Pushing the Limits on Learning Gender-Affirming Voice: An Autoethnography From a Client.

Gender-affirming voice work differs fundamentally from other speech-language pathology work. Rather than addressing pathology in communication, gender-affirming voice work teaches clients how to change behavior, which is limited in part by how gender-diverse people interact with their social environment. Integrating my original theory of gender with my personal experience learning gender-affirming voice, I explain possible obstacles gender-diverse people face as well as recommendations to speech-language pathologists to mitigate them. In particular, gender-diverse people may exhibit difficulties in auditory processing, vocal biomechanics, and generalization into gender expression. However, despite unique challenges presented by gender-affirming voice work, my experience is overall positive and worth the effort.