Let’s face it, transitioning is hard. If you are baby trans, living full time as your true self, or simply in the process of gender discovery, it is important to know you are not alone. Expressing yourself authentically is one of the most rewarding and terrifying aspects of transitioning. So how do you find your way? How do you present to the World who you truly are inside? In this workshop, co-hosted by Sherri Miller, M. Ed, speech pathologist, Juliana Wall shares her transition story through the process of speech therapy. We review the basics of voice modulation for the purpose of presenting as your true self. Juliana will also speak to the importance of trans people having a strong voice in our culture. So don’t be shy, Juliana found her voice and so can you!

Leading This Workshop

Juliana Wall – She/Her/Hers. I am a transgender woman who was assigned male at birth. I built a career in the transportation industry over the last 18 years in a heavily male dominated field where hyper masculinity is prevalent. In doing so, my masculine persona become more and more incongruent with my true self. Finding practical ways through therapy and reflection I was able to transition at work and live full time as a woman. Changing my voice was one of the biggest challenges to this transition and it is the basis for sharing my story.

Sherri Miller – M. ED., CCC-SLP, Founder Speech & Language Resources, is the founder and principal speech-language pathologist of Speech & Language Resources, Framingham and Hopkinton. Sherri began her career in 1976 working with hearing impaired, language learning disabled children and adolescents in the public school setting. After receiving her Master’s degree from Northeastern University in 1980, her experience branched out to include working with adults after strokes and head injuries in hospital, nursing home and home health settings. She has provided workshops for home health agencies, educational staff and parents. In addition, she had been a guest lecturer at Northeastern University, Worcester State College, and Framingham Union Hospital (now Metro West) and was an impetus to begin their modified swallowing studies. She mentors graduate students. Her specialties include the development of programs for voice for individuals who are transgender, children, adolescents, and young adults with language – learning disorders, treatment of apraxia, myofunctional disorders,, aphasia, swallowing disorders and parent advocacy. She is the past Chair of the Private Practice Committee of MSHA as well as the past President of PROBUS (Professional Business) a professional organization which helped raise money for those with disabilities including support for Camp Arrowhead, Natick. She was an integral initiator of the Insurance Bill which provides the consumer the benefits of insurance reimbursement for speech therapy by private practitioners.