All participants take part in group and/or individual sessions. Individual meetings will be with your GCL team: Jeff and 2 graduate student clinicians.
The first session will consist of 2 self-perception questionnaires, an interview with a graduate student clinician to learn more about your voice/communication strengths, challenges and goals. This interview consists of questions about your personal history, as well as questions related to your perceptions of your voice and communication strengths and challenges. The session will also include a 5-10 minute audio recording session to analyze acoustics for pitch and intonation.
During the remaining sessions, participants will start with work on the following suggested goals:
Demonstrate increased comfort and satisfaction with his/her/their voice and communication.
Demonstrate increased awareness of self and others’ communication styles.
Demonstrate efficient breath support for voice.
Produce a forward vocal resonance during speech.
During your 50-minute individual session, we will provide supported practice and instruction of the 4 goals listed above. We will also work with you to discover your individual voice and communication goals and incorporate practice of those goals as well. Typical sessions could include mindfulness/breathing/relaxation and stretching activities, various vocal exercises, and functional language activities.
The weekly small group (about 9 people total) sessions will focus on investigating and applying a diverse menu of communication styles, including: language usage, pronunciation, word choice, discourse patterns, intonation options and voice (pitch and resonance). This setting provides both an educational component and a space to interact with other participants in order to practice and build community. Here is an example schedule of group session topics:
Intro to aspects of communication
Anatomy & Physiology, vocal care, breathing
Breathing, Voice-breath connection, resonance
Pitch and Intonation/inflection
Intonation styles, volume, rate, rhythm
Articulation, accent/dialect, pronunciation
Vegetative non speech sounds, Non-verbal communication
Discourse & Communication Styles
Language, grammar, word choice, review