Well, as of Wednesday Morning at about 10AM CT, my name is officially Joy Anne Phillip.
The judge signed the order, and now the only things I have left to do in this journey is the SRS (which I may not get) and to tell my mother that she has four daughters now. All my boy clothes (with the exception of about 6 shirts totsl) are gone. Not having to keep two warddrobes certainly helped.
Need to get my voice higher, but I can't seem to find good voice coach stuff on the Web.
It's been a month since I started the RLT (which I told my shrink about on Monday) and things have honestly been going well. I prayed that they continue to go well for me, and that if I had to go through trials to help somoene else to have an easier time when THEY go through this, that I will do so. Hopefully it won't happen, but you never know.
So, I think it's done, at least as done as I can get it right now.
ETA: I do want to mention to everyone here that THIS site, mor than any other, helped me develop the courage to do all this. I've lived through the "coming out" process more than five dozen times in various forms through the stories here. It helped me to plan how I would reveal myself to everyone around me, and helped me to see others who did it and how, what they went through and so on. Fiction, sometimes based on fact, can really help. So if you ever feel that this is a frivilous exercise that means nothing, don't you believe it. Your stories, your thoughts, your angst in the blogs, helped me come to this decision and to move forward when I would have chickened out. So I thank you all and wish you all the best. I hope I can repay it sometime down the road.
Comments
Search Melanie Anne Phillips
or her site Heartcorps... she has vocal stuff including a good one called speaking as a woman... hope this is a little helpful...congratulations Joy!
Hugs,
Diana
Big step
I am proud of you girl and you should be proud of your self as well, what you are doing for your self is critical for your well being and a necessary step in your evolution. Again Congrats.
Misha Novawoman
Out and proud since 2003.
The only bad question is the one not asked.
The only bad question is the one not asked.
Congrats, Joy!
Congrats, Joy! That's great.
And thanks for reminding us that even fiction and babbling in blogs can have a serious purpose... To the reader as well as the writer.
Lisa
Name change
Hello Joy Anne Phillip.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
There is also Kathe Perez
... who will work over video conferencing if necessary. She is kind of an old timer with our community and is a regular at Southern Comfort and such. She is on youtube also. There is also a Lezli Whitehouse out of Boston area who might do web stuff also.
I take it you have difficulty in your local area ( wherever that is. ) I have friends in their DC/Virginia area who know some resources if you are in that area.
The only thing I cannot comment on is one-on-one coaching with the person as I am pretty much self trained, with only an hint or two only as an afterthought. For me, it happened in basically four stages of raising the pitch, being able to use modified voice in a feminine manner (intonation, timber, resonance), increase endurance ( being able to do it for long periods in a practical manner and with minimal strain ) and then enhancing projection ( at that point one can talk loudly, room filling, in the new voice.)
The first two steps in my list can be done interchangeably btw and is actually recommended if your voice is reasonably pitched. There are expensive voice changers out there what can give you how you newly feminine speaking pattern in the old pitch could sound like when electronically shifted to a higher pitch. Sadly a model made by BOSS is no longer in production as I witness its performance and it is really good.
How long one spends raising ones pitch of course is individual. In my experience it depends on how much you want to raise it as the more you raise it the more difficult it is to initially maintain it. Some people can get 'it' extremely fast and some people don't.
Voice training is essentially physical therapy to my eyes and it takes time to force the muscle memory in your throat to change (the latter comes from also talking to a voice therapist.) Until that muscle memory is locked, it is possible to have 'accidents' such as when one is startled as an example or possibly when one talks in one's sleep.
Good luck hon.
Kim
Congratulations Joy.
Congratulations Joy. Changing our names is one of the big steps, because you have publicly stated to the larger world that Joy is who you are.
Voice can be a problem. It isn't easy for me, as I can use a more femme voice to the people around me, but to my hard of hearing, blind, mother, I have to pitch my voice to a level she can hear and understand, so I have to go back and forth. Mkes the "muscle memmory" more difficult to maintain. I have always had trouble with the telephone and drive-through speakers too!! I did get some help from a voice coach, but her excercises consisted of singing rather than day to day speech; however, did learn things about pitch and directing my voice from higher up rather than the chest. That did help. If you can find a voice coach for a few lessons one-on-one and then use the recorded products, you might have more success faster. My advice might be a bit off though, since it is one of my hardest things to get to work right.
Good Luck.
CaroL
CaroL
Congrats Joy
way to go!
Dorothycolleen, member of Bailey's Angels
Female voice
I tried Melanie's site, and it did help, but I think the most valuable time I spent was with a woman named Barbi Scott, (NO REALLY) here in the Portland area. In our last meeting, she did mention that pitch is not the factor that is important. She said it is annunciation, vocabulary, number of words, and um other stuff.
Generally speaking, women use a great many more words than men do when speaking, and at times it may seem to men that we are singing, while men carry on in sometimes a single pitch. I listen to how other women speak constantly. I am actually an audio peeping um "Gwendolyn". :)
Much encouragement to you.
Gwendolyn
Congratulations,Joy,
ALISON
'another bridge crossed in the 'long journey'. Well done!
ALISON
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