Morton Cooper

But as my other post says, I think my problems originated because of an underlying physical problem - poor bite and jaw misalignment. You might want to see my post and see what you think.

I wish you well. I have been at the place where I could not speak without feeling physically drained. Even just breathing was at times a problem. I no longer have a voice problem or a breathing problem.

There is a difference of opinion between Morton Cooper and most experts in the SD field. In my opinion it can be summed up by these two statements:

NSDA website: “Spasmodic dysphonia (SD), a focal form of (laryngeal)
dystonia, is a neurological voice disorder that involves involuntary
"spasms" of the vocal cords causing interruptions of speech and affecting the voice quality”. This is a widely accepted definition of SD and matches what you will find in most medical literature and websites.

Morton Cooper: “SD is functional, actuated by unintentional voice misuse
and abuse. SD is not a dystonia; it is a mechanical dysphonia”. From a
paper presented by Morton Cooper November 5-7, 1998 San Francisco,
California and currently posted on his website.

Here are some questions you should ask if you are considering visiting
Morton Cooper:

1 Are his fees for a full course of his “DVR” program $20,000 US?

2 Does he require full payment in advance before his ‘treatment program’ commences?

3 Is it possible to take his program on a 'pay as you go' basis?

4 Does he offer a full or partial refund of your payments if his methods are unsuccessful (for example if you can speak normally to him in a clinical situation but cannot carry improvement through to normal
conversational speech)?

5 Are you treated as an individual patient at all times or will you be treated in groups?

6 Morton Cooper is based in California. You should ask him whether he can put you in touch with other patients who have taken his program and who are or were bona-fide members of SD support groups. You should confirm the success or otherwise of his methods by investigating, through California NSDA contacts, as to whether these patients are genuine SD patients and who diagnosed them.

7 Assuming Morton Cooper’s “DVR” methods are successful in treating SD, why does he, according to his website: “remain unique in reporting successes for 25 years with proven Spasmodic Dysphonia (all three types, adductor, abductor and mixed”)? Is this because no-one else has the expertise and/or understanding to use his methods? Or is it because he does not share his methods with other speech pathologists?

8 Morton Cooper has registered as “Dr Cooper” to post to this bulletin board, that focuses on patients' interests related to spasmodic dysphonia and its related medical issues. Ask him if he is an MD.

9 Does he accept there is a neurological movement disorder known as 'dystonia'? If so, is he familiar with the conditions of cervical dystonia (ST), blepharospasm, etc? If he is familiar with these focal dystonias, does he accept that there could be another form of focal dystonia that affects the larynx/vocal cords? If he does accept it is possible that there is such a disorder as laryngeal dystonia, in what way does it differ functionally and how it sounds from SD (seeing he claims SD is not dystonia)?

Conclusion:

If you accept that your SD is caused by vocal abuse/misuse and is not a
neurological movement disorder affecting the vocal cords, that is, not laryngeal dystonia; and if you are satisfied after investigating the answers to the above questions, and if you believe Morton Cooper’s statement that “he remains unique in reporting successes with proven SD” then the logical conclusion is that you should go to him for SD treatment.

It's clear from the slant and tone of your questions, that you are not a big fan of Morton Cooper. By the way, he has a Ph.D, and it is customary to refer to someone with a doctorate as doctor, i.e., an academic degree of doctor. I had severe adductor spasmodic dysphonia, and Dr. Cooper was able to bring my monster voice out of the abyss to a beautiful, lyrical normal voice. It lasted 10-12 days, after which, it went into laryngitis, then slowly back to spasming. In retrospect, I now believe that it was my lifestyle that prevented me from being successful with Dr. Cooper's methods. I know this because I compare myself with Brian Foxley, and other clients, who stayed with the DVR program and succeeded.

I had returned too early to my stressful, telesales job, using my voice constantly for eight hours. I did not make the necessary time to do the voice exercise regimen, needed to keep the good voice. I did the exercises, but my sessions were too short. It was difficult to find the time with my job, but this proved not to be a justified excuse. Also, during this time, I was still being bombarded from the toxins in my new house, and my immune system was greatly compromised. This may sound strange to you young, healthy folks out there that don't suffer from allergic reactions, but my legs and arms would tingle and feel numb. I actually hired a reputable environmentalist, who uncovered many toxins, including formaldehyde in my kitchen, which was poisoning me.

What I'm telling you is that the cards were stacked against me. The environment that "I" had created (I bought the house, I kept the job) was in no way conducive to following Dr. Cooper's techniques. When my voice dropped back into the SD pattern, I was angry and disappointed. At first, I blamed Dr. Cooper, when I really should have been blaming myself, my job and my house.

I have heard and met people who legitimately have spasmodic dysphonia, whom he has helped to regain their voices. He doesn't succeed with everyone, no one does, not even Dr. Berke. I know that Dr. Cooper will provide names of past clients, if you ask. I'm sure you could pay his fees weekly, since you don't know how long you will need to work with him. When I went there in Jan. 2000, I was allowed to pay weekly. The fees are steep, but if Dr. Cooper can stop your voice from spasming, it seems only right that his fees should be comparable to those charged by the surgeons, and any other esoteric practioners.

David, in reference to your fourth question, do you think Dr. Berke should give John Beeman back some of his money? By the way, speaking normally to Dr. Cooper in a clinical situation IS the same as normal conversational speech. Part of the retraining and regaining of the voice occurs when Dr. Cooper walks with you outside, and to a restaurant for lunch. (He does pick up the tab, incidentally.) Here you are forced to sustain your voice over the crowd. It works! And Dr. Cooper only takes you there when he thinks your voice is ready to handle it. It happened to me on the third day of intensive exercises. I was so excited and elated, I told the waiters and perfect strangers of my miracle. Dr. Cooper couldn't stop me from talking.

You do have individual attention from Dr. Cooper, but for the most part, you work alone in a small room with machines that prompt you to do the exercises. Dr. Cooper checks in on you from time to time and monitors your progress, and makes sure you are doing the exercises correctly. There may, or may not, be other clients in other rooms doing the same thing.

In answer to your seventh question of why Dr. cooper remains unique in reporting successes for 25 years with SD, it may be just the fact that no one else has chosen to go against the medical community. Dr. Cooper has been very open about sharing is methods with other speech pathologists. He has written much of his DVR techniques in his books.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have gone back to my job so soon. I would have moved out of my house until the toxins had offgassed sufficiently. I have minimal problems from the house now. I would have disciplined myself to stay with the exercises for two or three hours a day, at what ever cost. If I had done this, I truly believe that I would not have been driven to have surgery. I took that new voice for granted, thinking it would always be there. It never dawned on me that it could go back to spasms again. I thought I was fixed forever! Well, we all know that nothing is forever; you have to work at everything to maintain it, whether it's a marriage, a car, or a voice.

I think that Dr. Cooper's DVR method, however simplistic, does work. It works by changing the voice pattern back to normal. By breaking the spasming habit through the tedious exercises, you send a message to the brain to stop spasming. If this were not true, and I had an incurable neurological disease, then how can we explain my speaking so beautifully for ten straight days?

I hope that people will realize that Dr. Cooper IS an option to turning SD around. I can only speak with such conviction, because I was there.