Today we’d like to introduce you to Tallulah Breslin.
Hi Tallulah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My path began at Purdue graduate school, where I learned of the existence of transgender voice training in my voice therapy class. I first began guiding individuals to modify their voice gender presentation in 2014, when a dear friend asked me for help feminizing her voice. I continued to learn more about rehabilitating voice disorders and helped friends change their voices during the five years I worked as a speech-language pathologist in skilled nursing facilities. In the Spring of 2020, as many things changed in heartbreaking ways for those I cared for, I pivoted to start my own private practice. I had maintained an interest in gender voice modification over the years and chose to specialize in this area. Being the pandemic, I was able to focus my energy and time learning everything I could about modifying my own and other’s voices. I’ve learned from excellent voice teachers with backgrounds from many different fields and continue to grow my knowledge and skills forward towards more efficient and effective practices everyday.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I started my practice at the beginning of the pandemic, so early on I had a bumpy path getting started. First, I had to figure out how to set up a business and make a lot of choices, trusting that if I invested the clients would come. I needed to learn how to provide voice training virtually versus how I was used to providing care in person. I was really lucky to meet some other speech language pathologists who were starting their own private practices at the same time, which helped a lot with navigating roadblocks. I’m very driven to collaborate with others, and I love how our new virtual dynamic has made it possible for me to collaborate with voice and mental health professionals around the world. Choosing my specialization really helped with finding people who I could help. During my professional pivot I needed to navigate part-time medical speech language pathology in skilled nursing homes with my private practice. My business picked up in the spring but had another speed bump when the ice storm hit. Thankfully I had power and water for most of that week, but it took a while for many of my clients to recover and be ready and able to work on their voices again. Now, things run pretty smoothly and having a job that I love makes everything worth all the work I’ve done to get here.
Having moved on to a smoother path, I am now able to do things I wasn’t able to do before, such as presenting at conferences on gender equality and healthcare inclusivity and access. I also am able to run community groups that further everyone’s knowledge and skills together. To help other voice professionals and myself guide others in voice changes in the most accessible, effective, and efficient manner possible, I run the gender voice mastermind where voice coaches from many backgrounds work together to further their skills. I’m just really proud to have my business exist and be there, helping people in such a personally impactful way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I am a gender and identity affirming behavioral voice modification specialist with a background in speech language pathology. My passion is in guiding people to become comfortable, confident communicators. While no one needs to change their voice, everyone can! The communication intention that being ear trained and having good vocal awareness and control provides can also facilitate meeting next-level goals. After committing to the practice and self-work voice work requires, my clients can then apply the tools they’ve learned to improving their overall quality of life. Clients have accomplished this through using their new voices to improve their job security, secure upward professional mobility, decrease or eliminate voice dysphoria, and improve their relationships at home, school, and work. There is nothing more satisfying to me than seeing an isolated teenager gain the vocal confidence to enroll in school and start friendships.
There are many interchangeable terms my specialty is known by, including gender-affirming voice care and, within medical institutions, transgender voice therapy. The goal is to change the sex and gender expression of the voice. When people are exposed to testosterone during a first puberty, there are changes to the vocal fold thickness and length, size and shape of the vocal tract, and the ease of movements between the joints within the larynx. These changes and others darken resonance, restrict and lower pitch, and add a heavy weight or buzz to one’s tone. Finding a balanced voice recipe allows speakers to sound like they had the amount of first puberty testosterone exposure that they should have had. In other words, changing the sex of the voice. We commonly perceive differences in voice gender between people socialized as a boy or a girl within binary gendered societies. These gender voice differences vary by culture and can be heard as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or mixed. We hear these gender voice differences in pre-pubescent kids who haven’t yet had exposure to sex hormones such as testosterone and whose voices do not yet convey their sex. Behavioral voice modification techniques work for everyone- we all have the same pieces and parts to our voices. Some of my clients who wish to modify their voices are cisgender and want their voices to convey confidence or authority, to be perceived as empathetic or not-anxious, to affirm their sexual identity or age, or just to be reliable and avoid vocal fatigue.
In behavioral voice modification pitch movement is a result of voice change- as our resonance brightens and vocal folds thin, our pitch rises. As our resonance darkens and vocal folds thicken, or pitch lowers. Feminizing voice surgery raises the pitch floor and limits the accessible pitch range you’re moving away from without changing the voice sex and gender. We don’t need pitch modifying surgery to change our pitch. It’s important for people considering voice surgery to be informed of what it can accomplish, it’s limitations, and the inherent risks. Even in the best case scenario you’re left with scars, and pitch changes alone are not enough to change voice sex and gender. For those who choose voice surgery, it is very important to find a surgeon who is specialized and experienced in voice surgery and provides information to allow for fully informed consent. Behavioral voice modification isn’t a magic wand- it’s not instantaneous- but with practice it can help people meet their voice goals without limiting the voice.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
People may not realize that I’m also an artist. I love creating! My current hobbies are watercolor painting and leathercraft. I really like the layered effects that I can get with watercolors, and I like creating three dimensional, useful objects out of leather scraps. This white reptile-printed cow leather was the perfect inspiration for a belt, as it arrived almost exactly in the final shape it’s in now.
Those who haven’t done a session with me yet might not know I have two absolutely adorable munchkin kitties, Luna and Omni. They are always happy to visit during lessons to get all the pettings. My clients often hear their purring on the microphone.
Contact Info:
- Email: office@harmonicspeech.com
- Website: https://www.harmonicspeech.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonicspeech/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarmonicSpeech
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhr5Ww8WvoVtbBXtjOhWHA
- Other: https://www.harmonicspeech.com/post/transresources
