Working with Voice Disorders

Dr. Stephanie Martin is a speech & language therapist, whose career has combined clinical practice, research, lecturing and writing. Her professional focus of interest is in occupational voice disorders. She holds an MA in voice studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama (London). Her doctoral research explored factors, which have an impact on the vocal performance and vocal effectiveness of newly qualified teachers and lecturers. Stephanie is a Past-President of the British Voice Association and in 2005 she was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists for research and teaching. Stephanie holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer post in the School of Allied Health Sciences at the University of East Anglia. She is currently engaged in two areas of research; a study into the effectiveness of clinical training and readiness to practice of newly qualified clinicians and a UK wide epidemiological study of voice disorders. Previous publications include The Voice Sourcebook (1992), which began a writing partnership with Lyn Darnley, a partnership which continued with the publication of The Teaching Voice (1996), now in its second edition (Wiley-Blackwell 2004) which addresses voice use in the classroom. The Voice Box, a practical voice resource will be published in 2013. Myra Lockhart is a speech and language therapist, who has had a special interest in Clinical Voice Disorders, and Head and Neck Disorders throughout her career as a clinician and manager. She has led projects, published and presented papers on voice intervention, the use of objective assessment, clinical effectiveness and efficiency, and service management in voice disorders. For many years she was an Advisor in Voice Disorders for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and contributed locally and nationally in multiprofessional AHP projects. She has a special interest in the occupational voice, particularly in singing, teaching, contact centre workers and radio presenters. She has led many workshops for all these groups throughout her career. Myra's personal interests include music and singing which she continues to pursue for pleasure. Similarly she presents a "thought for the day" regularly on local radio. Although Stephanie and Myra have been clinical colleagues and friends for many years, Working with Voice Disorders, (Speechmark, 2000), began their writing partnership, a partnership which continued with the publication of the VIP: the Voice Impact Profile, (Speechmark, 2005). Their most recent collaboration is this second edition of Working with Voice Disorders.