What is Vocology?

Vocology is the science and practice of voice habilitation and rehabilitation. Rehabilitation involves regaining abilities that were lost, such as after an injury or due to a disorder. Habilitation is often preventative in nature and involves teaching ways to use the voice optimally.

The way we use our voice when we speak is often something we do without being conscious of it. It is a habit. In the case of an injury or voice concerns, this seamless habit is disrupted. What we often need to do during recovery is to retrain the way we use our voice. Vocology uses methods based on how the voice functions best to help an individual retrain or optimize their voice. This helps the individual produce their most powerful sound without taxing their voice and prevents further injuries.

The larynx is an amazingly intricate collection of muscles, cartilages, tendons, joints and bones. There are more than four times the muscles between your chin and base of your neck than between your knee and hip bone!

Muscles used for voice require a delicate balance of strength and agility. To form sound two soft pieces of tissue, are moved closer together (by laryngeal muscles, bones, cartilages and tendons), while you force air out of your lungs. The degree of impact these tissues have on each other, the amount they are open, their mode of vibration, the coordination of muscles, the health of the tissue, etc., all impact the quality of our vocal sound.