Best Practices in Gender Affirming Voice Adjustment Therapy

Gender-affirming voice modification offers Transgender and Gender Nonconforming
(TGN) people the opportunity to feel safer and more confident in their voice; however, this aspect of the field is relatively new and there is a paucity of research regarding the best clinical practices. While it is vital for clinicians to have a grasp on the unique features of their client’s voice and adjustment goals, Hancock and Haskin (2015) discovered that, while transgender communication is well within the Speech Language Pathologists' (SLP) scope of practice, their master’s program only covered 47 percent of these gender-affirming services, and 51 percent of surveyed SLPs were unable to describe how transgender voice therapy works (Hancock and Haskin, 2015). Through a meta-synthesis of three clinical books and three peer-reviewed articles, this study outlines best practices regarding gender-affirming voice therapy and provides a rounded understanding of gender-affirming voice training techniques and their implications. Key findings include strategies for developing clinician competency in TGN culture, facilitating client-led treatment and collaborative goal-setting, and promoting generalization strategies such as group therapy. By seeking to advance the understanding and practices in gender-affirming healthcare, this review promotes a more holistic, inclusive, and culturally responsive approach to voice modification for TGN individuals.