Voice Physiotherapy New Zealand

14/07/2025

Muscle of the Month Series: The Scalene Muscles 💪
The scalenes are a group of three muscles (anterior, middle, and posterior) located on the sides of the neck. They play a key role in breathing, posture, and thus vocal function.
🔹 Breathing: The scalenes assist in lifting the ribcage during inhalation, helping with deep breaths—but overuse can lead to neck tension and restricted airflow.
🔹 Head, Neck & Posture: These muscles stabilize and move the neck, but excessive tension can pull the head forward, impacting vocal ease and alignment.
🔹 Impact on Voice: Tight scalenes can impact the general freedom and mobility of the anterior neck and laryngeal area. This can restrict mobility and can create a sensation of throat tightness.
🔹 Pain Referral: Trigger points in the scalenes can cause pain in the neck, shoulders, chest, and anterior neck.

Stay tuned for our next video, where we’ll share a simple exercise to release scalene tension and improve your vocal freedom! 📣

🚨 This post is for informational purposes only. If you have voice or health concerns, consult a qualified healthcare professional.

10/06/2025

The finish line is in sight 🏃‍♀️
With less than 100 days to go until my PhD thesis is due, I had the opportunity to talk about my journey with a rep from Otago University a couple of weeks ago. It has just been published in the July edition of the Health Sciences Newsletter. You can check it out by following the link below

As one of only two practising voice physiotherapists in New Zealand, PhD candidate Kristina Hockey is on a mission to have patients’ voices heard.

23/05/2025

Announcing our winter pop-up clinic dates 📣
Online bookings are open now at www.voicephysionz.com
Did you know our email list gets to know about pop-up clinics before anyone else? To be added to the list for your area, send us a message through the contact form on our website.

14/05/2025

🎤Muscle of the Month Series: The Tongue Root 💪
The suprahyoid muscles (a.k.a. the tongue root) play a crucial role in voice production. The suprahyoid muscles include the digastric, stylohyoid, mylohyoid, and geniohyoid muscles. These muscles link the hyoid bone to the jaw, skull, and tongue. Due to these attachment points, they play a crucial role in both vocal function and swallowing.
🔹Elevate the larynx, which is essential for both vocal function and swallowing.
🔹Stabilize the hyoid bone (alongside the infrahyoid muscles), which is key for the efficiency of the vocal folds.
🔹Influences overall vocal production and assists in controlling pitch during vocalizing (as we raise in pitch and elongate the vocal folds, the larynx raises too)
🔹Plays an assistive role in the articulation process (making sounds into words)
Stay tuned for our next video, where we’ll share a simple exercise to release omohyoid tension and optimize your vocal function! 📣

🚨 This post is for informational purposes only. If you have voice concerns, consult a qualified healthcare professional 🚨