A multi-record recording artist, Laila Olivera, 26, started singing at a young age, performing first at her local New Jersey church and later in her wider community. For Laila, sharing her musical gifts has become her calling, and a way to make a difference in people’s lives. This led to her decision to train as a speech-language pathologist—another way for her to use her voice to help people.

In 2023, during her graduate school externship at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, Laila noticed that she was experiencing some of the symptoms of voice injuries she was learning about in her studies.

“I started getting hoarse to the point where sometimes I couldn’t even speak at the end of a set. I would feel fatigued, very quickly, when singing. Even speaking took a lot from me, and so I would tend not to speak as much,” says Laila.

She made an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat physician (ENT), who diagnosed her with chronic laryngitis and vocal cord nodules. After six months of resting her voice, further testing revealed she also had muscle tension dysphonia, a disorder in which too much stress on vocal cords causes a change in the voice. Her ENT referred her to speech therapy at JFK Johnson.

“It was almost like the circle of life. Laila finished her externship with us and was working in private practice. But after being diagnosed with hoarseness and loss of voice after performances, she came back to us for therapy,” says Kristie Soriano, MS/CCC-SLP, clinical director of speech at JFK Johnson.

Adds Laila: “It was a challenge to use my voice as a speech therapist working a job all day and also singing actively during the weekend. I had to be able to balance both and use my voice in a healthy way.”

Special Techniques for Voice Recovery

Laila’s treatment used a therapy technique of bringing the voice forward, which aims to coordinate breathing and remove tension from the neck and vocal cords.

“She was tightening up rather than using her voice easily. This caused vocal cord tension, which caused the physiological problem of nodules and her voice to lose its power for singing,” said Patricia Stuart, a trained local voice specialist.

In weekly one-on-one sessions over ten weeks, professional voice recovery therapists taught Laila stretches, relaxation exercises, and other techniques to correct harmful vocal habits. She then practiced these techniques at home and used them in her daily life.

“We would work on breathing techniques and using my voice properly so that I could sustain it,” says Laila. “They gave me advice on how to use my voice for speaking and a lot of the exercises also helped me in singing.”

As her therapy progressed, Laila could speak and sing for longer periods without getting hoarse or needing to speak louder to compensate for a weak voice.

“Weekends had been my biggest problem. I have weekend concerts, and I would be so hoarse going into Monday. But now I actually have a voice and am able to preserve it throughout the entire weekend and use it all week,” she says.

Specialized Voice Training

While at first Laila felt a little nervous and self-conscious about being a speech therapist who needed voice recovery care, but she’s grateful for the experience. “I’m a speech therapist who needed it,” she says. “I realized that there’s nothing to be ashamed of, and it’s good that there are other people in this field who know more about this than I do.”

Voice disorders are more common than many people realize and specialist voice recovery treatment can be very effective at relieving pressure on vocal cords and improving function. “We need voice specialists because not every speech pathologist can work with a singing voice. Not every clinic has this ability,” says Kristie.

Going through speech therapy training has also given Laila a new perspective that will help her with her mission to help people. “I know how it feels to be the patient,” she says. “That helps build even greater empathy towards your patients and the parents because you understand what it’s like to be in their position.”

 

Reposted From August 2024 Piece In The Hackensack N.J. Meridian Health Journal