Trisha Buster:

Since 1997 my voice has been a key element in my career.  I began as an Outdoor Education Instructor and trained school aged children for over seven hours a day.  Starting 2006 I transitioned to working on a cruise ship, first as a kid's club leader and now currently as a computer instructor.  I still use my voice as my primary occupational tool over 6 hours every day, for at least 8 months a year, 7 days a week.  All of this speaking has taken a huge toll on my vocal chords.  I've had pain in my voice for years and have noticed that my voice has dropped lower and lower over time.  I hear so many other people my age that also have a lower voice and assumed it was simply from age.  This isn't true,  but I didn't know that yet.

The constant pain and discomfort led me to search online for ways to help me with throat pain, vocal discomfort, proper speaking, etc.  Nothing was coming up that seemed truly helpful with those specific keywords.  Then I finally (should have started with this) prayed about it.  I know that God wants the best for me and that He has always guided me to the right solutions when I place my trust in Him and humbly ask for help.  Why do I waste so much time trying to do it my own way? I'll never know, but in the end I did pray.  As soon as I finished asking what I needed to do in this circumstance, I typed into the search "Vocal Repair" and instantly was seeing this website with Diana Yampolsky and the unique approach she has for lifting the voice off the vocal chords.  YES! That made total sense to me.

I'm a skeptic when it comes to training courses and whether it's legit or a scam, so I read every word on the entire site and read the testimonials of others and watched some other people's videos of before and after sessions.  I was now convinced it was what I needed and I contacted Diana to inquire about whether or not she could help me with my particular condition.

Being at sea I had a unique dilemma...no access to the telephone and internet was way too slow for a Skype conversation, so she amazingly agreed to take me on as a student without having heard my voice, just conversing over email.  I guess that is very unusual, but I was so grateful that she agreed.  We planned out when I would be able to come and I began preparing flights, accommodations and all the other pieces necessary for travel to the Toronto area (as I live in Milwaukee, but after my training would be going right back to work on a ship sailing out of Venice).

The training was amazing.  It was hard, the hardest thing I've ever done. I've discovered muscles all over my body I never knew I had before, it's that intense.  I felt like I was in boot camp at times, and yet I wouldn't change a thing.  I am a very determined person and so when I was corrected for the umpteenth time for the same things I took it as a challenge to learn the technique properly and do it correctly, for me.  Diana knows that time is short, just 30 hours in my case, to retrain 40 years of incorrect habits, and so I had to focus and concentrate and assimilate what she was saying in a way that made sense to me.  And figure out how to keep doing it consistently in the future.

She gave an analogy regarding the training being like learning to drive.  As my instructor it is up to her to teach me proper habits and techniques so that I can pass the driving test and get my license.  After I have my license I have to continue using those techniques in order to drive subconsciously and well.  I can see how that translates to this training and vocal repair.  I've now learned the techniques for lifting my voice and it's now up to me to implement it, and perfect it, so that I don't have to consciously think about it while speaking.  

Picking the right teacher is so important.  I have had other speech pathologist friends coach me before and some of what they said helped a bit, but they didn't fix the problem. Mostly it was like just putting on some ointment and a Band-Aid to ease symptoms.  Diana's technique allows healing and repair to happen for real.  

I enjoyed getting to know Diana very much, her heart is so big.  She is very generous and giving, extremely professional too during our sessions.  She has had some recent personal tragedy and physically she was experiencing side effects of a huge amount of stress.  As miserable as she felt between sessions, during our time "on the clock" it didn't seem to affect her at all...it was amazing to witness...and I told her how much I appreciated that absolute focus she gave me despite it all weighing on her emotionally and physically.  

I am so thankful, grateful, blessed to have found Diana through the internet and to have had the amazing privilege of working with her.  I hope to have the opportunity in the future to continue working with her on more advanced techniques as she's now piqued my interest in possibly pursuing voiceover work in the future.  I never would have thought that possible, but I've always had the desire to do that line of work and never had the validation that I would be fit for it, until now.  For right now though, I need to get back to work and teach cruise guests which mouse click to use!  

Thank you Diana, Jamie and Chris for making my trip to Toronto an amazing and life-changing experience.

Blessings,

- Trisha B., Milwaukee, WI USA 

   Vocal Science Voice Repair Diary: Trisha B., Milwaukee WI, USA