Anita Kozan

NEWS

Excerpt:

"How can I help you?" Anita Kozan asks the woman sitting across from her.

It's not a question, it's a vocal exercise.

"How can I help you?" the client, Marie Fromm, repeats, imitating the breathy lilt of Kozan, a speech and language pathologist.

After years of practice, Fromm, who is transgender, has managed to coax a tender alto from a Seth Rogen-deep growl. The vocal transition, she said, was just as essential as the physical.

"Developing a voice that fits us lets the world see the person we are," she said, "instead of the person we pretended to be."

For some people who are transitioning from one gender to another, a significant part of the journey starts with finding their voices, literally.

Feeling mismatched with one's voice can be disembodying, depressing, even dangerous, many transgender people say. And it can trigger feelings of being in the wrong body. But a unique group of speech and language pathologists are training transgender people to speak with a voice that channels their true identities.

Read full article on the Star Tribune website or view the complete article as a pdf.

On the Star Tribune website there's also a lovely video of Anita and some of her clients. Click on the image below to get to the page with the video.