From Lora K. of Ireland, Muscle Tension Dysphonia

I do not suffer with SD but i do suffer with muscle tension dysphonia, a condition that causes me pain while speaking .

I have been to 2 different speech therapists and from researching on the net about breathing techniques and tone focus, I partially recovered ease in talking myself. This year I met with Connie in Ireland as my last resort to maybe understand and finally try to get rid of this condition. She brought me over her book, Free to Speak II, and I read it straight after our meeting. I really got hope from this book as it goes through a lot of her patients' recovery and how with most patients SD or MTD also causes anxiety, a condition I have also acquired with the MTD .I also realised from the book that instead of trying to cure this disability, you are better off to take each day as it comes and when you do have difficulty talking, just try to speak in a more relaxed way, and also breathe in a more relaxed way instead of trying too hard, which only causes more tension.

Since our consultation and after reading her book in April this year (2011), I feel more content with talking and breathing with more ease. I only have a few days of difficulty with speaking, and although it is early, I am convinced that consulting with Connie and reading her book have helped me on my final journey of recovery. I feel I was trying too hard before, and have learned that from relaxing more about speech, it is actually becoming easier.

Please buy her book if you have a vocal problem, if only to know that other sufferers have the same thoughts and difficulties that you may have, and that there is hope, and of course recovery . Connie is living proof that we all can be free to speak if we open our minds and let go of the anxiety around speaking.

I am on my third year with this condition, and since our meeting in April, I am finally feeling my anxiety subsiding and my voice healing. It is a gift to have a functioning voice, and I can only applaud Connie for her great courage and work to help others find a holistic approach to this.

Lora K - Ireland