This is a case study of Ashok N - Former Non-Surgical Voice Repair Client of South Africa:
Ashok N, of Indian descent, came to us from South Africa in 2008. We were actually supposed to receive this wonderful, smart and educated man in 2005. In order to come to us, Ashok applied for two visas, where’s his wife and son were included - the one was for the UK and the other one was for Toronto, Canada, Due to the fact that he included his family, he was refused both visas - and only ended up with us three years later and finally arrived at us in December of 2008.
The fact was that Ashok owned three companies:
- one in South Africa
- One in Botswana
- And one in India
To run those companies, it was required for Ashok to do public presentations and run rather large workshops and seminars. He did so for quite a few years until he strained his vocal cords and thus his voice started to sound raspy and hoarse - also causing him a lot of throat pain. This wonderful human being tried absolutely everything to rectify his voice problems but, unfortunately, to no avail.
He actually (from his own words) was waking up at 4:00 am to do yoga and eat raw foods and vegetables. He did acupuncture, massages on his throat and, needless to say, completely useless speech exercises - suggested to him by numerous speech therapists and speech pathologists.
He felt that his business career might soon come to an end, as it was more and more difficult for him to speak while he was experiencing excruciating pain in his throat and had to clear his throat every two minutes. I, evidentially, was his last hope.
He finally arrived at us on December the 8th of 2008 for just 20 hours of instruction and treatment. After the first day and his first night at the Novatel Hotel, here in Toronto, I asked Ashok if he woke up at 4:00 am, did yoga and ate the raw fruits and vegetables… He smiled at me and said: “No, Diana. I woke up at 10:00 am, as I was watching movies in my hotel room until 2:00 am - and then ate a full Canadian breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant.” “If I continue in this fashion for much longer (he said jokingly), I will become completely Canadian and then my wife just might divorce me…”
As you can probably sense, my reader, it was indeed a very memorable voice repair course - containing a lot of education, healing, fun and enormous gratitude from my client. Interestingly enough, when Ashok finally landed in Toronto, his luggage was lost.
He wasn’t worrying too much about his clothes, but he exclaimed: “But Diana. In my luggage was your Amarula.”
I asked: “What’s that?”
He explained that it was a very fine liquor which he brought specifically for me to try.
It was very nice of him, but go figure…
Needless to say that within 5 days, I had recovered his voice and taught him how to speak professionally; using proper support, structure, placement and projection of his voice. I also taught him how to power his voice to its max while concurrently delivering his voice to its aimed destination.
Ashok also came with the voice which had a little higher tone than a man of his age and his demeanour should have had. I was able to correct it also - however, I was wondering why didn’t his voice become a little lower than I expected…?
At that time, Ashok and his wife had a 10-year-old son. During our course of action and treatment, I’ve learned that Ashok and his wife were desperately trying to conceive a second child - but that also was to no avail. Once I completed Ashok’s 20-hour voice repair course and treatment, I knew (judging by his higher tone of voice than expected by me), there was something else that was wrong.
Then I asked Ashok if he checked his testosterone levels lately… He looked at me funny as, at that moment, he - along with me - realized that his higher tone of voice was relating not only to the “drowned-like” sound of his voice in the lower throat position, but it also was related to the lower levels of testosterone in his body.
In this instance, the latter perfectly explained why these two wonderful people (Ashok and his wife) had difficulties conceiving another child. Unfortunately, given this very busy life, Ashok and I lost communication as the years were passing by. So I have no way of knowing if they succeeded in the aforementioned matter.
But I know for a fact that Ashok’s voice was back to normal and even better than ever before, as he continued his practices on his own, watched his diet and took his supplements (suggested by me) religiously. His career, and thus his livelihood, was definitely saved!
From our side, we applaud this wonderful human being who definitely possessed a very positive attitude of gratitude throughout the whole (I might say, not very easy) process!!
Way to go, Man!
Ms. Yampolsky is one of the world's foremost specialists on the topic of the human voice and is the creator of Vocal Science(TM), a unique and truly revolutionary accelerated vocal development technique. It is a holistic and scientific approach to voice mechanics that enables all singers and speakers to reach their full potential in an extremely short period of time. Based in Ontario, Canada, Diana works with a worldwide spectrum of clientele as a Vocal Coach/Consultant, In-Studio Vocal Production Expert, and Non-Surgical Voice Repair Specialist.