emission. A. also developed a vocal oscillation related to a 'snap' diaphragmatic operation.
Her voice has lost much of her color. The pharyngeal wall was closed at the back of the tongue, resulting in poor resonance and trill in the voice. The osteopathic treatment provided, for the time available and the context, the realignment of her 'instrument' and the phonatory tripod with synchronization of the vocal box with the thoracic diaphragm.
Certainly the most difficult aspect was working with physiological responses. For the first time since taking ENT courses at Columbia University, I experienced the real anxiety of finding myself in front of some who were my lecturers at the time. At the end of the treatment, the speech therapist redid the evaluation and her emission had improved giving her the opportunity to perform better some notes in a higher range, A. she no longer felt 'hanged'. I advised A. to undergo some osteopathic treatments in order to recover her artistic qualities. You will be recommending a Canadian colleague I have collaborated with in the past.
There is a very close relationship between psychology and the voice. The identity of a singer is connected to the act of singing. When the voice is no longer 'healthy', the artist's self-esteem also suffers.