Collegian | Gregory James
The Colorado State College Well being and Medical Heart, situated on Lake Road and Faculty Avenue Sept. 8, 2019.
Barnaby Atwood, Employees Reporter
January 30, 2023
The Colorado State College Well being Community’s Transgender Well being Staff is co-hosting voice workshops with the Satisfaction Useful resource Heart for transgender and nonbinary college students Jan. 31 to Feb. 2.
Jan. 31 will give attention to voice feminization, Feb. 1 on voice neutralization and Feb 2. on voice masculinization. The workshops present an choice for transgender and nonbinary college students to discover ways to alter their voice to higher match their id. College students who want to attend don’t want medical insurance that’s suitable with the CSU Well being Community.
“We speak concerning the completely different vocal options that result in a listener to understand a voice to be extra female or masculine, or in that form of gender-neutral vary, after which we break it down into its components. So (which means) studying concerning the distinction between common pitch and pitch variation and the completely different prosody and intonation patterns that lead a voice to be perceived extra masculine or extra female.” -Annie Schubert, medical director and speech-language pathologist on the Speech and Language Stimulation Heart
Maggie Hendrickson is the director of the Satisfaction Useful resource Heart and can also be on the Transgender Well being Staff.
“We actually don’t need folks to suppose that they must be like on hormones, or thus far alongside of their transition, or out, or another precursors to coming to the workshop,” Hendrickson mentioned. “It’s simply one other approach for folks to really feel extra snug of their our bodies. Lots of people simply take into consideration transitioning as like, hormones and surgical procedure, however there’s a number of different methods to socially or culturally or not medically transition. It’s actually (for) folks (who) are enthusiastic about voice coaching or expertise any sort of dysphoria that they suppose this might assist with. That’s who the supposed viewers is for, and so that is simply one other software for folk to form of discover gender and the best way that they’re acquired by others.”
Annie Schubert would be the facilitator for the workshops. She is a speech-language pathologist and the medical director on the Speech and Language Stimulation Heart and has labored with transgender and nonbinary sufferers for six years. Schubert mentioned plenty of the voice providers for transgender and nonbinary persons are usually not coated by insurance coverage, so she facilitates these workshops to assist higher serve these communities.
“We speak concerning the completely different vocal options that result in a listener to understand a voice to be extra female or masculine, or in that form of gender-neutral vary, after which we break it down into its components,” Schubert mentioned. “So (which means) studying concerning the distinction between common pitch and pitch variation and the completely different prosody and intonation patterns that lead a voice to be perceived extra masculine or extra female.”
The workshops will present recommendation for attendees to begin their very own at-home program to observe modifying their voice to be extra consistent with their desired voice.
“We additionally give attention to vocal hygiene and a few fundamental good wholesome voice ideas,” Schubert mentioned. “(That is to) make it possible for when doing any voice observe at house — and particularly if you’re attempting to aim to change your voice — that the contributors can discover ways to ensure that we’re doing it in a secure approach that doesn’t result in pressure or, like, vocal harm.”
Extra gender-affirming assets out there on campus embody the Satisfaction Useful resource Heart, which hosts the Lavender Cupboard that has a number of gender-affirming-care gadgets, in addition to the CSU Well being Community’s Transgender Well being Staff, which helps college students enthusiastic about exploring medically transitioning.
Attain Barnaby Atwood at [email protected] or on Twitter @Barnaby_Atwood.